Landscaping

[GC5185]

I’m currently selling my house in the Virginia Highlands area of Atlanta. I have a .3 acre lot, but the back of the lot which is the biggest is extremely sloped and undeveloped with lots of trees. The feed back I’ve been given from buyers is it’s the perfect house with the exception of no back yard. The house appraised recently for 1.25 mil. My question is it will cost me $40k to add a fenced in back yard that is graded with a retaining wall and sod. Would you think that it would affect appraisal value to an extent that it would be worth it to do so? To take a property from having an unusable backyard to a fenced in, landscapes, and fully accessible back yard?

 

[KHS445]

Without knowing you specific market I am fairly certain no one on this forum will be able to give you an accurate answer. That said I would recommend that you spend a little money and hire a local appraiser as a consultant. Not all appraisers will be willing to do this but there are a number that will. What I would ask this person to do is to take an honest look at your house and it’s value in the current market, what differentiates from the comparables, and if the time and money to complete the proposed implements are worth it in the market.

Remember nearly all landscaping improvements require a grow in period and can actually look worse when completed than before you started. I don’t know how things are in your area, but labor and material availability and project scheduling are experiencing significant delays and having a project in process may actually make your property less desirable. The other potential problem your thoughts on what needs to be done is not what the eventual buyer may want.

You may be better off lowering you price say $50,000 or $75,000 and sell the property as is. Sure it is less money, but the house will be sold saving you the hassles of the proposed project and all of the carrying costs of hanging on to the property during the construction period.

Lastly, spring tends to be the start of the selling season and Interest rates are moving upwards. So you have the most potential buyers and the best rates starting right about now. A major part of the buying decision is the monthly payment and as rates increase so do payments and another increase or two may eliminate some of your potential customers.

Calculate your monthly costs including taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, interest (mortgage or loss of investment income) and that will tell you how much more you will have to receive for your house each month to break even. Something I learned a long time ago “many times your first loss is your least loss”. If you get greedy trying to squeeze the last dollar out of the sale, you may end up costing yourself lots of money, time and frustration.

Good luck,

 

[GC5185]

Thanks for the insight! I’m not in a huge rush to move, and hanging onto the property isn’t a financial burden, probably should’ve specified that.

 

[sputnam]

It is hard to say in your specific case. Generally, if your landscaping is inferior for the neighborhood (from a buyer's prospective), you can increase the value of the property by brining the yard to equal or a tiny bit better than the neighbor's. If buyers in your market want backyardsm then not having one will make your property harder to sell. It will take longer.

 

[Mark K]

In situations like this, what I've found is that it may not affect the price as much as it decreases (sometimes significantly) the size of the pool of buyers. I've sold homes (back in my broker days, 30+ yrs. ago) that had a 30' drop straight down into a ravine from the deck. They obviously didn't have kids.

My guess is that most potential buyers w/kids won't want it and lowering the price won't help. However, there is likely a buyer that doesn't care or want a back yard. It will simply take longer to sell it to the 'right' buyer. Single person, young couple/no kids, etc.

I see it all the time in my area near a large airport. The homes in the noise-impacted areas sell for the same as others...its just that some buyers won't buy at all, at any price, and others won't care. A lot of buyers are from the area and are used to the noise and others (thousands) are airport/Fedex hub employees that are used to it. Besides, they like the fact that their place of employment is only a 5-10 minute drive.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Would you think that it would affect appraisal value to an extent that it would be worth it to do so?

Short answer - no. You might get some return on the investment, likely not 100% of the investment.

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

It may add no value. Don't most houses have a functional back yard and this one is lacking a functional back yard. It should have been done when built. Did the previous appraisal deduct for no back yard or did they not consider that in their value?

 

[Fernando]

I appraised this house in high end area with most of rear lot downsloping thus small yard.
In general high end buyers like large useable yards so at least they can have room for pool. I bought my house with larger useable lot and I'm happy because of few supply and high demand.
The house I appraised was renovated and the front and rear yard had "cheapest" landscaping with small lawn and patio with mostly bark.
The landscaping looks very nice and I like the large metal containers for plants (no need to dig ground).
It's landscape staging and appeal to buyers.
I'd been deciding how to landscape my rental and I'm learning that costs can be high with concrete, artificial lawn, sod, etc.
Just make the landscaping visually appealing at minimal costs and you should get more of return from your sale.