Landscaping and yard upkeep are critical to preparing your home for sale. Think . . . : Curb Appeal
If you’re trying to sell your home in today’s buyer’s market, it’s important to understand the importance of attractive, well-maintained landscaping, experts say.
The inventory of homes for sale is high compared to the number of serious buyers, and real estate agents say house hunters are shopping by a process of elimination, looking for any excuse to narrow their options.
Seemingly minor flaws, such as weedy flower beds or Bermuda grass in the lawn, may cripple your chances of a successful showing in the first minutes. Your landscaping doesn’t have to be magazine quality, but it should be neat and clean.
Studies by the American Assn. of Nurserymen suggest that homes can actually sell for a higher price when the landscape appears to be well cared for.
It’s difficult to view your own yard objectively. But it’s essential to see your home through the eyes of a potential buyer. Century 21 real estate agent Lucianne Zanella of Sacramento felt this way about her home, an 1,800-square-foot house built in the 1940s and situated in an established neighborhood. On the market for $250,000, it would have to stand out cleanly to interest finicky buyers.
“I knew there was only a 6% chance of selling it in the current market,” she said. “So I hired an interior decorator for a few hours, and she suggested many ways to improve the visual quality of both the indoor and outdoor spaces. Within three weeks after completing the work, I sold the house for the asking price. The decorator was much better able to see the house as a potential buyer would, and her fee, as well as the price of improvements, not only clinched the sale but did so in a very short time.”
Zanella’s decorator focused on more than just interior improvements. She was also concerned about how the landscape appeared to buyers when viewed through windows of the house. Although not professionally trained in landscaping, she was able to apply the basic principles of good design and made helpful suggestions.
Does your fencing appear old and rundown? Are planters weedy or cluttered with leaves? Perhaps the utility area should be screened from view. It’s money well spent to hire a landscape professional for a few hours to help you realistically evaluate the quality of your outdoor spaces. Landscape architects, designers and landscape contractors can quickly spot potential eyesores.
Once you have defined the problems in your landscape, the goal is to solve them as quickly and completely as possible. The following quick fixes are organized from the least costly to the most expensive.
1. Inject the landscape with a liberal dose of annual color.
“I’m not much of a gardener,” said Bill Miller, a supply sergeant with the California National Guard. “But it was easy to buy flowers at a home-improvement store and plant them where shrubs had died out. I believe this and other small improvements made the sale.”
Miller discovered what professional landscapers have long known--that brilliant annual flowers can make even the worst yard appear well cared for.
In Southern California, many annual bedding plants grow and bloom profusely even during the winter months. With this ideal climate, using annual color is one of the most effective ways to improve landscape quality.
Think hard about where you plant to take maximum advantage of what a buyer sees when touring the house. The view from the kitchen windows is important and is guaranteed to be noticed by any person who spends much time there. Clustering plants around the front door is inviting and improves first-impression curb appeal.
One recommendation the decorator suggested to Zanella was to plant terra cotta pots with petunias to spice up her dull brick patio. Pots were also placed around a private patio hidden at the rear of the yard, which helped point it out to home shoppers and caused them to appreciate the full depth of the lot.
If you have no convenient planters, buy and fill pots with annuals and place them in strategic places. However, you must keep these potted plants in top form, which requires frequent watering, especially during Santa Ana winds and hot weather.
The real key to success is using lots of plants, so the mass of color is bold enough to catch the eye. Don’t buy one six-pack of marigolds. Buy five or more to yield 30 blooming plants. Use fast-growing annuals to fill bare spots between shrubs, hide utilities and put a border of color around the edge of the lawn. Although more expensive, the best immediate effect is obtained from plants purchased in extra-large six-packs or four-inch pots.
2. Paint or stain the fence.
Many homes have fences that enclose the rear yard on three sides. It is often the largest single element in the landscape and can have a profound effect on the overall character of the yard. Repairs, changes of wood type, damage from pets and even color seeping through the cracks from the neighbor’s paint job can make a fence appear rundown.
Building a new fence is far too expensive, but a quick fix can be made by evening out the color. This helps to unify spans of different fencing styles that result when portions have been replaced over the years.
Use exterior latex paint in neutral tones to cover old redwood stain or remnants of a fading paint job. If the fence is naturally weathered, a heavy body stain contains enough pigment to disguise inconsistencies, such as rust stains from nails, but still allows the wood grain to show through. Colors like almond, beige, grays, white wash and light browns are the best.
Do not use the red-tinted “redwood” stains, because they do not simulate redwood and clash with everything around them.
3. Give each planter a face lift.
Bedding areas throughout the landscape may have lots of bare space, either between plants or under old shrubs where foliage has died out.
