If you’re planning to sell your home, you are probably updating the interior to make it look flawless. But, making the right first impression on buyers is an important step that begins with a neatly landscaped and welcoming yard. Making small improvements to your landscaping can make a big difference when you are selling your home. In fact, well maintained, and attractive landscaping can add as much as 10% to your home’s value. Read on to learn more about how landscaping to help sell your home.
Landscaping Construction Projects to Boost Your Home Value
Regular maintenance is a large part of keeping a home value up, however, an overall landscape upgrade can vastly improve the beauty and aesthetics and value of your home. Consider upgrades that add great ROI to your home like:
- Installing a pathway
- Adding stone planters
- Installing new trees and shrubs
- Adding a new paver patio or wooden deck
- Installing landscape lighting
- Installing a fire or a water feature
Adding an outdoor kitchen can make your home feel larger by extending living space outdoors and is another great resell addition. A good rule to follow when considering what enhancements to add to your landscaping is: do not add any feature that you wouldn’t want or use in your yard, even if you are in the process of selling it. Chances are, if you wouldn’t want or use it, a potential buyer probably wouldn’t see much value in it either.
Update Your Curb Appeal
Among the National Association of Realtors, 94% have suggested sellers improve their curb appeal before listing a home for sale. “Curb appeal is a major contributing factor when looking for houses, especially in the changing market.
When a buyer is looking at 3-5 homes in a day, the curb appeal will be the first thing that they see. Many people say that the way a person cares for their yard is a clear depiction of how they care for the home as a whole,” says Colorado Springs realtor, Melissa Haddad. “By far, the most important part of the landscaping to pull in buyers and top dollar for a home should be the curb appeal.”
Updating your curb appeal can be as simple as completing regular maintenance on your yard such as keeping the grass healthy and mowed or raking up fallen leaves and removing extra clutter from your outdoor spaces. Here are some landscape maintenance tips and small projects that can help you get your landscape in shape and your home ready to sell:
Water features
- Remove algae & leaves
- Clean/replace filters for clear water
trees & Shrubs
- Prune any overgrown trees & shrubs
- Remove dead portions from damage
Weeds
- Spray or pull any weeds before they go to seed
- Apply pre-emergent to keep weeds in check
Mulch
- Add a fresh layer to all garden beds
- Flip existing mulch by using a rake to turn and fluff mulch
Irrigation
- Fix irrigation issues
- Include information about irrigation schedule/operation
- Repair outdoor faucet leaks
Annuals & perennials
- Remove & replace plants in bad shape
- Add color by planting varieties of seasonal flowers
- Update & clean up outdoor containers
Clean
- Power-wash dirty surfaces (pavers, fences, brick & vinyl siding)
Planting
- Add plants to hide views of telephone, cable & electrical boxes
- Use shrubs to hide a neighbor’s yard & add privacy
