Do This, Not That - Adding Real Estate Value With Landscaping

Real estate value - a term to describe the monetary value assigned to your beloved home. For most our clients, their home, and associated yard & landscape, is an extension of their personality, or a social signifier of a lifestyle they wish to portray for others. Much of what we do is based in vanity.

But a special few of our clients are not preoccupied with this. It's all about treating your home or property as an investment. We respect this decision! Whether you're an aspiring landlord, flipping a home, or simply a homeowner who treats every purchase like an investment in their future, here's a short list of a few of the things we believe has the best Return On Investment (ROI)

For the uninitiated, ROI is a measure of the time or money you save or earn on an investment, pitted against the amount of time or money you spent making the investment. Example - If I own an 800,000$ home, and I modernized the kitchens and bathrooms, it would cost me money in the short term, but would add value when it's complete. It took about 100,000$, but the home was appraised for 920,000$ post repairs. That 100-grand investment doesn't seem so scary any more. And the new kitchen is lovely to use and the bathroom isn't dank and musty any more.

The general thumb rule has been to spend no more than 10-15% of your home's appraised value if you're landscaping for the sole purpose of boosting real estate value. However, not all 10-15% expenditures are created equal. Some projects give your home's value an upward thrust, others sluggishly shove it a little.

Do: Consider The Baileys

When I took law classes in college, we talked a lot about "the reasonable man". He, or she, was always sort of this very unremarkable and predictable John or Jane Doe character who would often come to the Occam's razor conclusions or do what was societally accepted. The concept of "the reasonable man" is helpful in deciding the order and magnitude of home improvement tasks to tackle.

For example: would the "reasonable man" yearn for a pool, or would he want the cracked driveway replaced first? Would he or she want to cut out time wasting or repetitive yard tasks, or yearn for a personal orchard and veggie garden? What does the average family or buyer value - not just me? (If you're an eccentric like myself, think of the most boring person you know, perhaps.)

Senator Chuck Schumer is famous (or infamous, political party dependent) for invoking his imaginary middle class family, the Baileys, to represent the average taxpayer and serve as a guiding force when making difficult decisions. They're 100% imaginary, yet calling upon the Baileys could be a helpful tool to stay grounded and view the optics of your decisions from the outside in.

I think it's easy to get completely absorbed in the scope and the chaos of homeownership and forget what the average American values in their homebuying process. Therefore, we could stand to invoke The Baileys when we decide to prioritize projects.

My personal philosophy is - (imagine you're starting with a bit of a fixer...)

1) Safety. Fix anything inside or out that's a hazard. Substandard electrical, tree leaning towards house, water in the basement, no smoke alarms, etc.

2) Creature Comforts. How's the heating system? Is there enough useful counter space in the kitchen for basic cooking needs? Can I walk to the door without getting my feet wet and muddy? Make the home feel home-y.

3) Curb appeal. How does this look to the average passerby? Or a photographer looking to post listing images? Do we need to touch up the paint, replace overgrown shrubs, trim the trees, spread mulch, etc?

4) Nice things/Trendy things. The fun part. Hot tubs, awnings, pergolas, new lawns for the kids to play on, a man cave, etc. These will add value for certain people, bur rarely across the board. Some will adore these things, others can see them as a headache.

The list starts at things EVERYONE will appreciate, and ends at things only a few will. I am 100% aware the order I created isn't conducive to me making big profits on a large yard remodel. I also am 100% aware I won't sleep that well if I bullshit you for a whole blogpost.

DON'T - Buy Water Features.

Many studies have proven that running water lowers blood pressure and anxiety. The benefits stop there. Water features demand a premium price tag and continue to hit you with microtransactions and time-wasters from completion to infinity - filling the feature, cleaning it, checking functions, treating it with pool solutions or salt depending on the feature.

Water features can also cause your insurance to go up. Considering a little kid can drown inside a vessel so unassuming as a five gallon bucket, a pond or fountain with no guardrails around is an undisputable liability in the cold icy glare of the insurance company adjustor.

We don't recommend water features as an investment. We recommend them if you love them, and have plenty of time and money lying about to play around with, or if you have a hobby or medical condition to justify it. Hot tubs, babbling brooks, and infinity pools can be therapeutic and life changing for people with a wide range of ability or diagnoses.

DO: Prioritize Maintenance

The average buyer or appraiser favors exteriors that resemble The Brady Home rather than Beverly Hillbillies. In that spirit, keeping the yard in the best shape possible can really help keep your home valuable. The inside may be a palace, but if the outside is a tragedy, it's going to be extremely hard to overlook.

