If you’re not planning to sell in the near future just have it landscaped to suit your taste & needs within whatever budget youd like to ( or can ) spend. Much of it depends upon size of the yard & features you want included.

That’s kind of the plan. With lack of travel lately this has to be our happy place

Climate must also be figured into the equation. The landscaping at our coastal house & the features are much different than those at our desert home.

The ASLA recommendation is 5-10% of the home's cost.

How much you might recoup is variable. As long as the landscaping is well done, mature and properly maintained, you shouldn't lose any investment. And depending on the quality and creativity of the features - what the pros call 'design sophistication' - you could recognize as much as a 20% increase in property value, perhaps more.

All of this is also a function of locale and neighborhood as well.

But I agree that if this is intended to be your "forever home", spend whatever you are comfortable with that produces the results you want!

I think pools rarely pay off but they make us happy

We tell new build clients to figure 10% of the home price for landscaping, 15% minimum if it includes a pool. But these are just budgeting/conversational numbers. A good landscape designer can help you assess your priorities and figure out how (or if) those fit in with the neighborhood. And I agree w/ above. if it's your forever home, do what makes you happy. "Standard" landscaping (planting, patios, walks) can often appreciate in value. The custom stuff like outdoor kitchens, pavilions, elaborate water features, and so on? Don't do them if you need to recoup that money, do them if you'll have the place long enough to enjoy them.

Rule of thumb for landscaping installs (plants, trees, shrubs etc...) is 7-10% of the value of the home/property. Your ROI will be 100% + with an increase of somewhere between 2-3% value added.

What data are you using for your claims of 100%+ ROI and the increase in property value?

We flip property all over the state here. This is based on experience as a real estate broker. You can't spend 2% of the value of the home and expect much when you're talking about landscape. It's pay to play. The more you put in, the more return on your investment. Basic real estate knowledge. I'm not sure what it's like in your area...perhaps you are in a freeze/thaw zone. Down here in on the Gulf Coast if you install your landscapes properly they aren't going to die back, hence a 100% return on your investment and a property value increase...and that was a typo above it's 2-3% for landscape plantings. 20-30% WITH swimming pools, patios, landscapes, hardscapes etc etc. over a 10 year period in homestead property.

"Down here in on the Gulf Coast if you install your landscapes properly they aren't going to die back, hence a 100% return on your investment and property value increase....."

Spoken like a real estate agent.

Not a real estate agent. But in my experience, these are the returns we see in our localized area consistently. We do not have hard winters that cause die-back as we are more tropical in our climate, so the ROI is pretty consistent when investing in plantings. If one were in a freeze/thaw zone or a pretty much any zone from 7b to 3a I could see why one wouldn't see much return on investment for plantings. There was no location given in the post but if you're below 7b you'll do well with the ROI on landscape planting.

Ok so if you're talking about flips, sure. You throw $5k at a landscape on a piece of property with no curb appeal, I have no doubt that's great ROI. But that's apples and oranges with custom landscapes, especially high dollar hardscape projects. To lead someone to believe that building a $20,000 pergola and a $60,000 outdoor kitchen on a $40,000 patio is going to absolutely add $120k to the sale price of their home... a designer of mine that said that would be on super awful sales weasel probation for sure. Even plantings, sure - sub $20k, if it fits the neighborhood, possibly. But super intensive or styled plantings? Probably not.

Who's talking about hardscapes? No one. It may not be that way in your PLANTING zone but "rule of thumb" on investment for landscape PLANTINGS as asked in this thread shouldn't be over 10% of the value of the property regardless if you have an 80k property or 800k property or 8 million dollar property. Landscape PLANTING typically generates a 2-3% increase in value of any property if properly designed and installed. Furthermore, if you would have actually read the reply nowhere did it say you'd get a 100% return for anything other than PLANTING. So I would encourage you go back and read it thoroughly before commenting further.

And, since you are so unprofessionally insinuating that someone else is a "super awful sales weasel" without reading (or fully understanding the context) I'd say is a tad bit elementary, wouldn't you agree? I'm not here to argue with anyone. If you want meaningless argument save it for Twitter. But if you want the best return on investment for PLANTINGS for your property don't spend more than 10% of the property value on it based on a STATED 10 year homestead.