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Whether you’re thinking of selling your home or plan to live there for many years to come, you’ll probably want your home’s value to be as high as possible. A high home value means that you’ll fetch a better price when it eventually comes time to sell.
Most homeowners focus on renovating interior spaces, like kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms. However, the trees outside your home can make an enormous difference in your home’s value.
Below, we’ll discuss several ways trees on your property can affect its value. We’ll also explain how tree treatments improve curb appeal, provide the privacy that buyers crave, and make your entire neighborhood more desirable.
They Improve Curb Appeal
One of the most significant impacts trees have on your home is on its curb appeal. When buyers drive up to your home and see beautifully manicured trees, it will give them a favorable opinion of your house before they ever see the inside. This can set them up to have an overall positive experience viewing your home and might help them overlook other areas inside that aren’t as well kept.
Unfortunately, trees don’t always improve the natural beauty of your home’s exterior. Trees left to grow on their own will often grow erratically. Unmaintained trees will typically have branches or limbs that cross over one another, a canopy that is uneven, and dead or dying branches from competition brought on by uncontrolled growth.
Having an arborist come in to perform annual pruning will help keep your trees looking tidy and healthy. Pruning promotes positive growth, makes your tree look neat, and helps maintain an even and visually appealing canopy with no dead branches.
Annual pruning is especially important in areas where home value is already high to help keep neighborhood prices and individual home values at a maximum. As such, tree maintenance will go a long way to preserve the average home value and maintain the natural beauty buyers expect there.
They Provide Privacy
Healthy trees provide privacy from neighbors and naturally dampen the sounds of traffic, construction, and other unpleasant sources of noise. Privacy might seem like a relatively insignificant thing for buyers to look for when buying a home, but it has been shown to have a positive effect on home value.
Even homes in relatively quiet areas may benefit from privacy trees. When prospective buyers walk onto your property and feel secluded from the surrounding properties, they’ll associate your home with comfort and safety. Since most residential real estate purchases are based on emotion, these seemingly simple feelings could have a positive effect on what they’re willing to pay for your home.
Trees need to be planted in the right places on your plot to provide this sense of security, and they also need to be well-maintained. Dead or dying trees not only look unpleasant, and healthy trees will provide more dense coverage, adding to the noise reduction and sense of privacy.
Having an arborist come in once a year to provide treatments for your privacy trees is the best practice to keep them looking appealing and growing healthily. They’ll trim away any dead or dying branches that deplete leaf coverage, and they can offer bark or soil treatments that help deter invasive insects and tree diseases that can destroy your trees and the sense of privacy they provide.
Tree-Lined Streets Are More Valuable
Finally, trees that line the street have been shown to increase property value throughout the neighborhood. Driving along a road lined with trees feels luxurious and private, two things buyers naturally crave when purchasing a home.
Once again, the trees lining your street need to be well maintained in order to deliver these positive effects. Trees that are dead, dying, or misshapen can have a negative impact on your home value, especially if the surrounding homes have beautiful trees along the street line.
It’s best to have an arborist come at least once a year to keep your street trees healthy. They can trim potentially dangerous low-hanging branches away from the street, prune away unhealthy branches to promote new growth and shape the tree’s canopy for better light penetration and a more appealing look. Additionally, arborists will treat the soil or the tree directly to help deter destructive insects and tree diseases that can kill your tree and decrease your property value.
Wrapping Up: How Tree Treatments Boost Home Value
Every homeowner naturally wants to maintain the highest possible curb value for their home that they can. Doing so not only means beautifying their property but also improving the chances of getting a higher sale price when it comes time to move.
Tree treatments are a simple and highly effective way to increase your home’s curb appeal and the value buyers prescribe to your home when they approach it. Some experts estimate that well-maintained trees can increase home value by up to 20%.
Keeping healthy-looking trees that make your home more appealing largely comes down to professional tree treatments. You should contact an arborist at least once a year to prune your trees, make them more aesthetically pleasing, remove dead and dying branches, and treat insect infestation and tree diseases in your area. Doing so will leave you with beautiful trees that provide privacy, a sense of security, and a luxurious-looking home.
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