From an entirely personal (non-professional) standpoint:

1) Being under the regulations of a homeowners' association that controlled or otherwise influenced both the landscaping and the outward appearance (i.e., paint color) of the house.
2) Having adequate real estate to develop a decent landscape/garden.
3) Pretty much like everything about it - situation, character, location, age, size, etc.:-) The fact that it is a corner lot was a big plus.
4) Nothing remarkably unique other than there was virtually no landscaping when I acquired it or what was there was easily and necessarily replaceable. One of the biggest draws was a fully enclosed and generously sized courtyard patio that has become a valued outdoor living room during the warmer months.

From a professional perspective, I have encountered few residences in my design career that couldn't be improved by some creative landscaping, even those that had unremarkable architecture or awkward features that the owners were not inclined or could not afford to make significant changes to. However, I am starting see more and more of what is locally referred to as "landed condos" - full-sized houses on insanely tiny lots (the entire real estate outside the footprint of the house is the required minimum setbacks - 5' on the sides, 10' front and back) that makes designing or implementing any kind of landscape pretty much a joke. I fail entirely to see any kind of attraction in these developments. Even local apartment complexes or "cottage" developments with shared landscaping are more appealing than these scourges.

Good question. We bought our house 5 or 6 years ago and the search process is still fresh. Like most home buyers, our top priorities were location, location, location. In our case, we wanted a house in a rural area but with a drive to work that would be easy for someone with poor vision (me). No busy highways, no busy roads that had to be crossed without a signal, and not too far out.

Among the few houses that satisfied the location criteria, landscape was probably the second major consideration. We wanted a flat lot. I hate, hate gardening on a slope plus I wanted a large enough flat area to set up a dog agility course. We also wanted a lot that already had big trees. All other parts of the landscaping can be fixed within a few years, but it takes a long time to grow big trees.

The house needed to be adequate but, to be honest, we looked mainly for a lack of structural problems and a large enough size and didn't worry much about the exterior. On a side note, an awful lot of posts here are about landscaping to make a big, blank attached garage look decent. Well, we have no garage. We have an old farmhouse that one might describe as "charming" but which we, as owners, might describe as a "PITA". I would LOVE to have the problem of a big blank garage attached to a modern house.

Function before form, I say.

Kelly Cassidy

1. In checking a house, what would be clear turn offs in terms of landscape issues?

A lot that had no privacy from the neighbors.

2. What would score as a positive or at least show potential?

A porch. I like how porches transition you into the landscape and visa versa.

3. What is one of the things about your own house and its landscape that you love hate?

Love: Walk-out basement. Sloping lot.
Hate: The same.

Sort of a love/hate relationship. Dealing with a slope has challenges. The front yard was bisected by a swale to direct the runoff away from the house, but it caused that portion of the yard to be unusable for games, setting up for parties, etc... Eventually, we figured out that we would be so much happier if it was terraced. Built a stone retaining wall, leveled off some areas, and put in a stone patio. Now we love it, but it took awhile and alot of money before we came to love it.

4. What weird idiosyncratic feature of your home led to a unique, creative landscape solution?
N/A

So much is involved in this topic which could easily fill a book. First we have to divide the subject into two topics; Purchasing New Home Construction and Purchasing Already Built Homes.

Before outlining a few thoughts I am going assume that our home buyer does not have deep pockets and must be looking for expensive to repair/rebuild/major landscape exterior problems. Also, a reminder that when one is submitting a purchase offer it is possible to include that the offer is based on the owner taking care of certain matters both inside and outside that may reflect on the property price. ie: unsafe, broken front steps. When you spot significant problems use the purchase offer to negotiate.

