Danny Griffin
The Griffin Realty Group
1436 Route 132, Hyannis, MA02601
Danny GriffinO: 508-362-1444C: 774-836-6172

Today's News and Features

Pro Tips: How Your Yard Can Make or Break Curb Appeal

Friday, September 13, 2019

Take it from some of social media’s top influencers: a carefully cultivated yard can cast your home in a whole new light for prospective homebuyers.

A survey of high-profile lawn and garden social media accounts, conducted by outdoor power-equipment purveyors Troy-Bilt, revealed that the key to achieving curb appeal before selling is beautifying the outdoors. In fact, there are more than 486K pieces of #curbappeal content currently circulating on Instagram.

The good news is that influencers agree: Good curb appeal is both design and maintenance simple. Here are some specific tips from the following social media stars who participated in the survey:

- Amy Andrychowicz, Get Busy Gardening
- Rochelle Greayer, Pith + Vigor
- Eric Rochow, GardenFork
- Erin Schanen, The Impatient Gardener

Greayer: "Good maintenance and simplicity will go farther than trying to redesign your yard. Think of your house like a face: it needs to be washed and cleaned, and then you can take it to the next level with just a little makeup."

This means keeping up with routine tasks like weeding, edging, mowing and pruning, along with adding subtle touches of color from container plants to draw the eye to areas of the yard you want to highlight.

Greayer especially gravitates toward creating defined garden bed edges (using an edger) and orderly lines with her lawn mower when tackling curb appeal in her own yard.

Schanen: "Clutter is distracting in a yard, and it quickly looks disorderly. Simply picking things up and putting them away makes everything look tidy. Pressure washing the front of the house and entry steps goes even further. It shows that the person who lives there cares about their space."

According to Schanen, no matter what type of yard or curb appeal needs you have, it all comes down to keeping it basic and attainable. "Sometimes all it takes is a cleanly cut edge to make even an imperfect lawn look great."

Andrychowicz: Don’t focus on “too much flowers.”

"Most perennial plants and shrubs only bloom for a short time and can look pretty boring the rest of the year. For best results, stagger plants with colorful foliage and varying bloom times to give you year-round color and the best curb appeal."

At the start of every planting season, Andrychowicz and Rochow encourage individuals to trade plants with neighbors to add variety and help save on costs. This can easily be done by dividing perennials.

Rochow: A surefire way to ruin a yard's aesthetic involves fertilizing. "Over-fertilizing can cause grass to turn yellow and create bald spots. Instead, use a time-release fertilizer, as it's much less likely to 'burn' your grass."

He also recommends keeping grass longer to deliver a fuller look and prevent lawn damage from the sun.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com