Curb appeal gets a lot of attention on home improvement TV shows, but you might not think about it day to day. When you’re listing your house for sale, though, making your home look appealing to prospective buyers becomes crucial. The landscaping in front of your home is one of the first things people see when they pass your home or view your real estate listing.
The good news? Curb appeal landscaping requires less effort than you might think. Not only can a little landscaping help make the right first impression on potential buyers—it may even raise the overall value of your home.
Learn what you need to know about making a profitable investment in landscaping before you sell your home.
The Connection Between Landscaping and Property Value
Landscaping plays a bigger role in overall property value than you might assume. It’s all about the return on investment (ROI) you get from the sale. For example, you can make many changes to your home’s landscaping for under $100 that add more than that to your final sale price. The key is avoiding big projects that cost a lot while adding little value to the home.
Unless there’s an eyesore in your yard, such as a sinkhole that needs filling, focus on targeting high-value spots to increase your property value. The estimated ROI of landscaping varies, but proper adjustments could boost your property value by 5% to 12%.
Curb appeal landscaping doesn’t just affect home value. It’s also an important psychological factor in encouraging buyers to come in and imagine themselves living there. Buyers are often drawn to homes with deciduous plants in the front yard, so dressing up a plain lawn with carefully placed bushes, trees, and flowers can have a big impact.
Essential Landscaping Features for Maximum Impact
From planting beautiful, low-maintenance shrubs to giving your lawn some TLC, let’s look at how you can invest in landscaping to boost your home’s value and curb appeal.
Low-Maintenance Plants and Greenery
Deciduous plants offer the greatest increase in home value, especially in areas with native deciduous trees and bushes. Many homeowners assume that evergreen plants offer the most value because they’re green year-round. However, deciduous plants’ beautiful bold colors tend to appeal more to buyers.
It’s also important to choose native and drought-resistant plants, which reduces the amount of water and care necessary to keep the plant healthy for years to come.
Every area has different plants that thrive in that climate, but common minimal maintenance landscaping recommendations include:
- Barberry shrubs with colorful foliage
- Sterile butterfly bushesthat won’t spread thanks to the lack of seeds
- Mahonia shrubs which are evergreen but so beautiful they’re worth adding
- Smoke trees with colorful and delicate foliage
- Flowering Hawthorns, preferably the thornless kind
Hardscaping Elements
In addition to curb appeal landscaping—the living, leafy plants—consider the hardscaping around your home’s exterior. Hardscaping includes all the hard or durable surfaces you need to get around the yard, including pathways, patios, border edges for flower beds, and water features. These details add to the aesthetic appeal of your landscaping and improve the functionality of your outdoor spaces.
Seasonal Color and Flower Beds
While deciduous plants are the most desirable to buyers, they lose their leaves in winter—and a yard of bare trees and bushes won’t attract many buyers. Consider the look of the landscaping in all seasons by incorporating other types of plants, trees, and seasonal flowers.
Strategic planting of evergreen plants helps your yard look full and lush even in the winter. Add a pop of color with perennial flowers, or create an eye-catching shape in the design for each season, whether with colorful leaves or striking branches.
Lawn Care and Maintenance
Of course, your lawn plays a big role in curb appeal landscaping. Unless you’ve eliminated your grass in favor of a meadow-style planting or a dry xeriscape, you’ll want to keep the turf as lush and healthy as possible.
Plan to give your lawn a major overhaul with dethatching, overseeding, and fertilizing this spring before you put your home up for sale. If you don’t have much warning, apply a low-level mid-season fertilizer and water regularly to encourage new green growth.
Treat any brown spots or dead patches by either filling in with sod or adding another landscaping feature like a birdbath or flower barrel.
Budget-Friendly Landscaping Tips
There are many DIY landscaping projects you can tackle yourself to increase your ROI. You can use recycled or low-cost materials and still achieve a professional look with some know-how.
Consider contacting local nurseries, garden centers, and landscape designers to see if you can get a discount or consultation to help guide your project. A quick design consultation with a designer who knows you want to DIY the work could help you save thousands while still giving you the curb appeal you need.
How to Appeal to Local Buyers
Local real estate market demands and preferences for landscaping should take priority over general trends or other considerations. Your home’s landscaping should blend in with the overall aesthetics of your neighborhood whenever possible. For example, a home on a street planted with stately shade trees and surrounded by flower beds may stand out too much if it’s surrounded by tall bamboo groves.
Your climate and region largely determine what you can plant. Learn about your USDA temperature zone to know which plants won’t die off in the winter and leave you disappointed next spring.
Sustainability and Eco-Friendly Landscaping
Don’t forget to consider the long-term upkeep and sustainability of your newly landscaped yard. Adding a rain garden to capture and use the water that runs off your roof can save on future water bills.
You don’t necessarily need a lush green lawn to boost your curb appeal, especially if you live in an area without much rainfall. An irrigation-free xeriscape design that includes drought-tolerant plants minimizes water use without sacrificing beauty.
Eco-friendly solar-powered lighting can highlight your landscaping—and make your yard safer—in a sustainable way.
The Bottom Line
Investing in curb appeal landscaping doesn’t just make your home look good now—it could boost your home’s value and attract more prospective buyers. Whether you work with a professional landscaper or simply visit your local garden center and make small DIY changes to your yard’s plants, the project can pay off with higher offers when you sell your home.
Need help finding your dream home or preparing your property for sale? Nestfully’s got you covered. Download the app to connect with a local agent or start searching today.
