CHAPTER 6
OUTDOOR IMPROVEMENTS Curb appeal is undeniably critical when it comes to making or breaking the sale of your home. Having your front yard in pristine condition will give you a leg up in the buyer’s opinion of your home. IMPROVING YOUR FRONT YARD Landscaping plays a key role in curb appeal, and is generally the first impression that a buyer gets. Properly planning your landscape is an absolute must in swaying a buyer’s decision, and in potentially raising the value of your home If you don’t believe that landscaping is the icing on the cake, consider these statistics: • 90% of all real estate agents encourage their clients to invest in having their landscape cleaned up prior to putting their home on the market. • Having a beautiful landscape can increase your property’s estimated value by 12% on average, and will increase your resale value by up to 14%. • Your home will spend as much as six fewer weeks on the market. • If you spend 5% of your home’s value on landscaping, the ROI can be 150%, if not more. However, before you start planting flower beds and trees, sit down and plan on paper what exactly you will do with your front yard to step up your landscape game. YOUR LANDSCAPING PLAN Start by constructing a list of what you’d like to incorporate into your front yard based on what you already have. For example, do you have a stone
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