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Interestingly, neither my husband nor I are gardeners. At the same time, we do appreciate the aesthetics beautiful landscaping brings. Without the flowers/vegetation/trees, our lot would be a regular lot that is nothing special. We have an interior lot, so there's no real view to speak of, but the landscaping creates a beautiful visual appeal similar to a greenbelt lot. I'm maintaining the landscaping simply because I want to preserve the beauty. I'm not good at it, so I pay for services, but it's worth it.
I have nothing fancy like a fish pond, fountains or professional landscaping. Rose bushes, annuals and plant boxes painted a cheerful red are in the back. The sideyard has the pea gravel path with hosta and shady garden flowers. That's the extent of it pretty much.
It's a small yard but pleasantly cool and peaceful back there on a hot summer's day. I see so many houses in my price range that have dried up lawns and the owners made no effort to beautify the space.
Our realtor liked to say, "Curb appeal will get 'em in the door, but the interior will sell the house". I tend to think she was right. Few people are willing to overlook a bad interior in favor of a spectacular exterior.
Just curious.....why might only a wife care about it being pretty?
Exactly!
There are more than a few men who pride themselves on being master gardeners or who appreciate and value a well designed and aesthetically beautiful landscape surrounding their house. I mean some men go absolutely gaga over a freaking garage and for them it is by far the most important attribute when house hunting but for someone like myself a garage holds very little value in the grand scheme of things. Meaning that they are useful to have but they certainly don't inspire me or bring me a little bit of joy to my life everyday like my garden does.
Just curious.....why might only a wife care about it being pretty?
I never said "only" a wife would care, but pretty gardens and flowers are more often a woman's thing. Women receive flowers from men far more often than the reverse for a reason.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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I had an interesting conversation with an appraiser yesterday on this very subject. He told me that FNMA guidelines will only allow a 10% adjustment TOTAL for "incidentals" like landscaping.
Reason it came up was the home I looked at had a garden like the picture above and I was trying to make sense of how much value it added to the home in question.
Depends very much on the person. Personally, I was very interested in a house last year that had a 100% gravel and stone yard, not a single plant. It was nice gravel, as in good looking stones, not just random construction aggregate, with nice curved concrete pathways built into it as well as several well chosen larger boulders for interest. As someone with all kinds of plant allergies and no interest in gardening, I'd have loved it (the location and layout weren't the best match for us, though). I'm really missing that gravel house now, with tree pollen just killing me and the lilacs my wife won't let me kill making me feel like I'm being constantly blasted in the face with a can of Glade.
A yard like Damon posted above would be a major minus for me, in that I know it would take real work to keep from looking terrible and overgrown, not to mention the likelihood of being allergic or sensitive to something growing there. Nor do I find it very appealing visually -- too busy.
It can be a deterrent if it's more work and upkeep for the new owner. Unless it's something that is heartly and survives without need to water or a lot of pruning or maintenance I think it's a great idea.
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