Stage To Sell

Some Thoughts on Trees and Selling a Home

Posted on 10 June 2009

Spring is my absolute favorite time of year in Los Angeles because the jacarandas are in full bloom, showcasing their gorgeous purple flowers all over town. I love walking down streets like this one in my neighborhood at this time of year.

Towards the end of the blooming season, however, the trees tend to get sparser and most of those purple blooms end up on the lawns and driveways of their owners. In fact today, as I was on my morning walk, I spotted many a lawn completely covered with fallen flowers. Loving the jacaranda as I do, I happen to think of this carpet of purple on the lawn as beautiful, though perhaps a bit melancholy as it marks the end of my favorite season. However, today I began to think about it from a home buyer’s perspective.

If I had been house hunting a few weeks ago I would’ve been immediately drawn to any home with a healthy flowering tree in the front yard. In fact, all things being equal, the tree alone might have swayed me to make a purchase. So let’s say I made an offer. Now we’re past the inspection period and deep into escrow and I decide to drive by my newly purchased home. Whereas when I made my purchase the tree was in its full splendor, now most of those beautiful flowers are covering my new lawn. Yes it’s still pretty, but now something else comes to mind… Boy, it’s going to be a lot of work to rake up those flowers every year! Not to mention they’re going to get all over my car.

Now this problem doesn’t apply only to jacarandas (or other similar flowering trees). What about those huge ficus trees that line the street and park in my neighborhood? We have several of these on the way to my son’s school and when the ficus berries are falling, it’s like an obstacle course trying to get to school without getting a sole-ful (a shoe sole, that is) of those darned things! Once again, if you’re a home buyer this brings to mind thoughts of sidewalk sweeping and cleaning your shoes with a steak knife… not a pretty picture.

So my Staging revelation for today is that if your home is on the market and you’ve got dropping flowers or berries, you should take the extra time to rake the lawn and scrape the sidewalk before any showings so as not to bring up thoughts of unwanted maintenance in the minds of your potential buyers.

Enjoy these final days of spring – summer is almost here!