Rich Dad Education Blog

Fear of the cost is the main reason people neglect this aspect of rehabbing a property. However, considering how long it will take to sell a boring home, the price of landscaping is down-right cheap! The landscape industry says that to have a nicely landscaped home, you should spend approximately five to 10 percent of the home’s value on landscaping. Furthermore, to have an excellently landscaped home you may need to spend 15 to 20 percent.
According to a recent survey performed by Money Magazine, it was found that “...homes with ‘excellent’ landscaping realize a sales value of six to seven percent greater than homes with good landscaping.” With that in mind, since our typical target return on investment (ROI) for strictly rehab costs is 100 percent, it is usually not worth it to excellently landscape a home solely to sell.

While enough landscaping and color coordination of the exterior is crucial for curb appeal, the percentages used by the landscape industry include the cost of decks, patios, hard-scapes and/or water features. If your project does not warrant any of those or has existing features that can be cleaned up, your expense will be greatly reduced.
Next, consider if you will be hiring laborers or doing any or all of the work yourself instead of using landscape contractors. If so, your expenditure will be further reduced. It is possible to cut a landscape budget down to two and a half to five percent of the home’s value. If you consider the possibility of a slightly higher sales price and a quicker sale, then the ROI on that money quickly makes sense.

Every good landscape starts with a plan. There are several ways to get a quality design. If you hire a landscaper, they will typically include the design as part of the job cost. If you are getting more than one quote, you will get different ideas for how to landscape it. Remember, though, that landscapers usually charge a fee for the design if you do not sign a contract for the installation.

In my opinion, it is usually money well spent. So, if you know a landscaper that designs well, call him and get a design quote. There can be a huge difference between a good design and a great one, and often the prices are very similar. Landscapers are trained in the sizes, shapes, colors, and textures of the plants that thrive in your area. For a few bucks, they can save you a lot of guesswork and trial and error. Also, you can take their design to the supplier, who can fill the order more quickly than you can, and possibly even deliver it to you! This alone can save you half a day spent browsing the aisles, looking for what may work for your project.

Take a moment to examine some key elements of a good landscape design so that you can better identify what your project may need before calling in the pros. The first element of a good design is that it must complement the home. You do not want the landscape to steal the show. If a potential buyer finds the landscape attractive, but then notices the house and is disappointed, something is out of balance.

The second element of a good design is color. You want colors that not only draw interest, but colors that complement the house, each other, and the nature surrounding the house. Keep in mind that the colors of many shrubs change throughout the year, and many flowers last only for a brief period (with the exception of annuals, which usually bloom all season, but need re-planting each year). Also, remember that just because a plant is attractive does not mean it will work for your project. For example, the purple leaf sand cherry starts the spring with bright red foliage, produces white flowers in May, displays purple-black leaves for the remainder of summer, and takes on a magnificent reddish-purple hue in the fall. This sounds great, and can be, but if put in the wrong surroundings, it may take away from the overall attractiveness of your home.

The third function of the landscape is to soften your home. Think of a home with no landscaping. There is a horizontal plane (the ground) slamming into a vertical plane (the house), and it sticks out like a sore thumb. The landscaping is asked to bridge this transition, or soften it. A well-planned landscape going from the 20’ height of the roof to a 16’ tall evergreen, down to a 10’ flowering tree of some sort then down to low shrubs and then flowers. You can envision how much more attractive this is than a house plopped onto the ground as if dropped from a helicopter.

The last important element of a good design is what I call the ability to lead your guests. From the time your guests enter your driveway, you want to lead them on a journey up the drive and to the front door of the home. One way to simplify this thought is to consider whether or not you would know which door to go to if you were a first-time guest. With some homes, this is a bigger problem to solve than with others, but the home will look more attractive and visitors will feel more comfortable if the landscaping makes it obvious as to which door to approach.

Any home can be made beautiful and attractive with good landscaping. While it is necessary to consider costs and re-sale values, the time it takes to sell can matter as much as the ROI. I recommend that you landscape even before beginning the interior rehab. This allows you to begin drawing attention to the home long before it is ready to sell.