The Value of Landscaping

Selling Houses by the Yard
Worried Owners Hope Landscaping Adds Value; Trucking In Mature Oaks
By JUNE FLETCHER August 17, 2007; Page W8, Wall Street Journal

"Most homeowners know that replacing the roof or upgrading siding can enhance a house's curb appeal and boost its sales price. Now, as the housing market continues to weaken, some people are considering what the payback will be if they invest in things that appraisers routinely overlook: flowers, shrubs and trees...

...Kathleen Wolf, a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle, recently reviewed several regional studies that used appraisals or sales data to analyze the impact of trees on single-family home prices. She found that, overall, a lot with trees adds about 7% to a home's price. Nearly 20% of buyers say they consider landscaping to be a "very important" factor in their decision to buy a house, according to a new study by the National Association of Realtors...

...Although a guide for appraising plants has been established by the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers, a consortium of industry groups, "there are no official standards that are published as such," says Russell Carlson, an arborist in Bear, Del.
Even professionals with years of field experience are sometimes confused, according to Logan Nelson, an arborist in Dane County, Wis. She says a fellow arborist once told her that he calculated the worth of a diseased ash tree by figuring what he would charge to treat it for five years and then remove it when it died (which he thought was likely) -- a method that isn't mentioned in the council's guidelines. Homeowners need to ask arborists what sort of experience they've had in appraising trees before hiring them, Ms. Nelson says..." MORE