ListingLife
NOV 2009Venture Outdoors for Some Spring Curb Appeal
By Lynn Coulter
Another winter is over and you can say goodbye to all of the dead landscape! According to Smart Money Magazine, if you put 5 percent of your home’s value into the right landscaping, you can increase its value by 15 percent. As the weather begins to become more enjoyable, and the real estate market begins to pick up, you can start to venture outdoors for some spring landscaping before putting your house up for sale!
Before you post that “for sale” sign in your yard, be sure to get rid of that garden gnome in the petunias. While you’re at it, landscape designer Shirley Bovshow says, “nobody wants to look at your dirt.” She suggest that you mulch the bare spot around the mailbox with some attractive pebbles or fresh cypress bark.
Bovshow often sounds a little like a landscaping cop. That’s because she’s not only a popular garden landscape designer but also an energetic co-host of Discovery Channel’s “Garden Police.” Not to worry, though. The only things Bovshow goes gunning for are mistakes made by homeowners in the garden.
“Take a look at any issues in your yard,” says Bovshow, who was also once a real estate professional. She suggest that you may need to plant shrubs to hide the neighbor’s garbage can, or put concrete treatment on an ugly driveway. She also suggests that you ditch the personal stuff; that’s why the gnome’s gotta go. “You want to appeal to a broad audience. Buyers cannot envision a house as their own when it says ‘you’ so much.”
“Some areas are still winter-brown and bare in the spring, so plant a few beautiful containers and put them out in the garden. Try something with colorful leaves, like a banana plant, so you won’t have to depend on flowers blooming throughout the time your home is on the market,” Bovshow suggests. “Add containers by the entry and go for simple. Try one or two architectural plants like palms or agaves.”
Seasoned landscape pro Justin Cave, a host of HGTV’s “Ground Breakers,” adds that clean-up comes first. “Your home’s exterior is everything from the roof to the underpinning of the house, and that’s all part of curb appeal. Foundation shrubs are real important. Pressure wash the steps and driveway, and hire a certified arborist to take down dead trees.”
What do you do about that lawn? “If it’s in bad shape, assess what you have. If you can, you should repair, aerate and overseed.” Cave says. If you don’t have good growing conditions for grass consider turning the tortured space into beautiful garden beds instead.
At the end of the day you will have beautiful curb appeal and that will surely bring the buyers a knockin’ when its time to put your house on the market.
