The Yellowstone Landscape Blog | Yellowstone Landscape

How much is your landscape worth?

Written by Joseph Barnes | Apr 19, 2016 4:00:00 AM
It’s not a simple question to answer.
 
There’s no resource to help place a dollar value on a landscape.  There's no Kelley Blue Book of landscaping for property owners and managers to consult. 

One way to look at it would be the amount you pay for service. When you sign a commercial landscaping service contract, you’re committing to an annual investment in your property’s landscaping.  In most cases, that amount is just enough to keep your landscape’s appearance at its current level.  There may be a little allocation for irrigation repairs, a small enhancement project, or maybe a little set aside for some plant replacements.  But, however large or small the investment, chances are that it’s far less than what you’d consider the total value of your landscape to be.

Another way to look how much your landscaping is worth would be to estimate what it would cost to replace it.  If your property were new construction and you wanted to install the exact landscape that you have today, how much would it cost?  If you were to install the irrigation system, the turf, all the flowers, shrubs and trees.  Would it even be possible to replace your landscape?  If you’re fortunate enough to have established, mature trees, it would be nearly impossible to replace them. Your landscape would never be the same as it is today, no matter how much you spent.

Then there’s the intangible value of your property’s landscape.  How do you put a value on the feeling that it creates?  Recently, a luxury golf resort summed it up this way when requesting a proposal for our services: “A lush, well-maintained landscape is an integral part of the overall ambiance of the high quality product offered to Resort guests.”

It’s obvious when you look at the grounds of 4 and 5 star resorts, that landscaping is a big investment for them.  Whether or not they can calculate exactly what the return on their investment is doesn’t really matter.  It’s become part of their brand identity and it’s what their guests have come to expect.

But it’s not just the resorts and golf communities that understand the intrinsic value of landscaping.  It’s why cities offer public parks and botanical gardens for their residents.  It’s the reason that colleges and universities feature pictures of their perfectly manicured campus grounds in their student recruitment brochures.

Landscaping creates value and that value needs to be protected by an extremely qualified group of Landscape Professionals.

What’s the right level of investment for your property’s landscape? What is your landscape worth?

There may not be a formula to help answer those questions, but chances are that it’s already worth a whole lot more than you may think.

Make sure you have the right commercial landscaping partner protecting it.