Landscaping to Sell Your House: Top 6 Tips for Homeowners in Idaho Falls


Selling your house? You’re probably surrounded by cans of paint and busy clearing out closets.

Don’t forget your front yard. Landscaping plays a huge part in selling a house.

Think about it. Potential homebuyers see your lawn, your garden beds and your front walkway long before they get a peek at that half bath you just remodeled.

But you don’t want to invest a ton of money in a house you’re leaving, right?  At the same time, you know your home will sell faster and for a better price if it has impressive curb appeal.

landscape construction retaining walls raised planters stairs and nice lawn residential home

What are the best landscape projects to increase resale value? And how much of a difference can sprucing up your curb appeal really make?

Put down the paint brush and let’s take a look:

Yes, Landscaping and Home Value Are Connected

Curb appeal landscaping is definitely worth it, experts say. It improves a property’s appearance right away, and that boosts your home value.

Here’s what the pros say:

Landscaping for Curb Appeal: What Should You Tackle First?

How about some easy stuff? Maybe you’re in a hurry, hoping to sell fast, and you don’t want a whole big thing.

1. Tidy Up Out There

Nothing turns off potential home buyers like weeds, overgrown shrubs, and trees with dead branches.

raised container garden with annual flower and grasses in front of a nice landscape

If they spy a scraggly old 20-foot juniper growing next to the front window, they know your yard has been neglected.

If you don’t care enough to maintain the outside, they’ll reason, what kind of neglect lurks inside

Landscaping for curb appeal starts with cleanup.

Landscaping pros can zoom over and get things looking great in no time. A crew will prune overgrown shrubs, blow away leaves and debris, take out dead branches, remove plants that have outgrown their space and get rid of weeds.

2. Add Some Flower Power for Curb Appeal Landscaping

Bare, forlorn planting beds make a house seem sad.

Fill in bare areas with lush perennials like Idaho favorites Karl Foerster reed grass, daylilies and purple-blooming speedwell.

Add bright pops of color with cheerful seasonal annuals.

Read our Detailed Guide to Planning your Landscape Design in Idaho

Top off newly planted beds with a nice dark layer of bark mulch. You’ll be amazed how much better your landscaping looks.

Bonus points if you add some colorful potted annuals in new planters at your front door. Small addition, big impact.

Curb Appeal Landscaping When You Have a Bit More Time

If you have a bit more time to invest in landscaping projects to sell your house, dive into these outdoor improvements:

3. Green Up That Carpet of Lawn

A real estate agent will suggest you plop a fresh new welcome mat on your front porch, but the real welcome mat is your lawn. Prospective buyers see it before they even get out of their car.

If they see a brown, weedy lawn they might assume they’ll have to tear out and sod the whole thing. Too much hassle, too much cost. You’ve lost them at the curb.

landscape maintenance crew member mowing a nice lawn

Lawn care pros can treat your grass with a broadleaf herbicide, then green it up with an overseeding and fertilizing, so you’ll make a great green first impression.

If your lawn has really been neglected and you want an impressive green carpet fast, consider sod installation for instant curb appeal landscaping.

4. Update a Shabby Walkway

Take a stroll up your front walkway. We’ll wait. What kind of a first impression does it make?

A cracked, crumbling concrete walkway says you don’t care. And it’s another set of repair dollar signs a potential home buyer adds to their list.

Landscaping projects to sell your house don't have to be huge.

paver walkway and stairs with shade trees shrubs grasses and raised planting beds in a nice residential landscape

Update your front approach with attractive concrete pavers for an added beauty boost.

5. Impress with Fresh Foundation Plantings

Take a close look at the front of your house. Hmm. Have your foundation plants been there for years? Even decades?

Your foundation plants should offer great curb appeal, enhancing your home’s best features and softening its hard edges.

They should be healthy, appealing, thriving.

When it comes to the best landscape projects to increase resale value, foundation plantings are right up there.

Think variety for the best visual appeal — a mix of plants shaped like mounds, pyramids and pillars. Include textures that are feathery, grassy, and broadleaf for interest.

foundation and walkway plants in front of a nice residential landscape

Make your foundation planting beds deep enough to accommodate eye-catching layers of plants: small ornamental trees or upright evergreens; mid-size shrubs; and perennials, from graceful grasses to low-growing ground covers.

Gold Mound spirea adds great color, with vibrant golden spring foliage, clusters of pink flowers that don’t need pruning, and bright yellow-orange foliage in the fall.

Diablo ninebark offers stunning deep purple foliage.

You can’t go wrong with hosta. Impressive leaf colors include variegated white, lime green, and blue-green. The texture and shape of hosta leaves are also diverse, ranging from smooth and narrow to ridged and heart shaped.

6. Look to Lighting for Curb Appeal Landscaping

Landscape lighting adds an instant element of luxury that home buyers love. And the safety and security it offers is really appealing, too.

Landscape lighting offers a welcoming glow. Even ordinary trees look high end when expertly lit from below. The whole place looks safe and secure.

Read Our Helpful Guide to Landscape Lighting Design

Highlight your home’s unique architecture; light those trees; light your driveway and walkway for safety and appeal. Lighting adds a boost both for landscaping and home value.

nice landscape lighting in a backyard hardscape with patio sitting walls and firepite

Walk up to your front door. Does the lighting offer a warm welcome? Update lighting fixtures that are old, out of style, or too small. Bigger fixtures make a bigger impression.

Don’t Stress: A Plain Yard Is Okay

If you have a big expanse of lawn with limited landscaping, don’t assume you have to add pergolas, pools or multi-level patios.

Homebuyers actually like a clean, blank slate. That way, they can envision the yard with their own personal touches that will make it their own.

But make sure your landscaping is neat and tidy, your lawn is healthy, and your foundation plantings are thriving and up to date.

Need Curb Appeal Landscaping? Trust Outback

Does landscaping help sell a house? It absolutely does.

At Outback Landscape, we have the tools, skills and know-how to spiff up your house in no time, with landscape design in Boise and Idaho Falls meant to impress.

Your landscaping will look so great when we’re done, you might just decide to stay.

Located in Idaho Falls, Idaho, we serve residential and commercial properties in Idaho Falls, Rexburg and Pocatello, Idaho, as well as Bonneville, Madison and Bannock counties.

Contact Outback Landscape at 208-656-3220, or fill out the contact form to schedule an on-site consultation. We’d love to hear from you.

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