You can increase the value of your home by caring for indoor plants. Nobody deliberately neglects or kills their houseplants, but many people fail to keep them healthy through ignorance or a lack of knowledge of their worth to the perceived value of their home.

Indoor plants can be a significant factor in staging a home.  The welcome your home gives to visitors can make a good first impression (and you know what they say about these!).  Healthy and attractive houseplants contribute to that WOW factor that can make the difference between a sale or not – or even between $300,000 and $250,000!

home-staging-flowersHouse plants can significantly improve the look and feel of your home as you show it to prospective buyers.

Water Them – Don’t Drown Them!

Plants are just like you – they need a drink now and again, but can drown if immersed in too much water. Get to know the natural environment of your indoor plants – cacti don’t do well in floods and African violets don’t grow in the desert!  That’s basic stuff, but even if you know that, how about the container?

The same plant will need more watering in a smaller or shallower pot then in a larger or deeper equivalent. You must consider evaporation rates, and keep the soil moist for plants that thrive in such conditions. If you get in some plants to help increase the value of your home, they could wilt and even die before the property is sold unless properly cared for – just as you would if you were starved, drowned or overheated.

Know their Natural Habitat

You don’t even have to kill them. Caring for indoor plants involves understanding a particular plants’ natural habitat. Plants can appear healthy, but refuse to flower or the flower wilts and falls off just as your potential buyers ring the door bell!

Examples are carnivorous plants such as the Venus fly trap, pitcher plant or sundew.  They appear exotic and are good conversation pieces, even with potential buyers.  However, if you add fertilizer to the soil you will kill them! Another way to kill them is to use tap water: carnivorous plants need to be kept moist using distilled or deionized water. Know your plants!

Don’t Bake Them or Blind Them!

Plants do not like radiators!  Even a cactus will die if you sit it too close to a radiator or heating duct. For some, even sitting in a window in summertime Arizona will be too much. It’s not just water evaporation, but the effect of heat on the plant’s cells.

Many plants do not like being kept in the dark, and some even dislike artificial light. Light consists of a range of visible light wavelengths, and many plants require those that are present in natural sunlight, rather than in a spotlight or mercury vapor lamp. Killing off your plants just before your visitors appear to view your home is a bad sales move!

These are just some of the factors involved in caring for indoor plants. Houseplants can increase the value of your home, but if not cared for they can also help ruin the sale! Generally plants make a home look more appealing, so make sure that you know how to care for your houseplants. Staging a home with indoor plants can make you a few thousand extra on your sale.