When planning renovations, don’t overlook the value of your yard. Nothing adds more immediate curb appeal than attractive landscaping. Choosing the right plan will definitely make your home more saleable.   Even if you’re not planning to sell anytime soon, you can enjoy the benefits of enhanced landscaping and be confident they have lasting value.

 

Long-lasting community appeal is something that its residents need to work at consistently in order to maintain: this effort will be reflected in the overall desirability of the neighborhood to its current residents as well as prospective buyers’ willingness to pay top-dollar for your home.  More so than simple pride in my own home – please allow me to “geek out” for a minute – I’m a firm believer in the broken window hypothesis and preventing its negative effects from affecting the neighbourhoods that I live in.  

 

Amidst the literal maze of options to update and refresh my own home, my wife and I felt that we had spent enough time painting and replacing hardwood (amongst other upgrades) that we should finally take a look at the outside of the home and increase its eye-appeal to drivers-by.  Although initially daunting,  it’s a handful of relatively simple and (if done wisely) cost-effective changes that dramatically improve the immediate as well as long-term curb appeal of the home. 

 

It’s good sense to run any contractor – from painters to carpenters to landscapers - through a gauntlet of questions and price quotes before making my final decision on the plan of action.  To give you an idea of the range of painting quotes, we’ve gotten hit with everything between $11,000 to $3000 for the same service.  For landscaping?  Between $3500-2000.  We’re pretty handy and did it ourselves for less than $1000 all-in for BOTH projects.  My own experience reinforces my gratitude towards family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues with more experience than I – and are willing to lend some insight (and a helping hand from time to time) as well.  A Realtor’s insights and market savvy are also a wealth of knowledge waiting to be tapped in order to sell your home.  

 

Something interesting: how well do you know your neighbours?  As my wife and I were out ‘playing in the dirt’ as we upgraded our yard ourselves, we were amazed that people from all over the neighbourhood would walk up to us and strike up conversation – many of them appreciative and some congratulatory of us working on the project ourselves.  In one case, my neighbor two doors down started digging holes, planting new shrubs and doing some eye-catching brickwork on his yard… perhaps there’s a counter-point to the ‘broken window hypothesis’ in that it works both ways? 

 

 

Without any more delay, here are some landscaping strategies that offer solid returns on the value that you put in:

·         Concentrate on the entryway of your house—that’s what buyers see first. Replace worn-out stairways with decorative concrete blocks. Make it staggered or curved for extra impact, and edge it with raised planters. Continue the raised planters along the front of your home to enhance drainage and tie the landscaping into the architecture.

·         Xeriscaping your yard—a style of landscaping that requires little irrigation or maintenance—is inexpensive to do, saves ongoing costs and appeals to today’s time-squeezed buyers.

·         Adding a deck is a (relatively) inexpensive way to increase the apparent floor space of your home.   Make outdoor and indoor space blend seamlessly by using French doors and indoor-style light fixtures and furnishings. The deck shouldn’t be more than one-third of the square footage of your home’s main floor.

·         Replace hard-to-maintain slopes in your yard with terraces that feature plantings or mini patios with furniture.

·         Add lush vegetation, but don’t go overboard. Everyone—including you!—enjoys green, leafy surroundings. But few buyers—including you!—like high-maintenance gardens. Choose hardy perennials and shrubs, and use ground cover planting to reduce weeding and watering.

·         Getting closer to fall (August/September here in Canada) and the end of the growing season, it’s still safe to purchase and plant trees, shrubs and other types of hardy vegetation in your yard.  Checking out your local nurseries around this time of year can yield some great savings on trees and shrubs – sometimes in the range of 35-75% off!  Sure, there is likely to be less product variety, but even running from one Home Depot to the next or between different nurseries can save you literally hundreds - if not thousands - of dollars depending on the scope of your project.

 

If you’re on the verge of purchasing and are planning to stay in your home for a long time, you could contemplate a Purchase-Plus-Improvements mortgage to cover the expenses of landscaping, appliance purchase and renovations to update your home as you move in.  On the flip side of the coin, if you’ve been living in your home for a while and are looking at updating its appeal to a prospective buyer, chances are you already have enough equity in your home to pay for everything—and with today’s record-low HELOC and mortgage rates, you’ll probably end up with lower mortgage payments too!

 

 

Helping you enjoy your property more and also maximize the sale value of your home,

 

James C. Tworek and The Trimor Team!

       www.trimormoney.com