You want prospective buyers to fall in love with your home the moment they lay eyes on it. Having an attractive landscape that boosts its curb appeal can make all the difference in a good first impression.
While many homeowners may overlook the importance of good landscaping, it can add value to your home and help it sell faster. This study conducted at Virginia State University found that well-designed landscaping added 5.5% to 12.7% to the value of a home.
Let’s look at 11 ways that can help sell your home faster.
- Plant Colorful Flower Beds
- Maintain a Healthy Lawn
- Tidy the Yard
- Put Flowers in Containers
- Add New Mulch
- Clean Water Features
- Power-Wash Stained Surfaces
- Label Plants
- Put in a Low Maintenance Landscape
- Spend Big Bucks on an Outdoor Area
- Keep your Trees Healthy
1. Plant Colorful Flower Beds
The cost of listing your home can hold you back from the selling process. However, there are some inexpensive ways to get your home ready for the market. Adding pops of color to the garden is a cheap and easy way to improve the look of your home.
Planting seasonal interest in flower beds by selecting colorful annuals can revive the curb appeal and help create interest. It’s best to choose from a color palette of three to four colors or a monochromatic color scheme, but any color helps.
Flowering annuals planted in sparse spaces in your garden can make it look more vibrant. Drawing the eye in with colorful plants excites a buyer and will help them see the potential of your home.
2. Maintain a Healthy Lawn
You don’t want to intimidate a potential buyer with bare dirt in the yard. A healthy lawn will help them see that the present owner maintains and tends to the home.
Utilizing a professional lawn care company can help your lawn stay healthy by fighting back against persistent Oklahoma weeds, fertilizing, and assisting with other lawn care needs. This can save you time and money by eliminating the need for supplies and expensive equipment.
While a homeowner may struggle to get the lawn looking the way they want, a professional can guarantee that the lawn will look great.
3. Tidy the Yard
When putting your home on the market, you want the prospective buyer to see the home is maintained and in good order, even if they are just doing a preliminary drive-by.
Small improvements like trimming hedges, shaping bushes, and picking up leaves and other debris in your yard can help substantially. Pulling and getting rid of weeds between cracks and in the garden will help your yard look polished and ready for the market.
4. Put Flowers in Containers
Landscaping doesn’t always require an expensive hardscape. Enhancing the home’s overall appeal with simple things like flowers and containers can improve the look significantly.
Add interest to your porch, walkways, or the corners of your home by placing containers with colorful plants around your landscape.
Staging chairs or a bench along with potted plants near your porch or entryway will be inviting to prospective buyers. This will add curb appeal and allow buyers to see the endless possibilities your landscape has to offer.
“First impressions matter. Be sure you’re giving a clean, maintained look when potential buyers drive up to your home.”
– Brendon Willis with Willis Lawn Services
5. Add New Mulch
Putting new mulch in your flower beds will enhance the plants in your garden and make it look fresh and clean. Fresh mulch will show contrast and allow plants to show better by defining the flower bed and the lawn.
Mulch will also aid in the health of your garden throughout the selling process.
Some of the benefits of mulch:
- Keeps your soil moist.
- Helps maintain good soil temperature.
- Boosts the overall health of the plants in your garden.
- Assists in weed control.
6. Clean Water Features
If you have a fountain, pond, or other water feature in your landscape, remove leaves and debris before showing your home. Adding a little white vinegar to the water, which when diluted should not harm wildlife, will keep algae growth down.
The sound of running water can be tranquil and calming in any garden and is a nice added touch to your yard.
7. Power-Wash Stained Surfaces
The iron oxide in red Oklahoma dirt can leave unsightly stains on your foundations, walkways, and patios. Unfortunately, power-washing alone doesn’t usually do the trick with the insoluble red stains on surfaces. You’ll need to use a chemical cleaner along with the power washer.
Be careful when using acidic solutions as they can harm plants, pets, and surfaces. Ask a professional if you have questions or are uncomfortable doing it yourself.
8. Label Plants
This may sound a little over the top, but labeling special plants or trees that you have in your yard can help draw a buyer in. It will make a good impression and show potential buyers that the home has been meticulously cared for. It will also help the future home buyer out so they’ll know how to care for their new landscaping.
9. Put in a Low-Maintenance Landscape
Think about putting native plants in your garden instead of exotic high-maintenance vegetation. Hardy plants thrive in Oklahoma weather and can save you money and time on maintenance.
Low-maintenance features like rock gardens or xeriscapes can look fantastic while adding to the appeal of your home.
Synthetic turf is becoming more popular, and while it can be pricey to put in, it can save you time and money in the long run. An artificial lawn looks great, especially for small lots, and you won’t have to spend time mowing, fertilizing, or picking weeds.
However, assess the current trends in your neighborhood. If you add a rock garden while everyone else in your neighborhood has a lawn or flower garden, it may be a bit risky. Usually, buyers who look in certain locations are anticipating a particular look in the yard.
10. Spend Big Bucks on an Outdoor Area
While you don’t have to spend a lot of money to increase the curb appeal or outdoor experience of your home, adding an outdoor area can help sell your home faster.
Boasting a private, comfortable, and well-designed area in your yard will make your home more desirable.
A patio or deck can be a good way to show the usefulness of an outdoor area. However, you can get a varied return on your investment for different outdoor spaces, and choosing whether or not to go for an added expense to sell your home faster depends on the current trends in your area.
Gauging how much you should spend on outdoor improvements will depend on your local real estate market and the neighborhood your home is in.
Talk to a licensed real estate agent to get a good understanding of recent landscaping trends and what a good return on your investment might be. For example, an inground pool can be an asset or a liability when you try to sell.
It’s best to add big improvements like these long before you decide to sell your home, so you can enjoy them. Making pricey additions for the sake of trying to sell your home faster may not always pay off.
11. Keep Your Trees Healthy
Trees can be a great asset to the yard. They add privacy and shade and can make the outdoors a more enjoyable place to spend time.
They can transform the entire feel of the outside of a home. However, if trees aren’t properly cared for, they can look more like work and become a liability when buyers inspect them.
Pruning your trees can help them look their best and live longer. Getting rid of dead, diseased, deformed, and dying limbs can help the overall health of a tree. Allowing more space between branches gives trees more air and light, helping to prevent disease and maintain health.
If you decide to add a new tree to your yard, choose your trees wisely. Research the species of the tree you want before transplanting it to your yard. If the tree has messy seed pods or can grow too large for the space, consider a different type.
Watering and fertilizing trees is also a must to keep them happy and healthy.
Curb Appeal Matters
Ramping up the curb appeal of your home before and while it’s on the market will help it sell faster.
In order to sell your home fast, contact a licensed real estate agent that will help you figure out the right price for your home.
So there we have it! If you have any other landscaping recommendations, drop them in the comments below!
Jimmy Hughes is the owner + broker of JMR Realty. He works directly with home buyers and sellers in the Oklahoma City Metro and Edmond areas. He loves saving sellers their equity by listing at 1% or $999 flat fee.
Call Jimmy at 405-888-3148 or email him at jhughes@jmrrealtyok.com