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We are in a perpetual battle with our back yard. I worry about when we sell it one day that sellers will turn their noses.
We have a nice stone patio and trees in part of the yard. The other yard is filled with grass that is barely there due to drought and erosion. It's lovely when you face the house and see the patio and the tree/flower bed area, but turn around and the rest is just not very attractive,although it is well maintained and weed-free. I just don't want to spend thousands more on the yard to spruce it up with rock and drought tolerant plants. It's probably 5,000 sq ft of dirt/grass that we would have to spruce up. That is a lot of money needed to spruce that area with rocks and plants and altering the sprinkler system.
For what it's worth- our front yard looks great! We have limited water allowances, so that is where our sprinklers spread water.
How much does a backyard count when it comes to buyers? Is a half good looking and half unattractive backyard a big deal? I think I put too much emphasis on this and I am tiring myself out.
We are in a perpetual battle with our back yard. I worry about when we sell it one day that sellers will turn their noses.
We have a nice stone patio and trees in part of the yard. The other yard is filled with grass that is barely there due to drought and erosion. It's lovely when you face the house and see the patio and the tree/flower bed area, but turn around and the rest is just not very attractive,although it is well maintained and weed-free. I just don't want to spend thousands more on the yard to spruce it up with rock and drought tolerant plants. It's probably 5,000 sq ft of dirt/grass that we would have to spruce up. That is a lot of money needed to spruce that area with rocks and plants and altering the sprinkler system.
For what it's worth- our front yard looks great! We have limited water allowances, so that is where our sprinklers spread water.
How much does a backyard count when it comes to buyers? Is a half good looking and half unattractive backyard a big deal? I think I put too much emphasis on this and I am tiring myself out.
It sounds like you may live in a suburb, and when I was looking for places to live in that type of area the backyard was very important to me (maybe even more important than the front yard since I would like to do things like gardening and bird-feeding in the backyard). It was very valuable for me to have a nice scenic view of that area from the house, or at least have that part of the home attractive looking (if unfortunately there are no views of it from any window of the house). I think you'll have your buyers that really don't care much about it however, that are more interested in the house itself. Still, to get the widest range of buyers, I think you may have to put some work into the yard to get it presentable. Did you consider maybe getting a landscaper to give you some advice on what might work in your yard? I've never dealt with that so it may not be of any help at all just trying to throw some ideas out there.
Honestly, I'd want to plant things to prevent further erosion. That will only get worse and be a horrible eyesore, not to mention a source of blowing dirt.
If you combined rock and a few nice low maintenance plants, you could keep the costs to a reasonable amount, especially if you did at least some of the work yourself.
I very specifically wanted a nice, small backyard when we moved here in 2012. I wanted to be able to plant flowers. DH wanted a small patch of lawn.
If you want a definitive opinion, ask an experienced local realtor about this.
I would think as long as it is neat and clean, that would be good enough.
Id rather have a yard that really isnt done, that way I could create it the way I would like it.....
I care about the potential of the backyard, but not whether the lawn and other plants are perfect.
One of the first major changes I made when I moved into my house was to have a contractor come in and absolutely destroy the "yard", eliminate that entire quadrant of "lawn". Basically scraped it down to bedrock, replaced "lawn" with local stone and other low-maintenance material.
Size and potential of backyard are important to me. I'd prefer for the yards to be maintained...I don't need lots of plantings, just signs that it isn't unkempt - i.e. I'd like to have it mowed/weeded. An unkempt, weed strewn yard with lots of bare spots, brown patches, and dead plants is a turn off. Though none are dealbreakers since a lawn care company can fix all of those.
Oh yes. The size, the potential, the view, the natural beauty. Pretty important to some of us.
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