As you think about marketing your house, one of your greatest assets may be in your own backyardone of the best ways to increase a home's resale value is to revamp the landscape. You will not only attract more buyers and get a quicker sale but probably get a boost in your sale price as well. Consumers value a landscaped home up to 11.3 percent higher than its base price, according to a Clemson University and University of Michigan study, and landscapes that are not as nice as others in the neighborhood are 8 percent to 10 percent lower. If you spend 5 percent of the value of your home on landscaping, wisely, you might get 150 percent or more of your money back: For a $500,000 home, on which you spend $25,000 to spruce it up, even a modest gain of 7.5 percent would put $12,500 of profit. If your home’s landscaping is on the low end for the area and you’re putting it on par with your neighbors, you could be looking at a 15 percent rise. These days you’ll want to consider hardscapes such as gorgeous walkways, sweeping arches, full kitchen areas and barbecue pits, elongated patios and decks, elaborate backyard retreats and gazebos,. A perfect yard may look beautifully simple, but a thousand factors contribute to it, from hiring landscape architects and designers, dealing with contractors and knowing what to plant and making sure your costs don’t spiral out of control. To sort out the complexities I brought back Landscape architect Katherine Field to offer her Insights. Here are some of the things Kate and I discussed:
Curb Appeal: First impressions, as anyone in the dating game will tell you, are key. So before you start designing that luxurious backyard koi pond, get the front of your house in order: mowing, weeding, trimming shrubs, putting in fresh sod if you need to. If you have a budget, it's important to focus your landscaping around key areas, Something that's going to be viewed a lot like the front of the house. Hardscapes: When the basics are done, you can start getting serious. The hot new trend: beautiful pathways made of brick or concrete pavers, winding from the street to the front door. Make the path slightly staggered or curved to give it some character. Place a wooden pergola, or archway, over the path to define an entranceway. Flank the path with Mediterranean-style pots featuring flowering container plants. Low-maintenance plant material is best. Buyers want the yard to look great, but they don't want it to be labor-intensive. The Year Round Garden: By smart planting and giving color to the yard year-round, you've instantly set your home apart from most others in the neighborhood, which will probably be leafless and drab in the winter months. Ideas for year-round color, which are good for most areas of the country: flowering shrubs such as viburnums with their colored berries or trees with colored bark such as coral bark Japanese maples. Ornamental grasses, including fountain grass and maiden grass, are hardy through different seasons — as well as easy to maintain. And always remember to match the plants to the home. Pansies and petunias may be perfect for a cottage-style house, but not for one that's sleek and contemporary. Trees: Your most valuable asset is your trees. You buy a tree for $20 when you first put it in, and immediately it starts to rise in value, it’s one of the few things that appreciates over time. The Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers says a mature tree can have an appraised value of $1,000 to $10,000. Outdoor Spaces: Some buyers have had to settle for less space than they would have liked in today's market. The solution to the problem: Extend your living space outdoors. Deck and patio additions are the natural way to extend one's living space outside, and decks bring one of the highest cost recoupings of any home project (76%), according to Remodeling Magazine's "Cost vs. Value Report." (An indoor sunroom, by contrast, gets you only 60% of your dollars back.) Redwood or cedar is still a high-end choice, although more recycled plastics that look like wood are being used for long life.Tips for the do it yourselfer: If you're putting in significant hardscapes, make sure of a few things: Don't damage the root systems of major trees in your yard, which could potentially cost you thousands of dollars. Also, find out whether you might be about to dig into any utilities. Hit a gas line or TV cables and you could be liable for repair costs if you don't check with the local public service commission. This Week's Real Estate Insight: The advantages of a professionally installed and maintained landscape go beyond "curb appeal" and head straight for the bottom line. A well-designed landscape has been proven to increase the sale price by over 10%. Maybe money does grow on trees!
