Study: Curb Appeal Boosts Home Value, Maintained Lawns Matter

Study: Curb Appeal Boosts Home Value, Maintained Lawns Matter

About 10.6 million Americans own rentals. Advancements in technology keep them from the frustration of manually managing things like rental applications, payments, and hard-copy leases just waiting to get lost.

Those are the high-level things. What about keeping those properties looking good? Curb appeal matters. If you're a property manager or someone managing multiple accounts, having a tool like GreenPal in your pocket makes a significant difference.

Let me walk you through some data to prove this point.

Curb Appeal Accounts For Up To 7% of A Home's Price

Research confirms the true value of mowing your lawn and trimming your hedges. A study on curb appeal by the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) used more than 400 photos from Google Street View, a deep-learning classification algorithm, and a variety of visually attractive controls to reach their conclusions.

Curb appeal accounted for up to 7% of a home's value. Insane. That's $24,500 for a $350,000 house. First impressions matter. Now it's confirmed. Better lawns equal higher home values.

Property managers should take note. This data demonstrates how having GreenPal, which connects you with dependable lawn care companies, can boost their rental revenue.

Even though the research focused on the value of home sales, it can easily be applied to the rental market: a home that is more attractive to a tenant will enable the landlord to raise the rent accordingly and help maintain a stable rental base.

"The value of curb appeal could be as high as 14% during cold residential markets," said Dr. Sriram Villupuram, director of the Ryan Reilly Center for Urban Land Utilization in UTA's College of Business.

When study participants saw images of a well-kept lawn and things like colorful flowers, they took notice and signaled that the home's value was greater because of it.

Each of your properties needs a dependable service provider.

How Great Lawn Care Affects ROI

Alright, I promised I'd go into more detail on how this matters for property managers. Let's walk through a hypothetical:

You're a new landlord. 

You're ready to rent out your house. You're looking to rent your home for $2,100 a month. Unfortunately, there have been no takers. Your curb appeal isn't great. The lawn is so-so. The landscaping? Eh, there's nothing to write home about. 25 days on the market and counting. Bummer.

The next day, a couple signs on the dotted line. Awesome! You've got a renter locked in for $2,100 a month. They've signed a 12-month lease. Let's make some assumptions here and say they don't renew their lease.

After two years, your net income is $41,776 (that's adjusting for the time it takes to get more people in the house and maintenance costs at six percent, and ... trust me, I'm about to get to the point here soon. Bear with me).

Here's the cost breakdown:

• Gross Rental Income: $50,400

• Vacancy loss (25 days x $70/day avg): -$3,500

• Maintenance: -$3,024

• Turnover: -$2,100

• Net Income: $41,776

Now, imagine if you'd invested some money into your curb appeal.

You add some fresh mulch you've had lying around to your flower beds, paint the trim and shutters, and hire a lawn care company using GreenPal to come out biweekly to mow. All in it costs you $1,800 for the first year.

Not too bad. How does it add up? Not only does it reduce the vacancy, but you can also charge more for rent with the boost in curb appeal. You'll likely attract better tenants who are willing to pay more for your rental as well. Let's set the rent at $2,225 per month.

(These renters might actually reduce your maintenance costs, too, since they're more likely to work hard to keep everything in good shape).

Here's your new breakdown after two years:

• Gross Rental Income: $53,400

• Vacancy loss (14 days x $75/day avg): -$2,100

• Maintenance: -$2,136 (down to 4%, even with the $1,080 you pay to your lawn care company)

• Turnover: -$1,112

• Curb Appeal Investment: -$1,800

• Net Income: $46,252

That means you'd bring in another $4,476 just by working on your curb appeal and mowing your lawn.

Realtors Agree, Lawn Care Affects Home Values

We previously surveyed 350 realtors to get their opinions on how lawn care affects a home's value. 97.7 percent stated that they believe good lawn care makes a difference in home prices and the selling process. More than half believe that landscaping can improve a home's value by 15 percent or more.

"Often, you hear the term' curb appeal,'" said Ken Sisson, a realtor in Los Angeles. "Well, great landscaping goes a long way here in that department. There's a huge difference when prospective buyers drive up in front of a home with little, no, or awful landscaping versus when the landscaping is spot on and compliments the home well."

Sisson noted that a home that receives regular mowing is more likely to be sought after by potential buyers.

"We know that homes with multiple offers sell at a higher price and, most of the time, above the list price," he said.

Using GreenPal to Maximize Curb Appeal

GreenPal provides property managers with a centralized dashboard, allowing them to request prices from local commercial landscape companies.

We do the vetting. We ensure that every lawn care professional using our platform owns commercial-grade equipment, valid references, and a portfolio of work that backs up their professionalism. Plus, you can rate the vendor, too.

You pick the service provider, the day, and the frequency. You can also add appointments for multiple properties. The vendors will receive a notification that you've booked, and the days you've scheduled will show on their calendars.

This saves the lawn care provider a ton of time. Without GreenPal, you'd have to call around to ask if a company can come out to mow.

Our dashboard makes it easy to toggle among all your different properties, allowing you to manage each one separately under a single account.

We've made payments easy, too.

After the work is completed, your lawn care company will send a time-stamped photo of the completed work. We make sure you only pay after the company mows, and you are satisfied with the job they did.

It's a much easier process: book the service, verify it's completed to your liking, and send the payment.

Then, you'll pay your invoice directly with your card through your vendor's connected card processor, powered by Stripe. (GreenPal does not bill you; there is no customer relationship between you and us.)

Stripe is certified at the highest levels. They are a certified PCI Service Provider Level 1, which is the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry.

Quick Summary

Research confirmed what we all know: a well-maintained lawn can greatly increase a home's value. For property managers and realtors, this means a greater return on investment.

GreenPal makes boosting a home's curb appeal easy. We connect you to fantastic lawn care companies. Manage multiple properties in one place. Scheduling is simple. Payment is secure.