Purchasing New Home Construction:
Here you must be very alert to drainage problems which are common in new subdivisions. Study the land surrounding the house carefully. Does upland property drained downward to that land. If so, how would you contain it or where could you drain it to? Over the years we have seen many postings with this type of water problem and it is a costly, frustrating repair. Ditto a situation where a builder has cut into the land leaving steep, eroding banks. Don't allow yourself to buy into this situation without realizing that it is going to cost big bucks to stabilize the banks. Has the builder stripped the top soil? Again, another expense. Watch for houses with shutters. Many shutters on new construction are not sized properly for the window size. This is seldom mentioned or noticed, As you look at the front of a house your eye tells you something is wrong but you can't pinpoint the problem. Oh well, you say to yourself, it just needs landscaping. Also, be aware of your need for privacy. How much will be needed on the property and know ahead of time if fences and tall hedges are allowed by the town or HOA. Do your homework before submitting a purchase offer.

Purchasing Already Built Homes:
Is the home attractive as it stands? Landscaping will not solve architectural problems. Is there an attractive nuisance next door? It is next to impossible to mask barking dogs or highway sounds with shrubs. Also, study the land carefully for drainage problems, thick moss growing around the foundation or on the roof, health of trees located on the property, condition of sidewalk and driveway. All can be expensive 'fixes'.

1. In checking a house, what would be clear turn offs in terms of landscape issues?

Problems that there are no good solutions to. Being at the bottom of a drainage area is #1 as mentioned by others. A flat lot with the house foundation close to grade is another situation that limits your ability to manipulate the grade, if that is something you want or need to do. An over towering neighbors home as a privacy issue that would take several years to mitigate is right up there.

2. What would score as a positive or at least show potential?

Most anything that is not a chronic problem has the potential to be turned into a positive, if the resources are there to accomplish it. Grade changes such as a walkout basement can be opportunities for some nice terracing, but if there is not enough room or financial resources these can be a chronic problem. Keep in tune with a balance between your vision of what can be done and the resources that you have to get it done.

3. What is one of the things about your own house and its landscape that you love hate? Love: It is flat with extremely well drained soil. Hate: It is flat with extremely well drained soil.

4. What weird idiosyncratic feature of your home led to a unique, creative landscape solution? I have not landscaped it yet (doh!). It is extremely generic (100'x120' flat lot with a center entry Cape with a single attached garage centered on the lot and square with the road. That (and the mortgage payment)is what needs to be overcome.

Wayward thoughts as I read everybodies posts.

gardengal48, I am curious about corner lots. That's what my parents have, and it has worked well for them in terms of the landscape. The only downside has been the change in traffic level on the street that provides driveway access. So, I assume that traffic flow (sound Issue) might be a landscape problem for some corner situations. Are there other broadstroke things to think about with corner lots?

My house has that "Welcome to my garage" look. So, Kelly, I like the sound of the location you sought. Remember the childhood story of the country mouse and the city mouse? I think that's what makes this question broad enough for a book.or volumes. Thank God, the perfect house / situation doesn't exist. If it did, we'd all be bored silly or we'd be living in Stepford. I like the point about the trees. Again, that one is a personal preference. Some can manage the wait for baby trees to gain substantial stature. I'm not sure I would ever want to do that. The mature trees I have, even though awkward in some ways, are a plus in my current situation.

Privacy. That theme might merit a post in itself. I agree with you, spazzycat, that is one of the things on the landscape checklist. Again, people have different personal preferences and there have been cultural shifts, as well. The landed gentry have always been able to have very long driveways and the right to shoot poachers. I think there's been a shift in the rest of the income levels. We have gone from a culture that sat on front porches and chatted with neighbors as they passed by on the sidewalk to people who drive home, disappear inside garages, and then go out back to our secluded retreat. Is it privacy though, or something deeper that we are seeking? Could it also be that 30, 50, 100 years ago cities were much smaller, sprawl hadn't swallowed up so much green natural space. We might easily get our senses filled by a walk in the woods that hadn't yet been cleared at the end of the block. There's much, much less of that now, so we try to create it in our backyardsso the potential for creating green havens is definitely something to consider.

Got to go now, more later?

