Curb appeal is important when it comes to selling your home, and add up to lots of money when done right.
As defined by Merriam Webster, curb appeal is “the visual attractiveness of a house as seen from the street.” Of course, that doesn’t mean that one should neglect areas like interiors, decks and backyards just because they are not seen from the street. Basically, all aesthetics should scream quality to a potential buyer.
The importance of the lawn when it comes to curb appeal
The lawn is the first thing that a potential buyer sees when he or she visits your house for a tour. More importantly, it’s what their friends and neighbors will first see. We are social creatures, and an attractive home reflects on ourselves. Thus, the exterior is extremely important, and the lawn and landscape are a large part of said exterior.
In this post, we’re going to walk you through how to really stand out from the crowd when it comes to preparing your lawn and landscape for sale.
Start Feeding Your Lawn Ahead Of Time
Using Trugreen or another lawn treatment service will make your grass greener and fuller. That’s almost a fact. However, you can’t expect greener grass overnight (unless you paint it). Therefore, you’ll want to start applying lawn fertilizer or weed and feed at least 6 months prior to showing your home. The cost is reasonable compared to your home’s value, and be sure to use a professional instead of doing it yourself (their chemicals are more effective). Trugreen is the standard, but they are typically the worst in terms of results and customer service. Therefore, try and hire a local lawn treatment professional.
Water Frequently, Consistently and Through the Entire Growing Season
Watering your lawn is obvious but considerably underrated. Be sure that your lawn gets an inch of water per week, and not just when it’s hot. Watering consistently through early spring and end of fall – before frost – is critical to having a healthy, lush green lawn. Whether you do it by hand or use an irrigation system, watering is crucial.
Mulch Your Flowerbeds Close to Showing
Freshly laid hardwood mulch can drastically enhance the look of your flowerbeds dramatically. Mulch comes in many colors, and we tend to recommend very dark mulch as it helps your plants really stand out. Or, if your flowerbeds were professionally designed, red-stained mulch can be attractive as well.
Be sure that you lay down your mulch close to the time you show your house. As it decomposes and leaves mix in with it, it simply doesn’t look as good.
Another pro tip for your flowerbeds: apply plant fertilizer well in advance to have your flowers looking their best.
Start Double Mowing with Alternating Patterns
Ideally you are mowing your lawn properly all along with a lawn mower that has sharp blades. Now, it’s time to go the extra mile and double mow your lawn.
First, set your lawn mower to a relatively high setting. Then mow your lawn in the same direction. Then, drop the setting a little bit, and mow it but in the opposite direction.
Why should you do this? The less of the grass you clip off the top, the greener and healthier the grass will look. Additionally, you will develop subtle, attractive criss-cross lines that you often see on baseball fields. It’s double the work, but the result is a huge improvement.
Trim Your Bushes and Hedges Consistently
Unkept bushes are unsightly. Trimming them with a set of clippers or electric hedge trimmers can make a world of difference.
The key to making bushes look good is to cut them all consistently. Cut them off at the same heights, and ensure their widths are similar to one another. Ideally you want to do this a few weeks before showing the house. That way they are fresh enough to look good, but don’t have that ‘just got cut’ look.
Plant Bright, Contrasting Flowers
The right kind of flowers can make a world of difference when it comes to curb appeal. A flowerbed with bright flowers and green bushes looks three times better than the same flowerbed with just mulch and green colors.
Visit your local nursery to understand which types of plants are in season. Ideally, you should plant flowers a few months ahead of time to give them a chance to fill out. Also, pay particular attention to the blooming season of the plants – you want them colorful when you’re showing the house. Finally, consider native plants as they are often much easier to maintain.
To make sure that your beautiful flowers show up during all hours, consider installing some inexpensive solar lights around the perimeters.
Powerwash All Walkways
Your walkways likely take a beating from all the foot traffic. Everytime you step on your walkway – no matter what material it is – you are grinding in a little bit of dirt. It happens slowly so you don’t notice, but presenting clean walkways makes a world of difference.
Cut Clean Edges
The final step to ensuring your lawn and landscape looks its best is doing a good edging job around all sidewalks, curbs, housing sides, and flowerbeds. This can be done with a weed eater / string trimmer (be sure to have plenty of trimming line) or a pole edger, and makes a world of difference when it comes to the value you can sell your home for.
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