Does a New Construction Home in Utah Come With Landscaping?
The honest answer is: sometimes, kind of. Many Utah builders install the front-yard landscaping, because cities require front landscaping to be completed within a certain time of the home being finished. Other builders give a sod credit and leave the front yard to you. Backyard landscaping by the builder is very rare. On a recent DR Horton purchase in Utah, the builder gave a credit for about 2,000 square feet of sod and left the buyer to do the hardscape, sprinkler lines, ground prep, soil, planting, and the sod itself in the front yard. Cost depends heavily on whether you do the prep yourself, hire an established company, or hire an individual landscaper, and on lot size. On a typical fifth-acre lot doing all the work yourself – renting a skid steer, grading, running sprinkler lines, hauling and spreading topsoil, laying sod, planting trees – you can do quite a bit for under $10,000. A full landscaping company doing everything can easily run over $50,000. DIY is approachable: companies do free landscape plans, there are DIY sprinkler videos everywhere, and it mostly comes down to whether you enjoy the work and have the time. Budget for it either way, and plan around the city and HOA deadlines, which commonly run 12 to 18 months from occupancy.
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