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How often do you run into a situation where home sellers are reluctant to update their landscaping? It’s probably more often that you’d like.
Updating landscaping and improving curb appeal of a home gives prospective homebuyers an immediate positive impression. In fact, Texas Tech University researchers found that improving a home’s curb appeal can increase its value by as much as 17 percent in a study earlier this year.
Curb appeal improvements can be as simple as adding furniture to a front patio or updating the front and garage door. Another essential and fairly simple update for home sellers is adding modern and stylish lighting outdoors, which is especially important during the late fall and winter months when more buyers are visiting at night time.
Lawn Starter recently compiled the 50 largest metros in the U.S., measuring the amount of local professionals in lawn care and landscaping as well as local home price trends.
Miami-Fort Lauderdale ranked no. 1 in Lawn Starter’s study, Top 12 Metro Areas for Boosting Curb Appeal. To come up with the scores, Lawn Starter measured eight different factors, which were weighted equally and combined to come up with a final score.
- Painters per 1,000 jobs
- Roofers per 1,000 jobs
- Real estate professionals per 1,000 jobs
- Lawn care specialists per 1,000 jobs
- Landscape architects per 1,000 jobs
- Handymen per 1,000 jobs
- Home price increases annually from Q4 2014 to Q4 2015
Miami had an overall score of 7.93 out of 9. Annual prices increased 7.9 percent, and the city has a consistently high number of works that can help improve a home’s curb appeal. Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa-St. Petersburg also made the list.
Miami, Fla. / Nikolay Tzolov / iStock.com
Riverside-San Bernardino ranked no. 9 on the list with an overall score of 6.43, and San Francisco-Oakland ranked no. 10 with an overall score of 6.35.
Other than Denver and Seattle, all the cities that made the list are known for their warm or mild weather year-long. This trend is pretty unsurprising given outdoor work is available all throughout the year instead of a few select months.
Even in areas of the country that have easy access to professionals that can do the work for your home sellers, you may still feel some push back. Here are a couple simple tips to offer them to improve curb appeal that they can even do on their own.
Go beyond green
It’s simple: add some flowers. Colorful perennials and annuals are a quick and simple way to add a bit of vibrancy to a yard. Go with whatever is in season. Flowers can either be planted right into the ground, or to add a bit of dimension and texture, home sellers can use planters.
Clean it up and keep it simple
Yards with a lot going on may appeal to some homeowners, while others immediately see the amount of time, work and money that go into its upkeep. Make sure your home sellers are aware that even though they love yard work, not everyone does.
When picking flowers, plants and shrubs to add to the landscape, ask home sellers keep in mind the amount of work they will be to keep up during the home selling process and for the new buyers.
