Why Having Trees in Your Property Increases Its Overall Value – E/The Environmental Magazine

You live in a beautiful house that has been your home, and you are planning to perhaps one day sell it off. This naturally makes you wonder whether there is something you can do now to increase the value of your property in the long run and that you can still enjoy while youre there. Construction and big renovations are noisy and disturb your peace, so what can you do? How about you start thinking green and plant some trees. Heres how planting a tree today can add so much value to your property tomorrow.

Nobody plants a 70-year-old oak. You plant it young, and then you nourish it and care for it while it grows, and over the years, it repays you for all the work youve put in. There is nothing that can replace that. You cant speed up time and make a tree grow faster, you just have to be patient. When potential buyers see a home with a few young saplings in the yard, they might think it will be nice in the future, but if they see a big, tall tree that casts a lovely shade and gives fruit they will fall in love immediately. If then dont want it for some reason, they can hire a tree service to take it down and perhaps turn it into a beautiful table but they can never go the other way and make it grow. Its an investment that is really like no other in that sense.

If youve ever paid the bills during a hot summer when the AC is running all the time you start to appreciate every little degree you can lower naturally. And trees provide exactly that: a shade that prevents the suns rays from heating up your windows and walls and every inch of your house. The less direct sunlight, the less your AC needs to work to keep the place cool, which will lower the bills always a good sign for buyers. In addition to that, if you have a beautiful lawn, it might get absolutely scorched by the sun in the summer heat, and youll have to invest a lot of water and power into sprinklers to keep it alive. But if theres some shade that moves around and covers the grass throughout the day, you can lower the water usage.

Unlike other types of plants that you might want to plan in order to raise value (and many plants do, in fact, raise value), trees dont require much maintenance. They dont need to be watered, trimmed weekly, or kept safe from pests. The older a tree is, the deeper the roots go the more resilient it is. And people love things that give benefits without them putting work in, so unlike a full garden where they would either really have to get their hands dirty or hire a gardener, a tree will always just be there, majestic and beautiful.

A big, perfectly trimmed back yard with just endless grass to host BBQs on and play fetch with your dog is nice but a tree adds interest. It keeps the eye moving, especially if there are several trees. Not only when its at a standstill, but when the wind blows, it becomes so much more dynamic and gives life to space. Theres really nothing that can even come close to mimicking what a tree provides to the landscape of your home.

As people, we dont get attached to things, we get attached to emotions. A photo is just a photo, and a watch is just a watch, but the stories behind the two are what gives it so much value every time we look at them. The same goes for trees: Buying a property that has a number on it is fine, but when you show potential buyers your home, and you talk about the tree under which your child took their first steps, the swing that was put there decades ago that you played on and the hammock in which your late grandfather took his afternoon naps now youre selling a story. And the story will add so much value. Not only that but when you add the story, the new tenants will be much more inclined to take care of the tree after they inherit it.

There are many ways you can add value to your home, but few have as good of a cost-benefit as a tree. Make a fun activity out of it with your family, take a weekend to pick out some trees, plan where to put them, dig up some dirt, and watch the value of your home grow.

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Why Having Trees in Your Property Increases Its Overall Value - E/The Environmental Magazine