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I’ve heard of some off reasons to borrow against the equity in one’s home, but this surely must take the cake as the strangest one I’ve read recently. There’s no doubt that nice landscaping will take you far if you are looking to see your home, don’t get me wrong. A few nicely-maintained flower beds and green grass will instantly look inviting and attractive to browsing buyers, and add curb appeal value to your home. On the other hand, borrowing against your home equity to fund a landscaping project is a little bizarre – to say the very least! I’m not trying to be judgmental, of course… just realistic.

I read an article online recently about borrowing from a home equity loan to pay for the costs of making landscaping improvements to your home. There’s something that just strikes me as sour about the whole proposition, despite this promising statement: “Who knows…by the time the project is finished, the actual equity in the house may have increased enough to pay for the whole endeavor!”

Landscaping, while one of the least expensive home improvements, can still be pretty expensive for those on a tight budget. You’d be surprised how quickly gardening supplies add up – seeds, flowers, mulch, shrubs, decorative accents, pots, trim… and that’s to say nothing of the tools you’ll need to get all these items in place. A good shovel and hoe are not cheap, and you’ll want a nice pair of gardening gloves for each adult working on the project. Add some fancier elements like a stone patio, a fountain or fishpond, or a garden shed, and you could be easily looking at a very expensive ordeal! If you have revamped your home recently, you’ll want your yard to look just as good.

The article I read recommended securing advance funding for your landscaping project with a home equity loan, on the hopes that your landscaping contractor might give you a discount for paying up front and showing that you have cash on hand for the entire job you are planning. Their rational is that, when the business is brisk and there are lots of people competing for the limited time of good landscapers – say, during the spring and summer – you could earn the most attention from your contractor by showing readily-available cash funding. Many customers, the article claims, are apt to run out of money before their yard project is complete. This angers the landscapers, who have perhaps turned other clients away because their calendar is filled up with flaky types who couldn’t pay to have their projects finished.

There’s no doubt that you can very likely recoup a good amount of the money you sink into landscaping projects when you sell your house, but there are limits. Having an exquisite Japanese garden out of Better Homes & Gardens will not get you anywhere if you try to sell your house for ten thousand dollars over the closest comp in your neighborhood just because that’s what you spent on the project. Buyers simply won’t leap on your home for that great of a price difference in the same neighborhood, and you will ultimately end up having to let go of the house for much less than you initially wanted. The article says that, “[p]articularly in a competitive real estate market, an excellent landscaping job can bring more potential buyers in from the curb, and help clinch the sale.” My comment on this is, when’s the last time that any place in the United States has had a competitive real estate market? 2007? Today’s wary, jaded buyers are more likely to pay fire-sale prices for stripped, no-frills foreclosure properties that they can invest in on their own time than to splash out for a home with all the trimmings.

I say that it’s risky to borrow against your home equity for something as frivolous as landscaping. If you have plenty of equity, first of all, count yourself as one of the lucky ones and don’t go blowing it. You never know what can happen, or whether the market will go lower. Furthermore, there is a rising school of wisdom that says that you should not make improvements to a home just to sell it. By all means make improvements for your own sake, but don’t make the mistake of looking at your home as a cash cow. Too many people have been burned in this way. If you feel like using your home equity for anything at all, make sure that it is for much more necessary and applicable home repairs and improvements – new appliances when old ones are inefficient or don’t work, extra bedrooms when they are affordable, or bathroom renovations when old ones are dated and gross. I don’t think that a pretty garden is really the best use of your money!