How Landscaping, Gardening Can Improve Property Values

Over the course of her career as an insurance and real estate agent, Wanda Tineo has garnered extensive experience in areas of home sales and professional networking. She also spent more than a decade as an underwriter at Allan Block Insurance Agency in Tarrytown, New York. Beyond her professional activities, Wanda Tineo enjoys gardening and landscaping.

A well maintained garden can provide homeowners with a number of benefits, including potentially raising the value of a property. That said, it can be difficult to determine the extent to which gardens and other landscaping features might increase a property’s value. While a “150 percent return on project investment” is often discussed, some professionals feel that number may be too conservative. John Gidding, a television host for HGTV, once put $20,000 into a landscaping project, after which property owners sold the house for $200,000 more than they had paid just one year earlier.

Of course, a simple garden is not likely to elevate the value of a property by such a significant degree. Erik Shorb, co-owner of a nursery and landscaping company in Bethesda, Maryland, suggests homeowners invest no more than 10 percent of a home’s total value into landscaping projects ahead of a sale. Individuals who lack this capital can still add value, or at least improve the aesthetic appeal of their property, with annuals, perennials, and seasonal flowering shrubs. Mulching and weeding projects can also make a big difference.

In some cases, landscaping features can positively impact a home sale without necessarily adding monetary value. For example, real estate professionals have observed that clients are more willing and excited to tour a home that looks attractive from the street.

The Initial Steps in the Commercial Loan Underwriting Process

Based in Montvale, New Jersey, Wanda Tineo has a strong background in the real estate and insurance sectors. Among Wanda Tineo’s areas of extensive knowledge is the underwriting of commercial loans toward the purchase of real property. 

Prior to the formal start of the credit approval and underwriting process, the lender and borrower often sit down and have a preliminary meeting that centers on current interest rates and case specific factors that will impact the chances of the loan being closed. 

One major area of focus of the lender is net operating income (NOI), or the total income amount collected from investment properties, after vacancy losses and operating expenses are factored in, This provides an estimate of the returns on investment that can be realized, and whether the loan is feasible.

Discussions often center on deciding on an appropriate NOI, with criterion such as debt service coverage ratio and loan-to-value ratio used to determine the level of lending risk and terms to be offered.At this point documents such as real estate proforma and rent roll may be evaluated internally, with a term sheet drawn up that allows the underwriting process to proceed.