Best and Worst Trees for a Listing

Daily Real Estate News | Wednesday, April 15, 2015 

 

Trees are important to buyers. According to NAR’s 2013 Profile of Buyers' Home Feature Preferences, 17 percent of buyers rank a wooded lot/many trees as “very important” features to find in their next home. Of those who didn’t get the trees they wanted, 29 percent said they would have been willing to pay a median premium of $1,720 more to acquire a home with trees.

Clearly trees can make a big difference to a property’s curb appeal. But the wrong tree can bring added lawn maintenance, plumbing problems, disease, and other woes for home owners. Thankfully, HouseLogic has compiled two slideshows of the best and worst trees to plant so that you can be an asset to your clients’ landscaping planning.

If your spring listings are looking a little bare from the outside, your sellers may appreciate advice from you about how to spruce things up. Speaking of which, why not a spruce tree? HouseLogic included that hearty evergreen in their list of low-maintenance trees that amp up curb appeal. The other eight are:

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1. Crape Myrtle
2. Sugar Maple
3. Smoke Tree
4. Saucer Magnolia
5. Japanese Flowering Cherry
6. Northern Red Oak
7. Eastern Red Cedar
8. Fig

Houselogic also came up with a list of tree species to avoid, due to messy foliage, greedy root systems, rampant disease, and other factors. Here are eleven trees to advise your sellers against:

1. Silver Maple
2. Ash
3. Quaking Aspen
4. Lombardy Poplar
5. Willow
6. Eucalyptus
7. Bradford Pear
8. Mountain Cedar
9. Mulberry
10. Black Walnut
11. Leyland Cypress

For pictures of the best and worst trees to recommend to sellers, and for more information on what makes these trees so well or ill-suited for home owners, check out the two original slideshows at HouseLogic.com (linked below). The site also includes the best zones for planting each tree, but you may want to consult a local arborist or agricultural extension service to ensure you’re choosing the best tree for the local climate.

Source: “Best Trees to Grow Curb Appeal,” and “11 Trees You Should Never Plant in Your Yard,” HouseLogic.