Wellspring

I like laag's 800 lb gorilla analogy. Often there is an attempt to 'tart up' the gorilla but usually this ends up looking like a tarted up gorilla. It is not uncommon for the gardening bug to bite as a person matures and if they have been in the same house a while, it is only then that they realise they are working with the garden as an aftertought. I wonder how many see their property as a garden with a house in and how many see it as a house with a garden around it? When people show a photograph they usually show the house full frontal and so it is what people concentrate on when they post a reply. Mostly though our perception is not of how our house would appear in a real estate office window but of something more fundamental. I like to feel enclosed by my own garden (landscape)with a view above it to some scenery other than houses. The non-descript house with shrubs lined up along its apron and a concrete walk up to the front door is a 800 lb gorilla with a sign on it saying "look at me I'm an 800 lb gorilla."

Ditto on the homeowner's associations. They are easy to spot, with monotonous shrubs from big box stores, petunias and green lawns. Here in SoCal, such inappropriate selections mean huge water bills, pesticides, fertilizers, and no wildlife. If it were a living room, all the furniture is pushed up against the wall to show the wall-to-wall carpet. Unfixable problems jump out - poor drainage, steep slopes, etc.
For several years, a San Diego-based professional landscape architect organization held yearly garden tours, and it was great inspiration. One sticks out in my mind - a simple bungalow on a rather small lot - the architects worked around a dominating oak and split the space into small rooms linked by paths and low terracing. It looked huge and magical, and you had to be told to notice how tiny it really was. =^,,^=

Mine's more like a 90 lb chimpanzee! Same problem, just smaller house. And, you put your finger on it, Ink, I'd like to have place / places with that sense of enclosure. Only thing is, I think it might be stupid to attempt it where I am. Too much money, and it probably wouldn't really be satisfactory.

I like my house, actually, so it's not like I'm in misery here. In retrospect I really didn't "see" the exterior issues very clearly. I felt like I was doing pretty well to draw mental floorplans of the homes we walked through, listing their pluses and minuses. Didn't know the gardening thing was going to kick in, even though I'd been doing containers in increasing sizes and numbers for years. Would we have bought a different house if we'd thought more about the landscape? Probably not. It was the right price in the right school district and there wasn't much else on the market at the time.

Would I like a home in the future that met more of my inner garden longings? Yep. Life's too short to keep trying to negotiate around gorillas and chimps when you might be oh crud, I don't know how to finish this metaphor. Someone else can finish it dangerous.

Wellspring

Nice thread, Wellspring.

Unfortunately for most, the aspects of this discussion are hindsight. It is too bad that these issues are not a part of the average home buyer's thought process. Clearly, there are houses so fraught with problems that they should be avoided entirely. We see photos of these houses routinely being posted on this forum. Too often, the owners are seeking landscape solutions for problems that have nothing to do with landscape issues. The houses -- both the siting and the structure itself ARE the problem. The real solution has probably already been researched and found to be too expensive. Now they post their woes, hoping to find enough "magic design dust" to solve the problem.

I view things a bit differently than most -- no surprise to many; I am sure. Having just berated "problems", I have to say that when I am house hunting, I actively seek out houses and landscapes with problems -- glaring problems that are easily and inexpensively solved.

I used to buy a lot of houses to renovate and resell and/or keep and rent. I discovered that the houses in good neighborhoods, that did not sell, typically had nothing wrong with them other than a bad case of the uglies. I called these "rouge & lipstick specials". Typically, there were monstrously overgrown shrubs in front of the house and holes in the back yard that dogs had dug. Muddy paw prints adorned the siding. Almost always, the old carpet was 'Army Green' and the walls and exterior were painted 'Avocado Green'. I bought and sold about a dozen of these. It always amazed me that as soon as I yanked-out the old shrubs, picked up the trash, edged the sidewalks, filled in the dog holes and planted a few inexpensive flowers, grasses and bushes, people began to knock on the door proclaiming that they wanted THIS house. Thoughtful landscaping can and does make a big difference. Problems are often an opportunity just waiting to be discovered. Of course, you have to recognize "money pit problems" and avoid them at all costs.

