Yards can be outdoor family rooms and are becoming a more and more important element for those of us that like to spend time outside and provide a safe place for our kids and pets to play outside as well. Merging indoor with outdoor living to increase living space is a huge trend right now and will in most cases increase the value of your home and make it more desirable to home buyers as well as yourself.
Adding curb appeal is something also commonly talked about when discussing ways that living landscapes can add value to your property. A first impression is very important to most home buyers and the front yard and front entry is the ticket. Studies show that improving curb appeal by beautifying the lawn and front landscape can boost property values by as much as 17 percent.
The third way to make your living landscape work for you is by adding trees. Mature trees are a positive point for home buyers. According to the Society of Arboriculture, each mature front yard tree adds 1 percent to a homeowner's sale price and a large specimen tree can add as much as 10 percent to a property's value. That 1 percent may not seem like much, but given that the usual commission of a real estate agent working for you receives 3 percent of the sale price, that little tree investment is pretty awesome. The research suggests that if you plant 3 trees to increase your price by 3 percent, then you've technically paid for a real estate professional to help you with the contracts, deadlines, and hassle of selling your home.
The other top four method to add value with living landscapes is to actually plant and nurture them. Living landscapes impact monthly utility bills. The U.S. Department of Agriculture tells us that strategically placed trees can save up to 56% on annual air conditioning bills and in the winter, evergreens that block winter winds can save 3% on heating costs. Even your lawn is beneficial and can impact your energy efficiency. According to the Alliance for Water Efficiency, cumulatively, eight average sized front lawns can provide the cooling equivalent to air-conditioning for 18 homes.
So as you decide what living landscape projects you want to undertake to increase your property value as well as your own outdoor family happiness, consider these statistics from the National Association of Realtors:
Seeding the family yard will recover 417% of the project cost.
Updating a landscape with sod will result in a 143% recovery of costs.
Adding a new patio will recover 102% of the investment.
Building a new wooden deck will recover 106% of the project cost.
It looks like any beautification or enhancement to your outdoor living space will pay off financially as well as let you enjoy the great outdoors to a fuller extent.
To read the full article I found about this topic, please go to www.LivingLandscapes.Matter.com.
Brought to you by Heath Harvey @ HeathsHomes.com
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