Backyard Red Flags That Lower Your Home Price

Some backyard upgrades make homeowners happy for years — but when it’s time to sell, buyers often see them very differently. In this episode, Tim counts down 10 backyard features that can hurt your home’s resale value, from minor buyer objections to expensive deal killers.

You’ll learn:

• Why an elaborate vegetable garden can feel like a maintenance burden instead of a bonus
• How a chicken coop triggers concerns about odors, pests, and HOA headaches
• Why a backyard putting green appeals to only a small niche of buyers
• The problem with a neglected lawn and how it undermines every exterior photo
• Why koi ponds often look more like a future chore than a relaxing feature
• How a large custom playground can become a liability instead of an asset
• When an outdoor kitchen adds value — and when it turns into an appliance graveyard
• Why a weathered pergola, gazebo, or arbor sends signals of deferred maintenance
• The downside of turning your yard into a concrete jungle with excessive patios and hardscaping
• The #1 backyard value killer: above-ground pools, which many buyers see as a removal project rather than a feature

Bottom line: buyers pay premiums for outdoor spaces that feel flexible, low-maintenance, and move-in ready. The more a backyard feels like a specialized hobby, ongoing project, or future expense, the more likely buyers are to discount your home before they ever make an offer.

Intro

Outro

Transcript

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One of the hardest things about getting your home ready to sell is saying goodbye to the outdoor features that you love that some other people might see as a turnoff. All right, folks. So today we're going to go over the 10 backyard features that really bring down your home value before you even get an offer. And we're starting at number 10. This is the elaborate vegetable garden. And I know you love your garden, raise beds, the drip irrigation, a little arbor for the tomatoes. Now it might be your happy place, but I have to tell you that some buyers are going to see this as a chore. Now, the good news is you don't have to do anything dramatic. Keep tending it throughout the listing. Enjoy it. Keep it photogenic. Just be ready to relocate the beds or sell them off if a buyer specifically asked to have them removed. Number nine, the chicken coop. Look, I've had backyard chickens and they are awesome. They're a lot of fun to watch. But from a home sale perspective, chickens and their coop are typically a negative feature in a lot of suburban markets. You see, a lot of buyers, they're not going to look at it like we do and see some feathered friends and fresh eggs. Instead, they walk in and they smell ammonia and their brain goes to like rats and foxes and the HOA letters. So even buyers who think they might want chickens, they may not want yours. Maybe they'd rather pick up their own chickens, design their own coop, and name their own little buddies themselves. So if you have a coop and you're still using it, leave it. Keep it clean, but just communicate to the buyers that you're willing to have it removed prior to closing. Number eight, this is the putting green. And look, I'll be honest, I think they're kind of cool. But the problem here is that strictly speaking, only a small segment of all buyers are going to be avid golfers. And they likely already have a place that they like to practice. So a backyard putting green occupies valuable square footage in your yard for a hobby that not everybody loves. It's it's sort of like a built-in basketball court or a dedicated horseshoe pit. And yes, it absolutely will appeal to a very, very hyper-specific niche buyer who happens to share your hobby. And that's great. But most other folks are going to see it as wasted space. So just, you know, of course, leave it in place if it still looks good. But if the turf is faded or dying or it's curling over or it has a big bald patch where the cup goes, well, that's what I would say is where it crosses from neutral to negative. So I would again offer a removal credit at closing if it came down to it. Number seven, the sad neglected lawn. You see, we homeowners are really funny. We will spend good money on mulch and on flowers and decorative features, all to boost our curb appeal. But when it comes down to it, we just kind of ignore that dumpster fire of a front lawn. And, you know, that's when you have brown spots and weeds going out of control and edges that haven't been trimmed in a long time. And the problem with all of this, of course, is that the lawn serves as the very foundation for every exterior photo on your listing. I don't care how good your photographer is, you're not going to catfish your way into faking a nice lawn on your listing photos because it's going to be noticed right when people drive up. So the key fix here is to recognize the problem early, right? And start remediating it right away. You know, throw down some new seed, give it some fertilizer, plenty of water. And you're going to want to start this sooner than later because this is definitely not one of those overnight fixes. Number six, the Koi Pond. Now, this is the house version of a tattoo of your ex's name. And I mean, think about it. It's deeply personal, it shows extreme commitment, and it's very likely to be a problem for the next person from the moment they discover it. Buyers stare at a complex filter system, they don't know how to maintain it, they don't want to sign up for another feeding chore. And now they have a collection of fish whose names they don't even know. They're here to buy a house, not a new hobby. So that's why this one is usually a turnoff, but again, not always. To minimize injections here at this point, just keep the pond running and crystal clear, nice and clean while you're on the market and be prepared to address any concerns that comes up. And who knows, you might get lucky and find a buyer who absolutely loves it. However, in my experience, most buyers are going to ask for either a credit or just to have it removed before they close. Now, if you've ever thought about what it would really take to get your home ready to sell and you don't know if you have certain features that are going to matter or not, I do consultation calls with my viewers. And