Does Landscape Impact the Value of Your Home?

The short answer to this question is yes, landscaping has a tremendous impact on the value of one’s home. However it is something that is typically overlooked. Most people get the outside of their house spruced up by simply pulling the weeds, planting a little color in the planters and mowing the lawn. While these are all very important, what most people don’t know is that a small financial investment can bring a large return.

When someone thinks of what makes their home stand apart from others, typically common areas such as the kitchen and bathrooms take the lead. While having selling features such as a granite kitchen or wood floors can impact potential buyers, people have to actually like the way their future home looks from the moment they pull up. The trick is to have curb appeal that makes your home simply irresistible to potential buyers.

The Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association found that landscape can increase the resale value of a residential property by up to 14%. However, Real Estate experts disagree and have found that a well designed and landscaped yard with mature plants and trees can increase the value of a property by up to 25%. Additionally, it was found that homes with poorly designed landscape or landscape that was not maintained actually detracted from the overall value of a property.

In addition to increasing the value of the home, a well landscaped yard plays another crucial factor. The Florida Nursery Grower and Landscape Association also found that homes that were well landscaped and maintained sold an average of six weeks faster than homes that were not landscaped. A common fear is that money invested in landscape will not be recouped when the house is sold. If you are selling your home, the intention is to get the most that you possibly can for your property. In order to determine a proper budget, the Florida Nursery Grower and Landscape Association recommend spending 5% of the value of the home on landscape that requires low maintenance. It is estimated that if done correctly that this could have a return of up to 15%.

Now you might be saying to yourself “I have no intention of moving”. Well, if there is a chance that you could be moving in a few years then it might be worth it to consider a bit of landscaping now for a few reasons. The first being that you and your family will be able to enjoy the landscape until a time comes and you do decide to move, secondly, most buyers look for landscape that looks established. A well landscaped yard is a good indicator as to if someone is taking care of their property. Potential buyers will be more intrigued by your house if you have mature trees as opposed to little ones that look like they were planted with the intention of sprucing up the exterior. A little bit of landscape can go a long way and bring a large return on the sale of your home.