When selling a home, your home’s landscaping could be your best advertisement. If potential homebuyers are excited by your home’s curb appeal, you will have a better chance of getting them inside to tour your home and eventually make an offer. Home staging services and real estate agents agree that curb appeal is of utmost importance when selling a home, so be sure to create an effective plan for your property by using the following landscaping ideas to sell your home.

Tackle Simple Landscaping to Sell Your Home

If you have a lawn, clean it up. Of all of the landscaping ideas to sell your home, this is one of the most obvious. If you’ve been mowing regularly to a height of about two inches, you should have a nicely maintained lawn. Mowing too low can cause shallow root growth and make your lawn more susceptible to drought and weeds. Weeds are more prone to grow in areas where the lawn is weak. Patch brown spots in the grass by raking and over-seeding any bald spots in your lawn. It is also important to reduce soil compaction. Use sidewalks to walk to your front entryway rather than walking across your lawn. Repeated patterns of use across your lawn can compact the soil and leave tracks where grass will not grow. A well-established lawn can enhance your home’s curb appeal, and home staging services, real estate agents, and even potential homebuyers know that a well-maintained lawn will help sell a home faster than a brown one full of weeds.

Clear and fix driveways, sidewalks and patios. Potential homebuyers notice things like dirty paving, moss-covered sidewalks, and cracked concrete. If needed, pressure-wash driveways, patios, and sidewalks before putting your home on the market. If you have large cracks in sidewalks or driveways, consider patching or replacing them. Do whatever you need to do to show potential homebuyers that you’re serious about your home’s maintenance.

Keep leaves and other debris picked up. Don’t force a potential homebuyer to walk over grass clippings, leaves, branches or pine cones. The more tidy your home’s landscaping, the easier it will be to sell your home.

Let color help you when selling a home. Colorful flowers generally create an attractive landscape, but yellow can be especially helpful as it may encourage a buying mood, so plant yellow flowers near the entryway.

Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in Winter

Experienced landscape architects and garden designers know that one of the first seasons to design for is winter. This is when your home’s garden is at its most stark and dreary. If your home is on the market in winter and you haven’t planned for this, there are landscaping ideas to sell your home even as the days grow shorter. When it comes to home staging, real estate agents will tell you that staging your home in winter is extremely important.

Keep snow and ice at bay. The top tip from home staging services and real estate agents: If the potential home buyer can’t get in easily, the house won’t sell. As stated above, this means keeping walkways and driveways free of ice and snow.

Take advantage of natural light. As much as possible, show your home during the high-daylight hours. If you show your home after work in the winter, you’ll be completely in the dark and potential homebuyers won’t be able to see how your landscaping adds to the curb appeal of your home. If you must show your home at night in the winter months, turn on all the lights so your home glows and invites potential homebuyers from the street.

Play up seasonal scents. Set the scene and help the buyers see themselves living happily in your home. Consider placing a basket of cinnamon-scented pine cones by the entryway. Once potential homebuyers are inside, offer them apple cider or hot chocolate. At this time of year, appeal to the senses that make potential homebuyers feel cozy and warm, like they have found a “home.”

Put lights on timers. You can’t be home all the time and you want your home to look warm and welcoming whenever prospective buyers drive past. Put indoor and outdoor lights on timers. Inspect the outdoor lighting around the door. Is there enough light to make it feel inviting and safe? If not, get the fixtures changed or have new ones added.

Prune deciduous shrubs and trees. In winter, while deciduous trees and shrubs are dormant and without leaves, is the best time to prune. Don’t let overgrown vegetation block the windows or path to the entrance. Cutting back shrubs and tree limbs will let the sun inside and showcase the exterior of your home. Be cautious, though, and don’t overdo it! The value of a tree in your yard can be significant, and no potential homebuyer wants to see a tree with lopped off branches. If you don’t understand proper pruning, hire a home staging service or experienced arborist to tackle this important landscaping task.

Landscaping to Sell Your Home in the Fall

Home sales tend to slow down during the fall when kids go back to school and temperatures start to drop. If you’re selling your home in the fall, you need to take extra measures to stage your home and make it stand out above others on the market. If you’re home-staging to sell your house in the fall, consider the following landscaping ideas to sell your home:

Stay on top of raking, raking, and more raking. The landscaping needed to sell your home in the fall involves both color and persistence. Fall color can add the curb appeal needed when it comes to the all-important “first impression.”  Deciduous trees, like Katsura or Japanese maple, turning shades of crimson and gold, can add extra appeal to the total look of your home’s exterior. Leaves strewn across your front yard, however, can decrease your home’s visual appeal. Creating curb appeal is on of the top 10 tips when selling a home, and in the fall you’ll need dedicated maintenance to give your home a tidy appearance.

Celebrate the season. Add a fall wreath to the front door or place a few huge pumpkins or a fall display on your front entryway to welcome potential homebuyers.

Landscaping to Sell Your House in the Summer

Keep your lawn maintained. Brown patches on lawns ruin the effect of a beautiful garden, so keep grass as green as possible. If you’ve tackled the lawn maintenance tips offered above and you’re still stuck with a brown patch as potential home buyers are about to arrive, strategically place some garden furniture or a birdbath on top of those unsightly lawn blemishes.

Make your landscape feel like an exterior room. Clear patio paving of any debris and use outdoor furniture to make your backyard space feel like an inviting oasis. If you’re having an open house, place an aluminum bucket of ice full of bottled water at the entryway.

Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in Spring

Spring is the best time to sell a home. Inventory almost always rises in the spring because the largest number of potential homebuyers actively searching for a new home occurs during the months of April, May and June.

If your home has been on the market since the holidays, consider taking it off the market for a few weeks and then putting it back on the market. Nobody is going to look at your home in the spring if it’s been on the market for several months. Potential homebuyers gravitate toward fresh, new listings.

Here are some landscaping ideas to sell your home in spring:

Mow diagonally and edge your lawn along driveways, sidewalks, and planting beds. Manicured lawns and edging tell potential homebuyers you pay attention to small details and care about the maintenance of your home. Mowing diagonally creates an optical illusion and makes your lawn seem larger.

Transplant tulips and daffodils or buy flowers in containers. Yellow can stimulate buying urges. After a long winter, potential homebuyers are anxious to see the first signs of spring. Yellow tulips and daffodils induce feelings of happiness and contentment. Arrange containers in a grouping of three near the entrance.

Place a welcome mat out for cleaning shoes and an umbrella stand at the entryway. When it comes to weather, spring can be very unpredictable. In some areas, one day it can be 75 degrees and snowing the next. If it’s raining, give potential homebuyers a place to stash umbrellas and wipe their feet before entering your home.

Curb appeal can do a lot of your marketing for you. Utilize all of these landscaping ideas to sell your home and you will be showing your home to its fullest potential!