if you think that you could use some professional advice without that $30,000 agent price tag, go ahead and click below and set up a call with me. The links in the description. Number five, this is the custom playground. Now, as a dad, I've absolutely been here. You spend a weekend in a King's ransom building this awesome backyard fortress and the kids loved it. Well, years go by and now you are selling and you're thinking, hey, maybe a young family will see this as an asset and maybe even pay you a little bit more for my home than the guy across the neighborhood whose backyard is a ghost town. Well, unfortunately for us parents, a used play structure is typically kind of a wash. Family buyers might appreciate it, but non-family buyers see it as a liability that they did not ask for. And if a neighborhood kid comes over and breaks an arm on your old swing sit after closing, that is the new owner's problem and they know it. So again, leave it up, keep using it to perform stupid human tricks at parties. I don't care. But ultimately, the buyer is going to be very clear about whether they prefer you leave it or have it gone when they close. Number four, this is the neglected outdoor kitchen. A pristine outdoor kitchen can add significant value to your listing. And I love them. But a dated or mostly broken one is a project that the next owner never asked to inherit. Now, if you want to know really quickly whether your outdoor kitchen is an asset or a liability, just ask yourself a few questions. Does the grill work? Is the countertop cracked? Is the fridge reliable? And if the answer to any of these big ticket items is no, well, then you have a decision to make. Either fix the broken pieces so it portrays itself as a real, honest outdoor kitchen, or just stop calling it one in the listing and treat it like a patio with a bunch of junk. I mean, if you're going to try to get sneaky here and hope the buyers don't notice the broken stuff, do not even bother because a backyard kitchen is actually really cool to have. And when buyers see these words in the listing, that's one of the first things they're going to absolutely check out when they come to see your home. And if they walk out and they see some like appliance graveyard, the disappointment's going to hit them so hard before they even have a chance to imagine their first cookout. Number three, the pergola or gazebo or arbor that has seen better days. A beautiful pergola is a selling point. A weathered one with rotting wood, peeling paint, and a sagging cross beams, it's kind of the opposite. And anybody is going to be able to spot the difference from 20 feet away. This is one of those few items on the list where a couple of hundred dollars worth of paint and a weekend of time genuinely will move the needle on this. So sand it, stain it, or paint it, whatever you need to do, replace the obviously rotten lumber and call it a job well done. But there really is no in-between here. If the structure is past saving, pre-listing removal becomes mandatory because a sagging, neglected outdoor structure in your photos suggests all kinds of terrible things about the rest of the home's condition, whether or not it's even true. Number two, the concrete jungle. And I know how this happens. Somewhere along the way, you fell in love with your patio. It was the rare combination of a useful backyard design element that also helped to reduce a chore. Because hey, last I checked, you don't have to mow concrete. Over time, the patio grew, a new path here, a slab there, a bigger entertaining area over here. And now two-thirds of your backyard is hardscape with like a little sad strip of grass around the edges. Now I know that you loved it because the yard was now easier to maintain, but the buyer is probably not going to love it because there's no yard and that's what they wanted. That's why they're coming to buy a home. They want a place where dogs and kids can play, and all you could offer them was a miniature parking lot. I see this in a lot of comments where buyers are consistently asking for more green space. And if they fall in love with your home but walk out back to see a sea of concrete or pavers, they're going to start running the math on what it's going to cost to revert all of that back into a beautiful lawn. And concrete is really stubborn stuff. So you can't just unport in a weekend, but you can make it look a little bit more intentional. So what I would recommend here is if you're falling into this camp, simply soften the effect. Add some planters, some big pot of trees, definitely an outdoor rug, and lots of nice furniture that breaks up the visual expanse. So the backyard photos don't look like somebody's trying to park at Costco. And this will help make everything look more intentional as opposed to overkill. And here we are at number one. This is what the comments tell us are the least loved backyard feature. Now, to be clear here, an in-ground pool is not what we're discussing because in many markets it's a massive selling point. However, an above-ground pool is a liability in almost any market I've ever sold. And buyers, they see the liner that needs replacing, they see the deck that was built around it and now has to come down because an above-ground pool deck without an above-ground pool is kind of silly looking. They see a structure on borrowed time and a removal job that's going to be a massive headache. And they're going to dock this headache from your asking price before they even cross the threshold. This is one of those things that you should just absolutely remove before you list, because unlike the Koi Pond or the place structure, there's almost no buyer I've ever come across that will thank you for leaving that monstrosity behind. Now, you and your weird brother-in-law may love the thing, but I'm telling you, the day that you drain it and reclaim that square footage, your backyard suddenly looks bigger and more elegant. And that is what buyers really want. And your backyard is fixed. Your home shows beautifully and you are almost ready to list. But all of this great design is entirely worthless if you don't know how to price your home effectively, which is why I made this video right here, because this one pricing mistakes costs sellers $50,000 or more. I look forward to seeing you there.