Improve Your Curb Appeal By Maintaining Your Lawn

In my years of selling real estate, I have toured thousands of homes & have been on hundreds and hundreds of listing appointments — and one of the questions (or more of a statement) that comes up is “look what I have done outside!”
 
Sometimes these sellers have immaculate yards that are manicured with turf, hard scape, pavers, grills, pools, etc.  It’s clear that they have spent some time, energy, and lots of money back here.  Truth be told; that most of those upgrades do not move the needle for buyers though.
 
Now a buyer may love the yard, it may even be one of the biggest reasons they purchase that house, but… they will not pay the seller more or even the same as what it cost to do the yard.

Rule of thumb: a seller will recover about 40% of the money they put in their yard when they sell it.  So if you are putting in a $40k pool, expect about $15k back when you sell.

Now, this doesn’t mean that yards are not important or that you should just leave your father-in-laws pickup from 1982 in the grass out front.  Landscaping is important, it’s just not a money maker. 
 
What I mean by that is that landscaping can, and does, set the tone for the buyer when they approach your house.  You as a seller have an OPPORTUNITY to draw them closer to loving the home, or an OPPORTUNITY to harden them towards your home. 

Maintaining Your Lawn in Arizona

Here are 4 simple ways to maximize your OPPORTUNITIES for the Buyer to Love your home.

1. Have grass where grass should be, and have it be alive, cut, and consistent.  I will also say that it’s best to have your photos done either on the day of landscaping service or the next day.
2. Have overgrown bushes and trees trimmed.  I say this with a grain of salt.  You don’t need to get the ruler out and measure and ensure some arbitrary distance. Just make sure it looks maintained and doesn’t appear to be an afterthought. This is a simple DIY process – or shouldn’t be too expensive for your yard maintenance guys to do (if you are like me and have a crew come in and take care of it).
3. If you don’t have trees or grass, then you probably have rock or other hardscaped.  No one likes weeds, no one! So get those babies out of there by either spraying them or pulling them. From there, just a simple blow and removal of any debris should do the trick. 
4. Que the DJ Horn ****BONUS**** – If you have garden beds then you should plant new flowers IF you can keep them alive through closing.  If you put in new flowers that are going to die in 4 days then don’t do it, as when the buyer comes back for the final walk-through they could make you replace them if they are dead.  Flowers help, but make sure you can keep them alive.

Do you have more questions about how to maintain your lawn or your home before you sell? If so, drop us a message and we’ll get you on the right path.

We’ve been realtors in the Scottsdale area for over 20 years, so we know exactly what buyers are looking for.