Will new construction lose its premium?

[iamweasel]

Originally Posted by NYC2RDU

If you're landscaping and grooming six acres, you're definitely doing six times the amount of work as someone with only one acre. If five of those acres are natural areas where you let them be, sure, that makes sense.

I had dozens of trees, all of which that dropped a wide variety of limbs, many of which required chainsaw intervention. The amount of leaves and general debris those trees dropped was enormous, particularly in the Fall. While we gave up on raking up all the leaves after the first few years, they still had to be moved to clear pathways and open areas. The front yard was sloped and often required a push mower versus a ride-on, that was not easy to tend to. If I took care of the yard in my old house the way it needed to be in order to look good, I was looking at at least four hours every weekend from April through October. For someone who doesn't love that kind of work, ugh.

When my kids were young and played in that yard, it was a sacrifice worth making. But once they started chasing girls and driving cars, that yard became an albatross. We had neighbors with young people on both sides of us and they were never in their respective yards. On one side they had a high-end swing set and the kids never used it. On the other side it was grandparents who had created a virtual wonderland of tree houses and elevated club houses, and in 12.5 years there were never kids back there (a few grand kids lived with them).

I'm tellin' ya, a small yard with new construction is like payback for 25 years of existing home construction with abundant needs.

I am amazed that my lot does not have a ton of leaves so that was a pleasant surprise. We do have plenty of leafy trees in addition to pines/evergreens/etc, but I never need to rake or anything. The lawnmower takes care of the leaves just fine.

I did buy a battery powered chainsaw after I had one tree fall over the driveway the year after we moved in. I just cut it in a few pieces and threw it into the woods. I've used the chainsaw one other time since then but if a tree falls in the woods I just leave it alone. No need to mess with any trees unless they fall onto the lawn or over the driveway.