Here's an opinion from a big oak tree fan that has one in our front yard...
Yes, there's some maintenance. Mostly just raking some leaves (or mowing the leaves...heh) during the early winter months. I raked/mowed maybe three or four times this year and my yard looked good. They do not drop leaves year-round. Some branches could naturally grow lower than 10' off the ground, but those sorts of branches can be easily trimmed to avoid downward growth, or removed altogether.
I had three oaks surrounding our previous house and loved them...as I love our one now. Make sure it's far enough away from the house to avoid root and/or branch growth toward house. Ours is in the middle of our front yard, about 20 feet away from the nearest part of our house and causes no problem at all. Even with three mature oaks, I only had to rake/mow a few times during the winter.
You will hear (have heard...heheh) others who disagree. (What a shock...here on ToTV!!
) I respect their opinions. Good far outweighs any bad imho.
By the way...contrary to what many think, young oak trees are reasonably fast growers. Only in their later years does growth slow considerably...or at least appear to because of the huge size of a mature tree. From the National Wildlife Federation (
https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlif...-Live-Oak.aspx), "Southern live oaks are fast growing trees, but their growth rate slows with age...".