Outdoor Improvements That Boost Your Utah Home's Curb Appeal

Theresa Lovett is a home stager and landscape design writer. She loves entertaining and playing in her backyard, but she hates yard work. She recently added a bigger patio and pool so she’d have less grass to mow.
www.lawnstarter.com

Utah is a dream for those who love the great outdoors, especially during winter’s ski season. Showcasing your yard lets visitors and neighbors know you’re in tune with the natural aesthetics of the Beehive State.

Boost your Utah home’s curb appeal with a few improvements that won’t break the bank. Getting the house ready to sell takes a plan and a willingness to see the home through the eyes of a would-be buyer.   

Curb Appeal

Mowing the lawn, trimming trees, and cleaning up debris are all part of a basic, yet important maintenance routine. But the idea of "curb appeal" goes much further than well-kept landscaping. Here's a list of easy, DIY projects.

  • Repair, paint, or replace the mailbox, and plant flowers around it
  • Paint or stain window frames, railings, flower boxes, wooden steps, and entryways (Painting the door black may raise the selling price by as much as $6,000). 
  • Purchase large, legible house numbers for the front door
  • Powerwash the driveway and walkways
  • Shine or replace outdoor hardware (knobs, window pulls, and the like)
  • Replace outdoor light fixtures. (New LED lighting is energy-efficient and may reduce your electric bill). If you can’t purchase new lights, clean the old fixtures 
  • Place solar light sticks along the drive and walkways.

Color of Nature

Bigtooth maple

Utah’s natural beauty surrounds your home every day. Flowering trees and shrubs show off shades of springtime blooms in red, pink, white, purple, and yellow. Deciduous trees on your property sparkle with fall colors – oranges, reds, maroons, purples, browns, and then some. Plant native trees like bigtooth maple, hawthorn, juniper, and aspen to bring out the spectacular colors of Utah in order to showcase the perimeter of your home.      

Rain Gardens

Front yards are perfect for rain gardens -- they’ll attract pollinating insects and birds to flowers like daylilies and coreopsis. Placing a rain garden in the right spot -- away from the house -- cuts down on soil erosion. The best part? After digging and planting a low-maintenance rain garden, you’ll have less grass to mow.  

Rock Gardens

Finely-tuned lawns are nice to look at, but you can make your home stand out with sculpted front-facing landscaping and a rock garden. With variously-sized rocks surrounding a flat piece of land (and a few strategically placed stones inside the perimeter), planting drought-resistant plants for Utah’s arid climate and cold winters doesn't cost much (especially when you DIY).  Embellish the garden with flat tile pavers, a birdfeeder, birdbath, and suncatcher.    

Container Gardens​​

Container Flower Pots

Sweeten the pot with colorful flowers, vegetables, and ornamental grasses growing in large and small outdoor containers. These visuals give off a “homey” vibe for visitors, and you can place the containers in different locations. Move the containers indoors when the weather gets colder.  

Fencing

In today’s housing market, buyers with children and pets are looking for houses with fenced yards. Wood, glass blocks, steel, iron, and high privacy hedges give the home a cozy feel, especially if you have a deck, patio, fire pit, pergola, or outdoor kitchen. Before hiring a contractor or buying any kind of fencing, check with your local municipality and HOA to determine applicable fencing rules.

Water Utopia

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Even in Utah’s dry climate, a waterfall, fountain, or pond is a nice distraction for homeowners, especially after a long day. Fountains filter and recycle their own water, and they’ll attract birds and butterflies for a drink. Ponds should be at least 40 cubic feet wide to keep the water clean. If you DIY, dig the pond at least 50 feet away from the house.

Through the magic of the internet, buyers have probably seen the inside of your house. Having attractive curb appeal is essential -- an outside mess is a red flag to buyers who don’t want to spend time or money getting the place in shape. By boosting your curb appeal, you’re appealing to buyers who want to spend time enjoying their home… not working on it.

 

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