Backyards With This Amenity Can Help Sell a House for $10K More

Picture this: It’s a beautiful day. You know you should be outside, getting your daily dose of vitamin D, moving your body, reading a book, but you are also three episodes behind on your current favorite show. So you’re faced with a tough choice: Park yourself on the sofa inside or embrace the outdoors and tell yourself you’ll binge later that night. Not everyone has to make this compromise. 

If you happen to have an outdoor TV, you can enjoy the best of both worlds, and home buyers are acutely aware of this fact. New Zillow research finds homes featuring an outdoor TV command 3.1 percent more than expected, which translates to $10,749 on a typical U.S. home. That’s the highest sale price premium of all 359 features Zillow recently analyzed across nearly 1 million home sales in 2023. 

Properties with other desirable backyard amenities such as an alfresco shower, pizza oven, and bluestone patio also fetch higher than expected prices when those elements are mentioned in a listing description. But a TV that’s visible from your swimming pool or firepit? Now that’s the dream.

“When certain features or design styles are highlighted in a listing description, they serve as a signal to a buyer that a home is appealing and up-to-date,” says Zillow’s home trends expert, Amanda Pendleton. As a result, those callouts can help a home sell faster and for more money. 

Of course, securing an outdoor TV setup (whether it’s for yourself or in the hope of sparking a bidding war) is not as simple as plugging a screen into the side of your house. First off, your TV will need to be masked from the elements in the form of a covered patio or pavilion. If you don’t have the time or budget to build a protective structure, consider a lift cabinet that’s clad in weatherproof wood, like this walnut one on Etsy. For those who aren’t as picky about the screen quality, you can also invest in a TV that is specifically designed to go outdoors, such as Samsung’s Terrace series (the brand makes options that can withstand partial or full sun). Now you can click to the next episode with one hand and toss a football with the other.