Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

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compounder
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Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by compounder »

For a single family home you anticipate living in for approximately 7-10 years, what percentage of the home's current value would you be comfortable spending for a comprehensive new landscape plan/installation?
sscritic
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by sscritic »

4.4%

$22k on $500k in 1997. Not that I thought in percentage terms. I paid the landscaping firm in dollars, not percents.


P.S. I also buy groceries with dollars, not percents.

P.P.S. You didn't mention if this is an upgrade or if you are starting bare. I was bare and front landscaping was required by the CC&Rs.
Last edited by sscritic on Tue Feb 19, 2013 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sscritic
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by sscritic »

Are you including the cost of the pool?

What about all the hardscaping, or is this landscaping only?
TRC
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by TRC »

A plan should be in-expensive. My local landscape company did a whole house plan last fall for $100. He did a walk through and then drew up a detailed landscape design plan of what plants to buy, where to plant, etc.
Topic Author
compounder
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by compounder »

I meant for the entire landscape to be redone - everything - including plan, installation, plants, hardscape, etc.
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prudent
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by prudent »

Just to offer a datapoint, just last week we had a guy give us a proposal for a near-total redo of our landscaping - tree work on 3 trees, planting shrubs, decorative mulch and rock, perennials, moving some dirt, etc. - just about everything except the grass. It's came to about 4-5% of what I think the home is worth. I don't think we'll be there 7 years but it lacks any curb appeal whatsoever and needs a major overhaul.

On the bright side, 10% off for Angie's List members.
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wilpat
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by wilpat »

It has been said that for every dollar you spend upgrading the INSIDE of your house you get 2$ in return when you sell it.
It has also been said that for every dollar you spend upgrading the OUTSIDE of your house you get 5$ in return when you sell it.

When I used to buy and sell a lot in rental property in Florida those rules rang true!
Contrary to the belief of many, profit is not a four letter word!
reggiesimpson
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by reggiesimpson »

Whatever it is think low maintenance!
Calm Man
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by Calm Man »

reggiesimpson wrote:Whatever it is think low maintenance!
Bingo. From me as a buyer, you would get a return of zero per $spent on landscaping. I hate having to either take care of it myself or have people mucking around my property (I am renting right now so that is all moot at the moment). My last house I had the few trees that the builder put in, all grass, and about 5 shrubs in 1 bed. One had thorns and I got angry at it and ended it's life. When buyers came buy I heard not a peep about it. The agent told me a lot of people like to do their own landscaping.
wingnutty
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by wingnutty »

What about getting a plan or some ideas and tackling some of it yourself, if you are worried about costs? A lot of people don't want to mess with landscaping, I get that, but it is one of the easiest things that a person can do themselves. Plumbing, electrical, drywall, laying hardwoods, those are all much more difficult that most landscaping projects. Plus, I personally find landscaping a lot more fun, at least you are outside anyway :happy .

You can get a nice plan from some landscape folks and the pick and choose the parts that you want to tackle. Just a thought anyway. Good luck!
Mudpuppy
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by Mudpuppy »

reggiesimpson wrote:Whatever it is think low maintenance!
And also think water conservation. Native plants and drip irrigation go a long way towards reducing water consumption and lowering the water bill. Make sure the drip irrigation infrastructure is easily reconfigurable, as you might need to add more water flow to certain plants as they grow.
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mlewis
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by mlewis »

wilpat wrote:It has been said that for every dollar you spend upgrading the INSIDE of your house you get 2$ in return when you sell it.
It has also been said that for every dollar you spend upgrading the OUTSIDE of your house you get 5$ in return when you sell it.

When I used to buy and sell a lot in rental property in Florida those rules rang true!
Maybe in Florida when the market is on the upswing. There are many times when that is far from true. You often don't fully recoup costs to make upgrades to a house.
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TomatoTomahto
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by TomatoTomahto »

Spend what it takes to make the home the way that makes you happy. Use native plants. Plan irrigation wisely.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
rocket
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by rocket »

Frequently when people see my home thay notice I have a very small lawn to mow. I can mow my lawn in 5 minutes. I have a larger than average yard, but I have it covered in ground cover, not grass.
I think buyers will like my landscaping. LOW MAINTENANCE yard.
sscritic
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by sscritic »

I am getting lost. What was the question again?
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compounder
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by compounder »

Thank you all for your valuable input. I have much to learn (and possibly lose) in this area.