For my current home, Ill have to add one more category to Nandinas list: Owner built.
"Owner built" does not mean you have to pound all of the nails. What it does mean is that you are actively involved in selecting the lot, building design and placement of that building on the lot. Personally, I chose a modular home. That decision alone tremendously reduced my physical labors. However, it required no less mental input. In the process, I was able to include every custom feature that I desired and get superior materials, workmanship and energy efficiency that I would not have been able to obtain from a contractor. I was able to orchestrate everything to my satisfaction. I saved a ton of money and continued to work a full-time job in the process. Statements like, "This is the way we always do it." did not fly on my jobsite! No You are not going to just throw your concrete waste chunks into a hole next to the foundation! I have a dumpster at the curb. USE IT!!!" Yes, we ARE going to put four inches of gravel ballast under the driveway AND we are going to compact it BOTH before and after the gravel is laid. No, you are not going to drive your heavy equipment where I just tilled in a load of compost.

I also find it interesting the almost universal opposition to HOAs. I specifically sought one out that met my parameters. The requirements are fairly minimal and have mostly to do with minimum size of house, The house must have at least some brick or stone on the front, no two houses can look the same, no trailer parking outside the garage and no outbuildings (which, Thank God!, includes dog houses) and no pets tied-up outside over night. The last thing that I want is to be enjoying my landscape and be forced to listen to an endlessly barking dog. I dont mind if you have a dog as long as it remains your dog. Dont expect me to put up with damage, listen to or pick up turds from your dog.

IronBelly

I recently went through a home purchase and while this was the third home that I purchased it was an eye opening experience. I have to admit that there things that were much more important than curb appeal or garden potential...such as location, school district, bedroom size, finished basement, open kitchen layout, etc. I found that if the other factors were in line, the landscape did not matter much. Unless the land was on the side of a mountain or covered with pine trees, I could deal with the landscape.

The curb appeal of my house is not the greatest (the garage is too prominent) and there are too may Bradfords and Maples in places that I would not plant them, but in general I am very happy with the lot. I would have to say that the worse thing about my new house is the hefty mortgage payment! The street is busier than ideal as well.

Around where I live, if you don't want to be in a community with a home owners association you are basically stuck with purchasing a 30+ year old home in one of the less desirable communities. Maybe a slight overstatement but in general I think that HOAs do more good than harm.

- Brent

IB's dislike of animals that lick their behinds is a matter of personal taste (yuk!) but it reminds me that one reason we picked this place was because of the space for the dog to run. In a round about way I am saying that the way you live should influence your choice but don't forget the way your neighbours live. Old timers will remember Michelle's pina colada garden and also Jethro the hillbilly neighbour, I can imagine Jethro taking my advice and thinking that he should build his old refrigerator and Chevy on blocks garden right there, so I don't know that it is foolproof.
BTW I have no advice on how to negotiate around a gorilla Wellspring, other than to stand very still and try not to look like a banana while it negotiates around you.

1. In checking a house, what would be clear turn offs in terms of landscape issues?
Completely wooded lot, steep slope, neighbors so close that I can hear their windchimes.

2. What would score as a positive or at least show potential? Large plot size.

3. What is one of the things about your own house and its landscape that you love hate? Love - mature trees. Hate - Pennsylvania clay.

4. What weird idiosyncratic feature of your home led to a unique, creative landscape solution? Our quirky house is on a dead end and is slightly skewed so that the side of the house is more in view than the front as you drive by. Still on my journey with that one.

gardengal48 said "...full-sized houses on insanely tiny lots (the entire real estate outside the footprint of the house is the required minimum setbacks - 5' on the sides, 10' front and back)..." Yes. Not only full-sized houses but megamansions on stamp-sized lots. Difficult, if not impossible, to balance landscaping with house. Then again, perhaps some homeowners don't want balance and want it to be all house.

