Home improvement might feel like a pain to focus on, but it’s vital for any person who might want to sell their home again. If you know you are going to stay in your home forever, that’s great for you. You can decorate it how you want and do as much or as little as you want. While this may seem like something common, many people find that the home they first settle on might not be their forever home. A lot of it does depend on the housing market, but you should be ready in case you want to sell someday.

If you bought a fixer-upper, you definitely have to put work into it. If you bought a house that was move-in ready, you want to make it your own. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be doing some work on it to keep it up to date. It’s only smart to add certain aspects to your home to make it better to live in now for yourself as well as any future tenants. Since I moved into my home three years ago, we’ve made some large and small exterior changes that have made a big difference for both of us now and the potential resale value.

Putting in a fence was a no-brainer

This was something we needed for our kids and dog

When we bought our house, the first thing we thought about was putting in a fence. We have a Golden Retriever mix who loves to run and it made all the sense in the world to put a proper fence in the backyard to give him space to gallop. We also wanted a yard for our kids to play in as well as one that would give us the ability to put up a garden. Hard to do that when you don’t have a fence and leave the vegetation susceptible to grazing deer (a serious problem in our area.)

We went back and forth on what kind of fence to put in, how much we wanted to spend, and what design it should be. We contemplated wood for a while but ultimately went with an iron fence with a classic black design. We decided not to go around the entire property in the back, which would’ve put a lot of wooded area inside the fence, which we didn’t need.

Because we have huge trees in our backyard, we needed to put one double door gate near the driveway, in case a truck ever had to drive into the backyard to tend to them. There are two other doors in the back, giving us easy access to go from the driveway through the back of the fence to reach the back of the perimeter and the shed.

Putting in a fence the size we did wasn’t cheap, but it has so been worth it. Our kids and dog use it nearly every day. We’ve planted peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, herbs, broccoli, and more in our garden. Plus, it has provided us with a feeling of privacy and safety, knowing everyone in the backyard is in an enclosure. Studies show that fences generally return 50% to 70% of their investment during a house sale, something we will enjoy if and when we move. After we put the fence up for a boost to the house’s value, we knew we needed to attend to another part of the backyard that was bugging us.

Staining the deck has personalized the backyard area

It got rid of the color the previous owners had

The previous owners of our house had a red deck for years. We knew this because the deck is red in Google Earth when you look at our property. To boost the curb appeal in a quick way, they painted the deck a light gray color before they put the house up for sale.

This was not a color that we enjoyed looking at for the first few years we lived here. Not only was it a bit bland, but there were parts of the wood that were chipping and bright red was showing up underneath.

We decided to choose a wood stain and had it professionally stained. Watching the painters replace some loose and rotted boards was very gratifying. It did look strange for months, as they replaced those boards in the fall and weren’t able to come back to paint them until the spring. As you can see by the photo above, we lived with a two-tone deck for months.

But this year, enjoying a freshly stained deck gave our backyard an entirely new outlook. It felt like our own with the fence and deck redone the way we wanted. Plus, it just looks better than it used to. Furnishing it was another issue.

Add lighting wherever you can

This adds some nice flourishes

As we added more furniture to our deck, we made better use of the space. There’s a table and chairs, couches, umbrellas, rugs, pots and planters. The backyard feels more vibrant and a place we can call our own.

We wanted to make it more enjoyable to be outside at all times of day (the outdoor TV is on the list of next improvements.) That’s why we installed Govee Outdoor String Lights 2 around the deck.

Changing up the lighting in the front of the house was a priority early on during our homeownership, as we added solar uplighting that has done a nice job of changing the curb appeal of the front. But the back of the house had a strange electrical routing and there was no switch that actually turned on the backyard lights that weren’t in the basement.

Rather than go inside and down the stairs every time we wanted to turn on the lights, I installed the string lights. Being able to change them to any of the 16 million colors that are offered lets us set all kinds of moods.

I like them because they take up a large portion of the deck, so it provides lighting all over. While you might want to look for a more permanent lighting solution, which will likely deliver a greater return on resale value, this small home upgrade has been just fine for us.

A generator has saved us

It became valuable right away

We have had a lot of problems with our power going out in our time in our home. The power goes out frequently, especially during any kind of windy storm. Because my wife and I both work from home, being without power makes it difficult to do our jobs.

The final straw before we decided to purchase a full house generator was losing power for hours on a 100-degree day and having an infant in the house. Not wanting to be without air conditioning on scorching days, we got on the waitlist for a generator.

Because generators boost the resale value of a home by 3% to 5%, we knew it would be useful to have while we live here and a huge selling point if we try to move. Most homes in our area have them and you can hear the hum of them turning on any time we lose power.

In the 18 months or so since we’ve put one in, it has kicked on at least a dozen times, showing you how valuable it has become for us. With catastrophic storms seemingly on the rise, it’s nice to have something that makes it feel like our home is running as it should.

We opted for a full house generator rather than one that could power most of the house, as it was an incremental increase at the end of the day.

We’ve invested smartly in the outside of our home to boost the value

We have made changes to the home both inside and out. But the most notable ones are outside the house. Adding something that keeps our home running like it normally does has been a game changer. Making our backyard feel more private has made the home more fun. We’ll aim to make more changes in the future, as new siding is at the top of the list, all of this being done to boost our resale value.