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Plant Some Trees At Home —’Lush Landscaping, That’s What Sells’

Charlie Munger didn’t see landscaping as decoration — he saw it as a money-making machine.

Long before he became Warren Buffett’s famously blunt business partner and the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Munger was a Los Angeles real estate attorney who knew how to turn empty lots into profit. He believed that buyers might admire a kitchen, but they fell in love with a home the moment they pulled up to it.

In the early 1960s, Munger decided to stop just drafting property contracts and start building them.

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According to Janet Lowe’s biography “Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger,” he and his partners developed 442 one-story “own-your-own” apartments in Alhambra, California — spread across two 11-acre sites. Each unit sold for around $20,000, a modest price even then, but the project sold out quickly.

The homes weren’t flashy, but they were smartly built, thoughtfully designed, and finished with one secret advantage: beautiful, lush landscaping. Munger made sure every walkway, yard, and street corner had life — trees, hedges, grass, color.

The result? Buyers saw value before they even stepped inside. “Lush landscaping,” Munger declared in Lowe’s book. “That’s what sells. You spend money on trees, and you get it back triple. Stinting on landscaping is building malpractice.”

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That instinct wasn’t sentiment — it was strategy. Greenery created warmth, curb appeal, and a sense of permanence. Grass softened concrete, trees framed sight lines, and a mix of shade and symmetry made the buildings feel more expensive than they were. Munger noticed that buyers reacted emotionally to beauty — and in real estate, emotion sells faster than logic.

Decades later, his landscaping theory has proven right. According to the National Association of Realtors, 97% of their agents say curb appeal is important when working with residential sellers, and 92% recommend improving it before listing. Among buyers, 98% agree it matters, with 63% calling it very important.

Today, it’s not just about mowing the lawn — it’s about creating a mood. Homeowners are spending more on outdoor upgrades because, as Munger knew, the first impression is the one that closes the deal.

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Even in his later years, Munger’s fascination with real estate never faded. “Charlie enjoyed real estate transactions, and he actually did a fair number of them in the last five years of his life,” Buffett said at the most recent Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in May. “But he was playing a game that was interesting to him.”

For Munger, landscaping wasn’t vanity — it was value. He understood that a home surrounded by thriving greenery didn’t just look better; it felt better, and that feeling translated straight into dollars.

So before tearing out that kitchen backsplash or chasing the next remodel trend, take Munger’s advice: plant some trees. You might just grow your property value faster than your portfolio.

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