I am trying to incorporate low/no maintenance into our yard (hardscape, dry river, etc.). Nothing exotic or terribly large, but the quotes begin at $50,000+ (greater than 10% of the property's value) which intuitively seemed excessive to me.
eucalyptus
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by eucalyptus »

Does the $50k just include a plan, no materials or installation? If the plan only is $50k, I hope you are dealing with a really good landscape architect and getting a detailed plan. We worked with a landscape architect, but tired of their lack of supervision of installation, so we switched to a design/build firm. With the latter, the costs of planning are buried in the hard and softscape costs, etc. Surely you mean $50k for plants installed? The reasonableness of that amount depends on so many factors that it's impossible to comment. One can buy 15' boxwoods, but they aren't cheap. Not too many such boxwoods would take the full $50k.

I gather the question is, "how much should I spend on landscaping in relation to the value of my house?" That also depends on many factors. If you have a steep slope behind your house, requiring a retaining wall and drainage, that might be pricey.
Last edited by eucalyptus on Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
Topic Author
compounder
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by compounder »

Yes, design build. No landscape architect involved. No plants.
eucalyptus
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by eucalyptus »

Is the property large or in some way complex? Is the designer uniquely experienced? Are the plan requirements challenging, for example, you want to replicate the look of Italian formal gardens you've visited? $50k for the plan only surprises me for relatively plain vanilla work. Perhaps others will chime in.

Ten years ago, we paid - and I don't know how to say this without it sounding silly, but here it is anyway - an award winning and successful landscape architect in our major metro area just over $20k for a grading plan and general planting plan for our 4 acre property. Perhaps we would have paid much more to get down to a detailed planting plan speccing the many hundreds of small and large plants needed to complete the job. Still, $50k seems for the plan only seems high to me.

The design build firm did not break out design costs, but of course those costs were in their quotes. We started from bare dirt, with two large oaks and a border of of pines, and filled in from there.

I see you are in VA - are you in the DC area? I know some of the players in DC, PM me if you are curious. We have used McHale Landscape Design and Chapel Valley Landscape. These are large firms with, I assume, a lot of overhead to cover.
Flashes1
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by Flashes1 »

We just spent $17k on landscaping for our new $705K house......inclusive of an irrigation system, lighting system, sod, 4 large maples, bunch of various smaller trees and shrubs. It looks sharp.

And I'm finishing up a plan for our backyard with the landscaper as we speak-----$3k for Natural Gas Fire Pit, 420 sq. ft. putting green, $10k for stamped concrete patio, $2k for lighting and another $2k for landscaping. We're holding off on a $10K outdoor bar/grill for next summer.
Mudpuppy
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by Mudpuppy »

compounder wrote:Yes, design build. No landscape architect involved. No plants.
That seems.... excessive... unless we are talking about a million dollar property.
reggiesimpson
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by reggiesimpson »

OP a few years ago i helped re-landscape the villages local beach property. I found a recent graduate who was a landscape design major from a local college. She walked the property and drew up an extensive plan for a few hundred dollars. Its worth doing the research.
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Padlin
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Re: Amount to spend on landscape plan for home

Post by Padlin »

We like having a yard that looks good, so far we've put roughly 15-20k into it including blue stone walls and steps. Have another $5k to go for a back patio and walkway. None of this is done for resale, we spend a lot of time working and enjoying in the yard. This does include drip irrigation in the gardens as I don't like spending time watering, put it won't be worth anything when selling. I don't have it but many of higher priced homes go with lawn irrigation, it's another $3k. You can pretty much spend as much as you feel like depending on what your goals are. As your going for 7-10 years then sell, I'd aim to go with the flow of the neighborhood, do what you need to make it fit in with the rest.
Regards | Bob
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