Selling Your Home? Boost Curb Appeal with These Easy Tips.

November 30, 2016 | By webadmin

Selling your home an be an emotional chore. We become attached to the memories created within those walls and in our gardens. But in order to successfully sell your home, new potential buyers need to see their own potential in your home. Curb appeal is a big part of that attraction. Your landscape often provides the first impression, good or bad, so it’s advisable to pay attention to a few details and upgrades as you prepare to put your home on the market.

Here are few easy steps to put into play to boost curb appeal.

Not selling your home anytime soon? These tips can still be used to improve the appearance of your landscape as family and friends arrive for the holidays.

Refresh containers with seasonal color and foliage. Studies show that the color green is easiest on the eyes and blue is the color of trust, so why not create a sense calm by planting up containers with foliage plants or a mix of leafy varieties and white or blue blooms? Ensure that color works in harmony with your home and is seasonally appropriate. Selling this winter? Here are plants we love for winter containers: Sedum, Lemon Cypress, Nemesia and Swiss Chard, Cyclamen, Ferns, Parsley, and Pansies and Violas in blooms of white, lavender and deep purplish-blue.

Shape overgrown shrubs and trees. Have all trees and shrubs pruned the right way by a professional. It can be tough to correct bad pruning jobs, without waiting years for the plants to outgrow the damage.

Don’t overdo the garden art. You want to create an outdoor space that a future homeowner can envision making their own. When you add an abundance of personal items to the landscape, it can distract from the potential of the space.

Repair and refurbish irrigation. A properly working irrigation system increases the value of your home. When irrigation works, plants are healthier and more robust. Take it a step further by investing in a smart irrigation controller to the irrigation system. Your new homeowner will be able to control how and when their lawn and garden plants are watered no matter where in the world they are--right from their smart phone!

Clean up perennial beds. Whether you are a DIYer or you have a maintenance company managing your landscape for you, late fall is the time to deadhead the blooms off all perennials and pull any plants that didn’t survive the summer. Lightly prune specimens that look overgrown. Be sure to research how to prune each plant as some might go into decline if improperly pruned, pruned too much or pruned at the wrong time.

Finish all your garden beds with mulch. Fresh mulch gives the entire landscape a tidy and neat appearance. Mulch comes in a variety of colors and textures and natural materials. There are shredded hardwoods that are excellent for plants that need a bit more water (hollies, azaleas, hawthorn); and you can use hardscape mulches, such as expanded shale and small gravel, for water-wise plants that like to stay on the dry side (agave, yucca, lavender).

While you don’t need to completely renovate a landscape to successfully sell your home, these key refreshes can have a significant impact on the overall look and impression it makes on new buyers.