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Gardening and some benefits that come with it

 Real Estate Info Guide mentions that there is a debate whether gardening truly does add value to a home and tells us by hoe much in dollar terms is does benefit a home seller.

 

 The average ranges from 5.5 percent to 12.7 percent depending on the type of landscaping and the homes original value. That translates into an extra $16,500 to $38,100 in value on a $300,000 home. Meanwhile other sites suggested that a "well-maintained garden can add anything from $3,000 to $45,000

In another article, Home Light asks, "Do Gardens Increase Property Value, or Are They Seen As Too Much Work?" they mention that sometimes gardening is not beneficial, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” However, for every homebuyer who gets excited for daylilies and bountiful tomatoes, there are others who will look at a garden and see a lot of maintenance, or in other cases a bunch of plants they cannot keep alive.

“Elaborate gardens don’t do it for the buyer,” says Kelley Martin, a top-selling agent in San Antonio, Texas, who has a garden at home. “Most people can’t maintain it, or don’t want to maintain it, or think it’s too expensive, or they won’t have the time.”

That said, a study of 2,001 homeowners in the United Kingdom found that specifically landscaping a garden had a low cost (about £2,750, or roughly $3,500 USD) but a huge return on investment, boosting property value by as much as 77%.

So, I guess the debate continues. Home Light goes on to say that "a garden is essentially a dedicated space for cultivating plants. Because the definition is so flexible, a garden can encompass a lot more than you might think" Some types of gardens can include container gardens, Zen gardens, flower gardens, succulent gardens, vegetable gardens, hedge gardens, even ornamental grass gardens. So, the question we keep asking ourselves is again, do gardens increase property value?

Although the Post Office Money survey singled out landscaped gardens as having a 77% boost in home value, other research takes a broader view. For instance, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) estimate that applying mulch annually, mowing about 2,800 square feet of lawn, pruning shrubs, and planting about 60 annuals or perennials costs about $3,000 — but has a 100% return on investment (ROI) upon selling.

That said, gardens may have a higher cache across the pond. In Martin’s experience, gardens are a bit like swimming pools — they appeal to a specific type of buyer.

“About 7 out of 10 will say, ‘There’s no way I can maintain that,’ or ‘How much is that going to cost to maintain?’ or ‘Oh, my gosh, I would kill every single one of those,’” she says.

 

The financial website Investopedia agreed, saying that while homebuyers appreciate well-maintained landscaping and curb appeal, a beautiful yard or garden likely won’t add much to the selling price. In fact, the more elaborate the garden, the more likely a buyer might consider it a burden, either because the buyer will have to pay a gardener to maintain it, or it could become an eyesore.

If you spent an exorbitant amount of money on landscaping, including a garden, you likely won’t see near the full return on your improvement costs

 

Home Light makes a good point in highlighting that instead of focusing on high end, and over the top gardening, focus more on how to make your garden shine and finding beauty in the simplicity such as using fresh mulch, low-maintenance plants, removing all weeds and adding bright annuals or perennials, such as repeat-blooming hydrangeas.

Again, try hard to think of the low-maintenance plants that will have buyers droll when they see your home but also think of sprucing things up in a way that shows they won’t need to do much when they buy the house. Home Light gives more examples like, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and groundcovers that don’t need complicated pruning, excessive watering, staking, or regular deadheading. 

At the end you want to think about what matters at the time. If you plan on selling, you want to attract as many buyers as you can. Don’t look at things subjectively when you go to a nursery, consider what the buyer would want instead. Usually, a buyer will always ask themselves if they think they can maintain everything and question the cost of maintaining it as well. Remember, less is more. You will see the buyers be super attracted to your home by doing the smallest things like cleaning up the yard, adding fresh new mulch, removing all your weeds, mowing consistently and edging

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