When you buy your first home, you feel excited about the opportunities your new space will give you. You look forward to decorating its interior and installing permanent features. You can’t wait to spread your belongings in your increased square footage.
Most of all, you anticipate taking care of a large yard. Now that you no longer live in an apartment or a condo, you can take responsibility for your yard and use the green space in any way you want. But when you buy a home for the first time, evaluate the home’s property. If you take care of the grass, trees, and other plants in your yard, they can raise the value of your home.
On the other hand, poorly placed flowers or ill-maintained yards can detract from your home’s image. Read our list of five things to look for in your yard before you make a final offer on your first home.
Curb Appeal
When you buy a home, you want to make sure you can turn a profit if you ever need to sell it. Make sure your yard looks nice and well-kept, especially from the street, to get people interested in buying your home.
Trees and shrubs should help frame your house and emphasize its most attractive features. Look for a home where the trees don’t obscure the front door or hide the charming window shutters that give your house a unique style. If the home you love seems overgrown with excess trees or shrubs, you’ll have to pay a Woodstock tree service professional to trim them. Factor any landscaping needs into your original budget.
Shade vs. Sunlight
The placement of trees in your yard can also affect how your home looks on the inside. A well-placed shade tree not only shelters you from the heat under the canopy; it also keeps heat from entering your windows and fading your furniture.
When you tour a home, walk around the exterior and note the proximity of trees to the windows. You want natural light to give your area a soft glow, and you don’t want vegetation that blocks the beautiful view from your living room window. Look for a balance between shade and sunlight in the trees closest to your home.
- Branch Hazards: Large trees, especially older ones, pose a risk to homeowners if the trees do not receive proper maintenance. Check out your prospective property for the following problems:
- Cracked branches: When trees have signs of decay or cracking, they may fall unexpectedly. Any heavy branches in danger of falling put children, adults, pets, and nearby cars or buildings at risk.
- Proximity to power lines: If your branches cross power or telephone lines, your home risks power surges or electrocution.
- Diseased branches: Signs of decay in the branches of your tree (especially those in the joint where two branches meet) signify a tree that may not survive for long. If the disease spreads to the entire tree, you’ll lose a source of shade and beauty-and you’ll have to pay tree services professional to remove it from your yard.
- Dead or hanging branches: When a branch dies, it eventually falls off the tree. Often these dead branches get caught in other foliage and dangle above your reach. Your tree and home may be at risk if you notice numerous hanging branches.
After you inspect the branches of each tree, jot down some notes about the yard. Extensive tree and branch problems give you a reason to negotiate with the seller on the price of your home. These problems also help you predict your landscaping budget once you move in.
Roots
Regardless of the yard’s trees' sizes, their roots will expand as they grow. Pay attention to the shape of your trees’ roots and how close the roots are to pathways, sidewalks, and the edges of your home.
Roots colliding with these features can crack your sidewalk or even your home's foundation. If you plan to expand or remodel your home, you’ll need to consider the growth trajectory of all your trees’ roots.
Cost of Upkeep
Even if you find trees in perfect condition surrounding your dream home, your yard will still require yearly maintenance. All trees need pruning to keep them growing in the right direction.
Fruit trees demand more consistent maintenance to make sure your yard doesn’t get overloaded with overripe fruit.
Any aged trees in your yard will need inspections to ensure they remain in top health. If you notice deep decay or disease in your trees, you may need to get them removed entirely.
In all of these cases, you should get an estimate from a Woodstock tree service professional and add the cost to your home-buying budget.
When you buy your first home, you’re entitled to feel comfortable with the state of your house and yard. Remember these five potential tree problems when choosing and buying a home.