Adding Value to a Home (house, landscaping, buying)

[clevedark]

I put in a bluestone paved rustic grape arbor in my backyard and it is one of the joys of my life! It is so amazingly charming--people go crazy when they see it. But I don't expect anyone to pay extra for it when the time comes, altho it might make the house more attractive to more buyers.

We'll see....

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by ThinkingThinking

I'd say that it helps and doesn't hurt, but personally Id go for more tangible things like improved kitchens and bathrooms. If you have the money, spruce up the yard of course, but a nice bath or kitchen goes a lot farther.

The house was turnkey as it was a complete remodel then the market tanked the contractor started bleeding money. They had done 3 new baths,new designer kitchen, wood floors on the first floor all new rugs in the bedrooms, interior doors, light fixtures, new trim work and in some cases, moved walls and doors to make the house more user friendly. Part of the basement was turned into a game room with the same upgrades as mentioned above and new carpet. The exterior siding was replaced with new clapboard on the front and cedar shingles on the back and sides. The cedar shingle roof was also replaced. We basically were left with the punch list.

The landscape was in tough shape and the house lacked curb appeal. Ugly, dated light fixtures, crumbling walkway, overgrown yard and foundation plantings and a driveway that needs some help and I'm just looking for information on investment vs. return on landscaping.

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by Valerie C

While there are no hard and fast rules, professional landscaping, particularly hardscaping (block walls, patios, lighting) will add quite a bit of value to the property, but spending 30% of the homes value? That number seems WAY high.

If you are bringing the house's curb appeal up the par with the rest of the neighborhood, possibly. But you don't want to be the 'best dressed' house in the area, and there's a certain point that you don't want to pass. If your house is a 1962 split in a neighborhood of colonials, all the landscaping in the world isn't going to increase your value beyond a certain point...

Landscape to your personal taste and budget, and hardscape to what you will actually use and enjoy. We had our front entry hardscaped (walls & stairs) and 2 years later, I still love it every time I turn into the driveway, and planning to add front and back patio next year... Outdoor kitchen/fireplaces are all the rage right now, but if you won't be utilizing it often, it's a waste of $$ that you may or may not recoup. Have fun--done right, landscaping is something that not only doesn't go out of style, but actually looks better as it matures (unlike a kitchen or bath remodel...)

The tough part is "the up to par" with the rest of the neighborhood. We live in an unusual area as the front of my house is on a lovely wooded but traditional (we can see neighbors but we also have open space of woods and bogs) cul de sac but the back is on a very natural unpaved road with lots of woodsy areas and houses set back on large lots. It's a bit schizophrenic. We want to formalize to a point but do not want to stick out like a sore thumb in such a natural setting. I think we are on the right track but it's a matter of keeping the front in the same style with the tasteful, traditional homes that we share the cul de sac with but also not overdoing it on the back beach access road. Most of our land is on the back so we want to be able to enjoy gardens and such without going overboard.

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by clevedark

I put in a bluestone paved rustic grape arbor in my backyard and it is one of the joys of my life! It is so amazingly charming--people go crazy when they see it. But I don't expect anyone to pay extra for it when the time comes, altho it might make the house more attractive to more buyers.

We'll see....

I"d pay extra. LOL I love that look! Outdoor living spaces are important to us. I guess value is often in the eyes or wallet of the beholder.

[clevedark]

Oh you're sweet. Landscaping is horrendously expensive, but done right it is a thing of beauty and joy forever. It really is one of the things I enjoy most about my daily life--my beautiful landscaping.

Once we bought a house that had a huge deck and we thought it was an eyesore. We ripped it out and put in a bluestone patio. Ugh did that cost *a lot* of money! And while it was beautiful, I don't think we made any money on the deal when we sold the house a couple of years later. It might have made the house more attractive to the buyer, but the realtors certainly didn't make ANY note of the beautiful hardscaping when pricing the house. We were very disappointed.

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by clevedark

Oh you're sweet. Landscaping is horrendously expensive, but done right it is a thing of beauty and joy forever. It really is one of the things I enjoy most about my daily life--my beautiful landscaping.

Once we bought a house that had a huge deck and we thought it was an eyesore. We ripped it out and put in a bluestone patio. Ugh did that cost *a lot* of money! And while it was beautiful, I don't think we made any money on the deal when we sold the house a couple of years later. It might have made the house more attractive to the buyer, but the realtors certainly didn't make ANY note of the beautiful hardscaping when pricing the house. We were very disappointed.

It's hard not to get emotionally attached to projects like that. Who ever would've thunk rocks would be so expensive LOL Then the labor...oy. I am sure the new owners are enjoying your project immensely. I guess it's like art work. I look at some pieces and think "who the heck would pay that much money for THAT" while a lover of the piece would find me to be uncultured.

I think personal enjoyment has to be factored into any project. When our kids were younger, we enjoyed vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. After the Clinton visits, the island started to become overpriced and just not what it used to be. We invested in a pool and outdoor living area that cost the equivalent of more than a few trips to MV but gave us enjoyment 3 seasons of the year for a number of years. The money we saved on those vacations payed for part of the cost so we ultimately did recoup some of the investment.

[ThinkingThinking]

IMO then it would be a good buy. Landscaping isn't as difficult as putting in a new kitchen. If you make the outside as pretty as the inside, you'll ad a lot of value to the house.

If the house was average to ugly on the outside and inside I dont think you'd get as good of a return but it sounds like a nice yard would be icing on the cake for that house.

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by ThinkingThinking

IMO then it would be a good buy. Landscaping isn't as difficult as putting in a new kitchen. If you make the outside as pretty as the inside, you'll ad a lot of value to the house.

If the house was average to ugly on the outside and inside I dont think you'd get as good of a return but it sounds like a nice yard would be icing on the cake for that house.

It was a great buy without a doubt. The house was in pre-foreclosure and we closed days before it was slated to go back to the bank. Our attorney suggested we "wait it out" and try to buy in short sale but we did not want to uproot our kids and then do so again to maybe save a few bucks. We knew we got a bargain (a contractor we had look at some possible "issues" estimated the land alone was worth close to what we paid for the property) and based on what happened at closing, it was evident there was no wiggle room in the price. More than likely we would have ended up spending more with legal fees, cost of moving more than once etc. There were speculators waiting for the short sale and we recently were told that we were in negotiations at the same time other perspective buyers were it just happened that we did not low ball and our negotiations proceeded to where our offer was accepted.

[ThinkingThinking]

Thats the kind of house I want to buy. I love doing gardening, but interior repairs arent something I'm good at.

[clevedark]

The shocking thing is, major landscaping projects are just as expensive major interior jobs.