Simple Tips for Landscaping Your House Before a Sale

You've found a realtor, decided on a sale price and started painting and cleaning the inside of your house. But there is more to consider when you are trying to sell your house. What about the landscaping? Attractive curb appeal can create a good first impression and get potential buyers through the door. However, an unattractive, unkempt or disheveled exterior will drive potential buyers away in droves. Here are some tips for maximizing your landscaping potential and snagging that sale.

Seek Outside Advice
It can be difficult to be impartial about your house, especially if you have lived there for a considerable length of time. Have a friend, neighbor or family member critique your landscaping. Make sure you find someone who will be critical, yet honest. Have them look for your best and worst landscaping features. Then, play up the best features and work to minimize or improve the worst features.

A Pop of Color
Adding a few strategically placed pops of color can help grab the attention of a potential buyer. Some colorful annuals, trees or ground cover all help create great curb appeal.

Healthy Green Lawn
Buyers want to see a healthy green lawn when purchasing a house. Sprucing up the lawn should always be your first priority in landscaping your house before a sale. The lawn takes the longest time to improve, especially if you are reseeding or getting rid of weeds. When landscaping your lawn, remember to reseed any bare or thin patches of grass, remove weeds, edge, water and mow. If your lawn is a lost cause or you need to sell your house soon, it may be worth the cost of laying sod.

Mulch
Mulch is an inexpensive, quick and easy way to tidy up your landscape. Cedar mulch adds a pleasing smell and its deep red color can help make your lawn and other plants pop.

Pruning
If buyers see an unkempt yard, they may assume the rest of the house has been poorly maintained. Make sure you trim and prune all trees and shrubs near your home when landscaping your house before a sale. Deciduous trees can be pruned any time of year. Cut down any tree limbs that are touching the roof of your house. Also remember to get rid of grass and weeds growing between concrete or bricks in your driveway or sidewalk.

Foundation Plantings
If your house has no foundation plantings or plants near you house, it may look uninviting to a potential buyer. Adding just a few strategically placed plantings will help attract a buyer.

Consider Removing Something
Sometimes pruning just won't do the trick. Perhaps you have some misplaced shrubs or odd plantings that are detracting from the attractiveness of your landscaping. Removing something can be more effective than adding something to your landscape. An over landscaped yard is just as unappealing as an under landscaped yard. Buyers usually have a hard time visualizing changes, so take the guess work out of it for them.

Clean Up & Declutter
It is very important to clean up and declutter the exterior of your house when landscaping your house before a sale. Make sure you wash the windows, rake and dispose of leaves, power wash the deck and exterior of your house, clean gutters and store lawn and garden implements out of sight and away from the critical eyes of buyers.

Curb Appeal Projects
Completing just a few inexpensive curb appeal projects is a great idea when landscaping your house before a sale. If a whole house paint job is out of the question, consider painting the trim, doors, windows or fence. Wash everything you can and make it shine. Consider power washing the driveway, deck, sidewalk, or fence. Make the exterior of your house sharp and clean.

Don't Forget the Backyard
Sure, most buyers will only see the front yard before a showing, but a neglected backyard can blow a sale. Potential buyers will eventually check out your house's rear view, so impress them. Give the backyard as much TLC as the front yard. If buyers can see your backyard from another street or a neighbor's driveway, make sure you check out that view.

Light Up the Night
Buyers will cruise by your house at night, so light the way for them to be dazzled. Use inexpensive low-voltage lighting strategically lining the driveway, sidewalk or highlighting your best landscaping features or patio. Add a street lamp. Drive by your house at night for buyer's-eye view. Remember, don't overspend. The key here is to focus the attention of potential buyers on the best outdoor features of your house so you can sell it. Save the expensive lighting for your new home.

Sources
HGTV
homerepair.about.com/od/workingwithcontractors1/a/roi_curb_appeal.htm
homebuying.about.com/cs/sellerarticles/a/curb_appeal.htm