I have been retained to appraise all the trees and shrubs around an existing home, which is to be demolished. A new home will be constructed in its place. Some of the shrubs will be removed and held in a nearby nursery until construction is complete. And some will remain in place through the duration of the project.

I plan to use a replacement cost approach for most of the plants.

My questions are:

1) Will digging some plants and installing them again affect their value? Either by an increased time investment in transplanting them, and in added maintenance costs for watering, etc., after planting.

2) For the plants that remain in place, should I include ‘installation costs’ or simply use the retail price for a comparable plant?

Reply to post by Favero Greenforest, on April 28, 2000 at 19:02:24:

Hi, Favero. The values of the plants are what they would be if destroyed. I would use replacement costs where possible.

The idea here, I suspect, is what the cost would be if the plants do not survive. In that case, you would have to replace them, and those costs represent the value. If you move and then restore some of the plants, you could use the actual costs for transplanting storing, resetting and maintenance. You might also need to factor in some percentage for loss, as a sort of guarantee. Base this on the expected percent of loss when moving and restoring the plants.

Reply to post by Favero Greenforest, on April 28, 2000 at 19:02:24:

I'm not sure that the questions even make sense in the abstract. They make a lot of sense in the context of defining the assignment. What are the purpose and use of the appraisal? Remember appraisal is a guide to decision makers. What decisions are they trying to make?

1. I own the property and I want the demo contractor and the builder to be liable for any of the trees or shrubs that don't survive. Well Russ is pretty much on the mark. But value has to be considered for the new use. Oh, you say the new house will have 3x the footprint of the old and then there's the pool and tennis court. Maybe those plants won't all fit and have no value to the new use, except maybe salvage value if they are harvestable for sale. (Of course if DOJ does break up Microsoft and the stock keeps falling this whole deal may be off... the Seattle market may take a big hit.)

2. I'm a developer. I want to know what these plants are worth to me... what will they add to the value of the finished deal when I go to sell it. Increased market price, decreased marketing time, easier time with the planning board? Then tell me what it will cost to move 'em around rather than trashing them and buying new at the end.

3. I'm the seller. Tell me what I'd get for these if somebody wanted to buy them separate from the land vs. what they add to the value of the land as the developer will buy it from me. Go back to #1 (what's the developer going to do) do not pass GO do not collect $200 until you've filled in all the blanks.

Value to whom? Value when (a point in time)? Definition of value? Methodology and data collection follow they do not lead.