Our purchase also used some points that Brent highlighted. We have college educations looming -- patience and compromise will have to be our motto for a while.

Cathy in SWPA

One of the first things I noted about our house was that it had "good bones" in the garden. I was not familiar with that phrase at the time but I know that I had something to work with. Later I found out the the former owners were gardeners, and before he died and she got too old to do much, there had been a large vegetable garden, and a rose garden. She also composted by burying her scraps in the veggie garden. Something to landscape was one of the priorities when we (me, didn't really discuss this with dh, all he wanted was to be in his old neighborhood, he had a very happy childhood) were looking for a home.

I find the title of this thread "No place like home" to be a little different from most posts here. Posters asking for help do not really seem to be interested in landscaping to make a home, but to make the house re-saleable. Two different things. My late m-i-l told me whoever buys our house is going to be cursing me for my stones, bricks and too many plants.

Start to the left. Whoo-oop! Whoo-oop! Jump to the right Whoo-oop! Whoo-oop! Beat your chest. Pick a nit off your partners head. Repeat to the right. Whoo-oop! Whoo-oop!

Dang, I forgot to put the banana In there. Thought I'd try dancing instead of negotiating with our primate buddy. Thanks for the major guffaw this evening, Ink!

not a designer, just an owner who has folowed this forum for several years trying to figure out 'how to deal with what's dealt' (that 800 lb Gorilla). I'm afraid that is same the mentality I get from a lot of the posts by other owners on this forum. We desire a nice landscape, but didn't find that house outright when buying and faced with other concessions in priorities.

How did we get here?
Our priorities (within our price range #1 tie Schools & House size (in-laws with us).
#3 tie proximity to shopping/commute
#5 lot size (> 0.2 acres seems small, but large in the MD/DC metro area)
#6 water access

#1, price, & #6 drew us to Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties, MD. Houses we could afford and that were larger than what we had removed about 90-95%)

We physically looked at ~40 after screening the MRIS listing daily for months. Only 2 houses really made the final cut. Both were atleast 4 bed/2 bath, >0.25 acres, had good schools, water access, and roughly the same commute (20 miles to metro).

One house was a 4 bed/2 bath Cape Cod with bonus room and a back deck and front porch with a large ~0.4 acre lot with several mature trees, but trashed jethro style. No landscape faults other than it needed to be cleaned (great potential). The house was walking distance to the elementry school and fronted open space (now hotly being contested for development of 30 'executive' homes). I was a little concerned with tidal flooding (from this open space/wetlands). This community was removed from shopping, etc. Water access was bulkhead frontage on the Chesapeake Bay and a pier.

House #2, we had looked at twice, but the "curb appeal" wasn't there for us (I posted a thread here). House #2 had very good schools and was a bit larger 5 bedrooms/3 bathrooms. 2 beds and 1 bath were downstairs. That downstairs was a walkout basement slightly distracted us, but having the in-laws bedrooms/bath (divorced and with college age son) downstairs from us and our 2 children (5 &3) was very desireable. This house was 2 miles from a lot of shopping, 4 to the mall and downtown Annapolis. Water access was a fabulous beach with swimming area (1 mile upstream from the Bay), club house, boat ramp, pier, and waterfront playground.

we didn't know about the beach/park at first and looked at #2 more seriously after the price dropped $20k, not withstanding we were not "attracted" to it from the outside appearance. Ilike this one from the proximity to things for the wife/kids and her decision was made when we saw the community park/beach (we didn't see the beach the first showing-what a dumb realtor!).

