3 Outdoor Trends That Will Send Buyers Running

Making your house as appealing as possible to prospective buyers is your job when you’re selling your home – but what if you’re doing things that buyers absolutely hate?

Check out this list of three outdoor trends buyers can’t stand. Then, talk to your Realtor® about what to do next.

3 Outdoor Trends That Will Send Buyers Running

While your home may not be guilty of any of these outdoor mistakes, they’re good things to be on the lookout for… especially if you’re in the market for a new home yourself:

• Perfectly symmetrical landscaping

• Outdoor lights that flood rather than accent

• Ugly mulch

Perfectly Symmetrical Landscaping

Nature isn’t symmetrical – not even close. You shouldn’t have that goal for your backyard, either, unless you’re selling a tremendous estate that comes with groundskeepers. Each symmetrical line takes an expert touch to maintain, and most buyers don’t want to spend all their spare time manicuring the yard. Your best bet is to add some curved lines to planted flower beds to create a more natural appearance.

Outdoor Lights That Flood Rather Than Accent

There’s a place for floodlights – but it’s not at the bottom of a tree or other landscape feature. The lights in your backyard shouldn’t be blinding. Consider this: Most buyers view the yard as an extension of the home, and they plan to use it as outdoor living space. That means you want soft accent lighting rather than bright spotlights to illuminate features.

Ugly Mulch

Unnatural mulch colors can be a big turn-off for buyers. And even though some gardening hobbyists believe that red or black mulch is better for some plants, science says otherwise. In fact, colored landscape mulch, which contains dye, usually comes from poor sources like recycled wood pallets – and they can be treated with toxic chemicals that can actually harm your plants. If you have mulch, stick to natural – they’ll decompose at just the right rate for your plants, and they don’t tend to starve new growth like colored mulch can.

Are You Selling a Home in Lakewood or Long Beach?

If you’re selling a home in Lakewood or Long Beach, we can help. Call us at 562-882-1581 to find out how we’ll market your house to all the right buyers so you can sell it quickly and at the right price.