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When sellers are gearing up to put up the “for sale” sign, they often divert a lot of their attention to the house itself. They might add in a new backsplash or cabinets in the kitchen, the heart of the house. They may even retile the master bathroom or give the living room a new touch of paint. The bottom line is, that most sellers spend a lot of time with last-minute checks and upgrades to entice prospective buyers.
Understandably so, but there are also several ways to make your home more appealing in the great outdoors. The backyard is sometimes an afterthought–as long as it’s well maintained, it’s going to help the house sell is most seller’s thoughts. While it’s important to keep your backyard neat and clean for curb appeal, there are some very easy ways to update your backyard and make the sale even easier, potentially adding to your bottom line at the end.
10 Easy Ways to Update Your Backyard
1. Create a Small Space for Entertaining
This can be as simple or sophisticated as your budget and the size of your yard allow. You don’t need to have a premium outdoor fireplace and luxury furniture–if you have a patio or maintained area of your yard. Simply setting up some basic chairs and tables to create a space for gathering or entertaining will enhance your backyard.
If the furniture is a little beat up, you can give it a little revival with a fresh coat of paint or new cushions. As potential buyers tour your home, they’ll automatically envision themselves with their family and friends in your cozy little entertainment spot, and it’ll help sell that much faster.
2. Spruce Up the Flowers to Update Your Backyard
Whether you have a pool, a deck, a patio, or all or none of the above, your backyard can always benefit from a splash of flowers. If you’re already a proud green thumb with oodles of thriving plants and flowers, then go ahead and skip this step. But if not, you can buy some large, nice pots at your local nursery or home improvement store, and fill them with fresh, colorful flowers. Almost like makeup enhancing a lady’s natural beauty, some thoughtfully placed flowers will make your backyard pop a little more.
3. Plant Trees
This isn’t quite piggybacking off of the last one. Planting trees will also require a drive to your local nursery, but these aren’t just for vanity. Annual flowers will usually die in winter, but if you plant a tree in your backyard, it could last for decades. Besides adding to your backyard’s appearance, trees can also add to your property’s bottom line.
4. Hide Your Storage Areas
We get it, you need that shed for storing your lawn mower and pool noodles. The truth is that sheds and storage bins can sometimes be eye sores. If you happen to have one, we recommend giving it a coat of paint in a neutral shade that doesn’t draw the eye in (instead, it’ll hone in on your beautiful flowers!), or see if you can cover it behind some trees or large shrubs.
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5. Outdoor Lighting
Outdoor lighting is fairly simple to set up these days, with selections of smart lamps and solar-powered lights. Outdoor lighting not only adds aesthetics to your backyard (or front yard too), but also utility and value to your bottom line. Use outdoor lighting to accentuate the big beautiful trees you’ve added, or that cozy entertainment spot you’ve set up. Smart lights will cost more upfront, but almost certainly add to your home’s value at the end of the day.
6. Mulch
This is similar to our recommendations about buying new flowers. Mulch too is a temporary but very nice little touch. Mulch can often be bought in bulk fairly cheaply at your local home improvement store, and you don’t need to go crazy buying the nicest spread available. Just pick something that fits the palette of your backyard, and doesn’t draw too much attention. This is also a great way to spruce up your front yard and catch the attention of would-be buyers.
7. Stone Steps
Stepping stones are a very easy way to add an air of elegance to your yard. You can make a stepping stone pathway with a few decorative stones, and the leftover mulch from the previous recommendation. Simply spread the mulch of your choosing over the area you’d like the path, and then plunk down the stones. There’s something especially charming about a stepping stone pathway, and they’re much cheaper than having a professional mason come in and put in pavers. Even if you don’t go the stepping stone route, there are still tons of ways to incorporate beautiful stones into your backyard’s design ethos.
8. A Fountain
Let’s be honest, everyone loves to look and listen to a fountain. There’s something so soothing and aesthetic about the sound and sight of water flowing through a fountain. You don’t need a humongous, city-square fountain to jazz up your yard. You can buy a very nice little fountain to place on your deck or patio, or in your garden, off the Internet. Simply wire it up and fill it with water, and it’ll basically sell itself by pulling in the prospective buyers with its zen. Again, you don’t need to go overboard and buy the fanciest fountain on the market–just make sure that it fits in with the design language of your backyard.
9. Birdhouses or Nest Boxes
If you’ve been reading along to this point, you’re probably understanding that most of this list is nice, simple touches you can add to make your backyard that much more charming. The same goes here. Like with stone steps, plants, and fountains, we’re recommending little updates to your backyard to make it worth every penny.
Birdhouses or NestBoxes are another way to add a little more charm, regardless of the size or aesthetics of your yard. Birdhouses can be as big and goofy as you like, but they’ll still possess the same cute charm. Head down to your local home improvement store, or go on Etsy and support a small business–hundreds of arts-and-crafts people and carpenters sell kooky birdhouses. Nab some for yourself and nail them up in your yard. The birds’ singing will easily charm prospective buyers into closing on your home.
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10. Fire Pit
Humans love lighting fires and telling stories in the backyard. You don’t need to buy a big fancy one–though you certainly could. You can also build a DIY one:: all you need are building stones or bricks, and some time and patience. It’s a fairly cheap way of elevating your backyard. A nicely built fire pit can be the focal point of your backyard, with the stone path and outdoor lighting you’ve installed all leading to it. Make sure you have some furniture to place around it and throw in a bag of marshmallows for your buyers to enjoy!
We hope this article was helpful to you. What we hope that you understand now is that you don’t need to invest a whole lot of time or money into your backyard to make it more sellable when you’re putting your home up on the market. A few small changes are often more than enough to hook your potential buyers. The bottom line is: don’t forget about your backyard when you put that sign up–show it some love, and it’ll show you an easier sell and possibly more dollars to your bottom line!
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