now to the questions-
1. In checking a house, what would be clear turn offs in terms of landscape issues? insufficient lot size (our min was 0.2 acres)/lack of privacy
2. What would score as a positive or at least show potential? 4/2 house with lot size greater than 0.2 acres in a good school district within 30 mins of metro was our limit
3. What is one of the things about your own house and its landscape that you love hate? We love the deck that spans the rear of the house (has 3 slider leading out) and the traffic pattern/outdoor access (6 exterior doors). We like the patio below, but don't like the remaining slope or area under the rear deck or that the garage faces to the side and the driveway shoots staight out & near the property line making a sharp L turn to enter the garage.
4. What weird idiosyncratic feature of your home led to a unique, creative landscape solution?
Posted on here for that. We have a few ideas, but nothing implemented. We probably will attempt to add a pergola to the front entrance where some commented on the roof stopping short. I am doing a 9' tall informal apple espalier on one property line and am slowly and selectively pruning the mature trees to let in a little more light. The walk-out basement slope is the most vexing due to budget constraints while in-laws with us. We would like to do some terracing.

...The schools, the beach, the bedroom arrangement and having 3 baths after living with the inlaws in a 4/1 won out over everything that we were not attracted to about the 800 lb Gorilla in our yard, lol.

1. In checking a house, what would be clear turn offs in terms of landscape issues?

Aside from the obvious drainage and setting issues, lack of mature trees, walk out basement, and rear deck raised high off the ground. I need to be able to step outside into the garden, and sitting high above it wouldn't work for me. An unattractive approach or ugly/unkempt neighboring homes.

2. What would score as a positive or at least show potential?
Relatively flat lot, at least a few mature trees, off-site views, attractive style of house as well as style of surrounding homes. The setting is important to me, as the approach to the house "sets the tone" IMO.

3. What is one of the things about your own house and its landscape that you love hate?

Love: Period house with great style, many mature trees and shrubs, water views. Fertile well-drained soil with few stones. Hate is a bit strong. There is more traffic on my street than I'd like, but it's not a big problem.

4. What weird idiosyncratic feature of your home led to a unique, creative landscape solution?

I don't know that I've done anything unique, but working around the placement of those mature trees and shrubs was a challenge, especially the ones very close to the house.

1. Grade. Is the lowest finished floor a minimum of two feet above the lowest surface draiange point of the property.

2. Sewer. Is the lowest finished floor a minimum of 6 ft above the sewer main.

3. Access. Can truck access be had to the back, sides of the property.

4. Flooding. Is there any chance of flooding from a 100 year storm. from the creek a block away or the river a mile away.

5. Foundation. Is the foundation of a character that it will not fail even if needed grade changes to the landscape are made.

A house that fails any of the above tests is removed from consideration.

"....that you love hate? "

The entire lot had 8 to 15% slopes. Hard to mow, no place flat enough for a table and chairs, dangerour even to walk on with the balls from 3 large sweet gum trees acting like ball berings on the slope.

But the slope is also the best thing for creating an interesting landscape. I have only one small side area to screen for really great privacy in the back yard.

This is an interesting thread, we are 2+ years into purchasing our first house & I'm still amazed that we got as lucky as we did...

As for the questions,
1) clear turn-off-small lot, w/ limited gardening potential, busy street, bad neighbors (usually discovered after purchase)

2) positive-large(for the area)lot size-we are .4 acres in a very populated area, good neighbors (again, discovered after purchase, but priceless), a short commute, good schools, backs to a county park, a very relaxed HOA (neighborhood watch, directory, various activities-yard sales, potluck, $10/yr)

3)Our house & yard-love & hate- love-all the listed positives above, lots of mature trees on the lot, convenience to the things I need, a very comfortable neighborhood-good mix of ages, income levels, lots of folks walking their dogs in the park; hate-the only thing I really dislike is the traffic once I leave the immediate area (I live in NOVA)

4)idiosyncratic feature of the house(which is totally boring by the way, but works for our family, ca. 1967 pseudo colonial, 4b/2.5 b w/ a good traffic pattern)-we have an unheated sunporch off the back, 14' x 16', w/ the long side facing the west, which backs to the park & the basketball court-it's the perfect place to overwinter plants & keep my orchids.