Maximize the ROI of your Home Improvements

Maximize Home Improvement ROI: Lawn Renovations

When you purchase a property, unless it’s a new construction you probably have some upgrades and renovations in mind.  These make the home more enjoyable to live in and increase the value of the home over time. 

One strategy I’ve found extremely useful to maximize my ROI on large projects is to break them down into smaller jobs and bid each one out separately, rather than getting a single quote for the entire job. This can often cut the overall price of projects by half and save you thousands!  This isn’t a scam, get rich quick scheme or pulling money out of thin air, the fact is that when you bid out an entire job, you’re paying for a lot of coordination and red tape that you could handle yourself with minimal effort.    

One recent example of this was a yard restoration project I had at one of my units – the lawn was non-existent and needed a LOT of work.  It was a larger project and I’m going to show you how breaking it down into a few smaller jobs saved me thousands!

The Yard

This was 1,400 sq ft. yard with great views of the mountains and should have been a great selling point for the property!  However, tenant neglect had left it a barren wasteland.  It had no grass growing, essentially a dirt bed that was an eyesore for the property and prevented tenants from really enjoying it.  I had tried quick fixes like seeding the dirt and even hiring a TruGreen service, but nothing was working – it was going to need a significant restoration.

Jaw Dropping Quotes for the Project

I reached out to a few contractors, and the quotes were devastating – one was for over $7,000!  One detail on the quote: the entire scope of work was grouped into a single line item.  This immediately triggered a quick mental analysis that I would highly recommend any time you are trying to complete a large renovation project: does the total equal the sum of its parts?

As you can see from the quote, there are 7 tasks listed, but really only 3 jobs to be done:

1. Install the topsoil

2. Till the topsoil into the existing soil

3. Install the Sod

Breaking each of these jobs into labor vs materials, it seemed clear that I could complete the job for well under $7,000 without really having to put in that much work if I just bought and coordinated material delivery myself, then hired out the labor for each separately.

Lawn Renovation Steps

In this section I’ll break down each of the minor tasks that made up the overall job: how I did them, how much they cost, and how much time they took.  One thing to note:  the main lesson here is how much money can be saved simply by breaking the project into tasks and hiring individual tasks out. 

That said, there are also opportunities to do some of the work yourself for additional savings if you’re willing to commit the time to it.  I’ll break each savings type separately so you can weigh the benefits of each. 

Purchase new topsoil

I purchased the same 4 cubic yards at from the above quote from a bulk distributor of landscaping and gardening materials that offered delivery for $130

Total Cost: $413

Spread soil across the yard

I was busy the day the soil was delivered and so I hired this out with a listing on Craigslist, paying the $7 listing fee to post the job below.  One recommendation I would make is to decide what price you want to pay and offer that upfront in the listing.  If your pay is too low, you’ll get that feedback pretty quickly and can adjust from there.

I found two guys to do the work and spoke to them over the phone to vet them and discuss the details.  Always remember paying for materials upfront might be necessary sometimes, but only pay for labor AFTER it has been completed. Always take care to inspect the work that was done before paying as well.  These guys did a great job, and for $257 I had the soil spread across the lawn, ready to be tilled in.

If you look closely, you can see it looks a bit “mulchy” on the top, that is because this is organic material intended to be mixed into the existing soil, you wouldn’t use it as a standalone material.

Total Cost: $257

Till topsoil into the existing soil

Before doing any tilling, call DIG SAFE or whatever utility locator you have in your area to mark any utility lines in the yard so you can steer clear of them!

I got ambitious here and decided to tackle the tilling myself, trading a morning’s work for about $470 in savings.  I bid this out and the general consensus was about $0.05/sq. ft to have it done for me, with a ~1,400 sq ft yard that would have cost about $700.  Renting a rear-tiller and a truck to transport it cost me $230, and it took me about 4 hours to complete.

If you DID decide to till the soil yourself, I would plead with you to invest the extra money into renting the largest, most powerful tiller available.  It will pay dividends on your time and sanity – the smaller ones are really only intended for small garden beds – they can’t break through harder dirt and they can’t cover much ground quickly!

After going over the entire yard a couple times I had things looking pretty good!

Total Cost (Hiring out ONLY): $700

Total Cost (DIY): $230

Purchase sod

I then ordered 1,400 sq ft of sod from a wholesaler, with delivery, which was very easy to set up, and timed it for when it could be installed immediately. It came on 3 pallets, with each having ~60 rolls of sod on it – it is surprisingly heavy too!

Total Cost: $1,175

Install Sod

Once I had the sod delivered, the last step was to install it on the prepped soil!  This is another example of where I could have hired it out, but decided to put in the work and install it myself to save additional money. 

There was a LOT of heavy lifting upfront to get all of it into the yard but once that was done, essentially, I raked the dirt to be smooth and flat, then wet each strip of dirt before I put the sod down on it, keeping the edges as tight together as I could.  Once I had it all installed, I rolled over it all with a Lawn Roller I rented from Home Depot for $25.  I also bought a new rake to do it myself too since I didn’t have one.

Total Cost (Hiring Out Only): $800

Total Cost (DIY): $50

A Successful Renovation

Once the sod was installed, I had my project complete!  What had seemed like a large, daunting project was now off my chest, and I had saved a ton of money in the process by breaking it down:

1. Soil Delivery = $413

2. Soil Installation = $257

3. Tilling the soil = $700 (or $230 DIY)

4. Sod Delivery = $1,175

5. Sod Installation = $800 (or $50 DIY)

Tallying all of this up, you can see that just by bidding out each task, and doing NONE of the work myself, I would have spent just $3,345 – less than HALF of the bid I received for the whole project!  Then, by actually doing some of the work myself, I saved an additional $1,200.

To summarize, the main lesson to be learned for homeowners and investors here is:

When planning a larger project or renovation, breaking it down into smaller jobs and hiring those out separately will save you a LOT of money if you are willing to invest the minimal time and effort into coordinating those jobs.  This is how you can improve your properties and add substantial value to your home with a high ROI.