According to home improvement guru Bob Villa, landscaping is a good investment that can add up to 20% of value to your home. Properly maintained landscaping is the key to achieving an excellent first impression.
Plus, the size and appearance of your yard plays a role in the overall value of your home when you get it appraised and inspected by professionals during the real estate process. An appraiser will look for and consider landscaping, permanent fixtures like sprinklers and more.
Here are five affordable landscaping tips to get your yard ready for an appraisal – and of course potential homebuyers!
Simple Education
In order to properly increase your home appraisal, you must first understand what home inspectors look for and learn to think like a home inspector. The International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) offers over a hundred articles that explain the fundamentals of different home inspection topics.
For example, tree roots normally can’t penetrate a foundation, but they can leech water from the soil, causing the structures to settle and sink. There are also many different structural defects in trees that create safety problems. Knowing how an inspector thinks will allow you to preemptively take care of problems before the home appraisal.
Color and Character
There are basic DIY projects that homeowners can take on to quickly improve the yard’s visual appeal. For example, dig a flower bed and add colorful plants and flowers. Keep the plant colors in sync with the home’s architecture. Take a picture of your outside area and consult with a local nursery. They will be more than happy to sell you plants which will enhance the appearance of your home.
Another strategy is to choose a theme and selectively add vintage collectables to your yard. Add solar-powered lights along the walkway. Consider using colored concrete paint with your own unique design. You can save the environment and yourself money in the long run by planting a tree or two in the front. Use the Tree Benefit Calculator to find out the economic and environmental value that the tree of your choice can provide with Treebenefits.com’s calculator.
Fresh Grass
Sodding is an excellent way to quickly improve a home’s value while improving the look. A simple and convenient solution is to just buy locally grown sod. For example, consider a Zoysia sod in Atlanta, as it thrives in the Georgian climate. It is drought-resistant, low-maintenance and insect-resistant. It also is fine bladed with great shade tolerance. Other sods, such as Bermuda grass, offer similar advantages. The whole process only takes a few weeks and allows homeowners to choose their own customized style.
Overall, there are excellent benefits to sodding. On a hot day, a lawn will be 30 degrees cooler than asphalt and 15 degrees cooler than soil. Grass not only cools the air, but reduces greenhouse gases while absorbing carbon dioxide. In addition to this, it prevents erosion and reduces dust. An attractive landscape can improve home value between 10 to 15 percent, while also increasing the curb appeal.
A Professional’s Touch
Consider hiring a professional landscape designer. They will be able to translate your landscaping dreams into a reality while helping you avoid potential problems. For example, many DIYers make the mistake of beginning different projects at the same time without a plan. They end up adding a mix of the wrong plants while over-focusing or under-focusing on certain areas. As a result, the yard appears disorganized and amateurish.
Landscape designers have the creativity and critical eye for turning your humdrum yard into something that stands out. They are trained to analyze the area, come up with conceptual design options and help you plan and budget accordingly. Having a professional act as your contractor liaison and manage the project are additional benefits.
Quick Clean Up!
If there isn’t enough time or money for a professional landscape designer and lawn renovation, consider hiring a professional lawn care company to come and simply clean up what you’ve already got. This is an easy way to give your yard a quick makeover at an affordable price. Lawn care professionals have all of the tools, equipment and experience to quickly create an attractive lawn.
