No matter how hot the real estate market is in the Phoenix Valley, you’ll never get top dollar when you go to sell your house unless the backyard and landscaping looks great. Unfortunately, taking care of a yard can take lots of time that not everyone is willing to devote.
Whether you love or loathe yard work you’ll want to consider the following items that will make selling your house for as much as you can possible get, a simple process. All it really takes is a modest landscaping budget, a slightly green thumb, and a willingness to get your hands dirty.
Paint and Stain
Curb appeal isn’t just a marketing gimmick cooked up realtors who are looking to move homes as quickly as possible, it’s a genuine phenomenon. That’s why houses with well cared-for fences, outdoor furniture and even gutter, command higher prices than houses without them.
There’s really nothing to applying a coat of paint or stain to a backyard living area. In fact, this is something you should have done when your first moved into your home.
If you don’t believe us, just ride around your own neighborhood and start comparing the condition of all the fences you see. There’s an old expression that goes, “Good fences make good neighbors,” but that could just as easily be, “Good fences sell houses.”
You’ll be so pleased with how you’re fending looks once it’s been cleaned up and painted, you might not want to move after all.
Shrubbery
Nothing makes a backyard pop out like some nice, healthy plant life. That’s because plants of all kind add life to any situation and make your house feel warm and inviting.
If you’re not exactly a green thumb, you’ll want to invest in some low maintenance shrubbery that’s not going to need a lot of individual attention. The more homegrown, native shrubbery you use in your hard, the less time you’ll need to spend doing yard work.
There’s no reason to think that prospective home buyers don’t despise yard work as much as you do, so a maintenance-free yard could be a real selling point.
Lighting
Anyone who has ever spent a summer in Phoenix knows that while desert days can be scorching hot, desert nights are refreshingly cool. Families in this part of the country wind up spending plenty of time outside during those long desert nights, so having good outdoor lighting is critically important.
Just remember, lighting up a desert home requires a special skill set, so you’ll definitely want to call in a Phoenix landscape lighting company to help you get started.
Keep it Clean
Though it may seem obvious to most of us, but houses with neat and clean yard sell faster than cluttered yards that are full of toys and lawn care equipment. Simply taking a few hours to haul away junk and straighten up your yard can seriously increase your curbside appeal and final sale price.
Prospective homeowners look at each house they visit as something of a blank slate. The more blank slate you give them, they more likely they are to put in a bid on your house.