It doesn't have to be anything serious. Mow the grass a few times a month. Clean up the leaves and prune the bushes once a month. Keep the weeds away, make sure the plants are getting their water, and stash any junk or belongings away in storage. So what if it's a little dated, as long as it looks like you care.

Good maintenance also reduces the risks of pests - less overgrowth and more outdoors activity means less rats, spiders, and other creatures outside. And if there's less outside, there's going to be fewer yet who become curious and venture inside.

Good maintenance (more specifically, a yard cleanup with fire safety in mind) can really help boost your home's percieved value. A safe home is a desireable one. Keep the trees limbed far above where fire could climb to them, make sure the gutters stay clean, propane tanks and gas lines are clear of "fuels" and totally eliminate any vegetation or combustibles five feet or or closer to your foundation.

DON'T - Overlook Drainage

This is technically landscaping, but it's really easy to overlook as both a landscaper or a homeowner. Water in many parts of the yard during a big rain may be acceptable (albiet, minor annoyance) but in others it can be harmful to property or health.

Drainage issues generally get more alarming the closer they get to the home. Water under the house can cause rot, mildew, mold, and musty odors. Water in the garage can ruin belongings and create electrical hazards, and standing water in certain parts of the yard breeds mosquitos and creates a huge mess when you try and walk through it.

Nobody really likes having drainage work done (but we enjoy doing it, it is rewarding.) It is messy, expensive, and results in nothing cool to look at or brag about to the joneses. In fact, after the machinery has left and the dust has settled, the yard can often look WORSE than how it began! How frustrating!

But in time, drainage work will always prove itself to be a worthy investment. The mark of a good system isn't what you notice, but what you don't notice.

DO: Splurge On Usability

No matter who you are, everyone appreciates utility, whether they like the look or not. Cargo pants aren't hip or cool, but we all admit we love having the pockets and room to relax. Your usability features don't have to be artwork, but they should have nice craftsmanship and be sturdy enough to last decades.

That said, almost no homeowner has ever complained to me that their driveway is too wide and too sturdy. No homeowner ever complained about there being too many easy to walk on paths through their garden, or that the stairs were too uniform and strong, or the garage or garden shed was too large for their belongings - or that they wanted their neighbors to see more of what they were doing through the fence, their irrigation system lasted too long, there was too many solar lights along their path, or that the pergola was too shady.

High quality upgrades centered around boosting useful space or utility are nearly always high ROI activities. Buyers and appraisers from all walks of life appreciate these to varying degrees of excitement. My most common are

1. Driveways - making them larger, wider, no more cracks, etc

2. Pathways - wider, leading to more places, no lumps or trips

3. Lights - being able to see at night in the most walked places.

4. Irrigation - usually making a system more efficient or a timer easier to use

5. Pergolas/shade structures for more enjoyment during the hotter months.

6. Fences/decks - These aren't "forever structures" and others will build them faster and cheaper, but a lot of clients choose us just because they love and trust our decisionmaking.

Don't - Skip The Mulch

I could write an entire listicle about why mulch is good and what it can do for you, but the point I need to make here is - it's such a low hanging fruit that not installing it is borderline unacceptable to me.

Besides many environmental, soil health, and plant health factors, mulch looks really, really nice. It makes the plants and colors "pop". It hides little flaws and accentuates the house. Weeds don't grow as fast. It's all good.

Mulch can come in may sizes, colors, flavors, and can range from nearly free to nearly a hundred dollars for a little pickup truck full. Combining two different colors or textures of mulches in different parts of the yard can create a bold look.

If you live in an extremely leafy area, or don't like the look of mulch - pebbles or aggregates used in lieu of mulch are encouraged. Smooth pebbles are a neat look and are a valid choice, but crushed aggregates like 3/8 blue chips or 3/4 drain rock are my favorites because they are very affordable, and easy to walk on or blow leaves on without creating a rock mess on adjacent areas.

A coating of rocks or mulch is the only way to make a drab yard into a fab yard in less than a day.

I hope these tips made your decisionmaking process more fun and less stressful. Feel free to call 707-755-0612 if you have any questions whatsoever.

• Sam W / Owner, Winglewich Landscape Contracting

Like all we do, this article was written with no assistance, support, or prompts from Artificial Intelligence. We believe the human connection is a core tenet of what we do, and the driving force behind why we can create bespoke jobs well done for so many clients like you.