Professional landscapers know the value of ground bark as a cover-all for newly disturbed ground. This technique is a guaranteed shot in the arm for your landscape as well.
Ground fir or redwood bark is sold in a variety of sizes, with half-inch being ideal for this purpose. It is easy to work with and should be spread in a layer at least two inches deep to ensure even coverage. If you plan to use bark along with annual color for twice the effect, plant the annuals after you spread the bark.
You can purchase ground bark bagged up and ready to use at most home-improvement centers. If you have a large area to cover, it’s more convenient and economical to buy in bulk from a landscape-materials supplier and have it delivered.
4. Screen off an ugly view.
Almost every yard has spots that are unattractive, such as a utility area that contains garbage cans, firewood, bicycles or recreational vehicles. A screen fence is the perfect solution for hiding these ugly corners when you don’t have time to wait for a hedge to grow.
Screen fences may be attached to buildings or can be free-standing, depending on your needs. They may be left natural, painted or stained. Solid fence panels screen the view completely and are the easiest to build but will decrease the perceived size of the yard. Screens constructed with lattice or other semi-transparent material block most of the view yet allow light to pass through and maintain the sense of space.
5. Sod the lawn.
Prospective buyers cringe at the sight of a weed-infested lawn no matter how green it is, and Zanella knew hers was a problem. “My front lawn had grown patchy from shade, and you could see the roots of my beautiful sycamore trees on top of the ground. The decorator suggested I have it sodded, and when it was done, the house looked so much better.”
Laying a sod lawn is easier now than ever, said John Rector of Pacific Sod in Camarillo, the Southland’s largest sod producer. The firm has developed a new method of growing sod on plastic, without soil.
“When the sod is harvested, the lack of soil makes it much lighter and easier to handle,” Rector said. “Roots aren’t damaged by cutting, so the plants recover much more quickly. Sodding an existing lawn with thinner [sod] means you don’t have to remove as much surface material to meet grade properly.”
This last factor makes soil-less sod ideal for a quick fix. The process of preparing the area to accept sod is far more labor-intensive than the act of laying sod. You must dig out the remains of the old lawn to drop the grade enough to meet the sidewalks properly. The thickness of traditional sod requires the soil to be about an inch lower than it would be when soil-less sod is used. This new type of sod becomes established more quickly and is subjected to less transplant shock.
6. Plant a big shade tree.
Bob Moore, a San Fernando Valley landscape contractor, suggested that Paul Esnard, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, have a very large specimen tree planted in the front yard of his Calabasas home. Esnard is convinced that the tree increased the number of interested buyers and eventually helped to sell the house.
“When you drove up, the western exposure made the house look really hot and dry,” Esnard said. “Bob brought in a huge boxed olive and supervised having it planted. It not only cooled the front of the house, but made the entry more inviting.”
In front yards, trees help to frame and separate houses. They increase privacy in back yards and make these spaces more comfortable during the warmer months.
Buying and installing a boxed tree is a big job, but the effect on the quality of your landscaping is dramatic. Contact a reputable landscape contractor to help you decide on the right variety and select a healthy specimen. Planting boxed trees is usually not a do-it-yourself project. When a contractor buys and plants the tree, he or she takes all responsibility and guarantees its survival. Even though the service costs more, it’s worth the expense.
Big specimen trees are priced according to the container box size; the smallest is 24 inches square and will cost about $350 plus installation. The containers graduate upward to as large as 108 inches. Labor prices for handling and planting vary, depending on the size of the tree and the equipment required to plant it.
Don’t give prospective buyers an excuse to reject your home because of a cosmetic problem with your landscape. After all, wouldn’t you rather spend $500 (or less) on landscape improvements than lose $5,000 or more when you’re forced to drop the price . . . again?
Gilmer is a landscape designer and the author of seven books on gardening and landscaping. She lives in Yuba County.
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Instant Color: Annual Bedding Plants
The plants on this list are fast and easy to grow, bloom profusely and provide vivid color. They are designated as either tender summer annuals or winter plants that survive and bloom through occasional frosts. All are widely available at garden centers, home-improvement stores and many other retail plant sellers.
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Plant Season Height Exposure Ageratum summer 8” sun/part shade Bedding dahlia summer 14” sun Dwarf calendula winter 12” sun Cosmos summer 36” sun Impatiens summer 14” shade/part shade Dwarf marigold summer 12” sun Pansy/viola winter 12” sun/part shade Petunia summer 14” sun Scarlet sage summer 20” sun Dwarf snapdragon winter 14” sun Sweet alyssum summer/winter 6” sun Vinca summer/winter 12” sun/part shade Dwarf zinnia summer 10” sun
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