When driving down any given residential street, you’re bound to encounter three types of properties: the disheveled and unmaintained home, the simple yard and modest home, and the meticulously landscaped stunner that you can’t help but gawk at as you drive by.

Your home’s curb appeal can be enhanced through changes to landscaping, a simple coat of paint, or with new doors and windows. When you’re selling a house, these changes are what will make potential buyers stop for more information.

But overhauling the front of your home won’t always come cheap, and if you’re not selling any time soon, you may not see a return on your investment. So is it worth it to improve your Orange County home’s curb appeal?

When To Dress It Up

If you’re planning on, or even thinking about, selling your home in the next five years, investing in improving your home’s exterior will help increase your home’s value. If your home’s paint is peeling, fixing it now will be useful both for when it comes time to sell, but also to maintain your property in the short term.

Landscaping can boost your home’s value by close to 30%, so wow your buyers when they first drive up to your property with some new greenery and healthy trees.

When You Can Leave It Alone

If you aren’t thinking about selling and your home isn’t in need of repair, any investments you make to improve the exterior of your property are purely for you. However, if you don’t sell your house for another 20 years, you won’t have recouped any of that investment in exterior paint jobs or other non-essential needs.

However, when it comes to landscaping, you can be strategic in your curb appeal investments over time. Buyers won’t be as impressed by newly-planted young trees as they will be by those that have been growing for decades, and it can take time for hedges to develop to their ideal height. Starting that process now can pay off in the long run.