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You don't need $100K to compete. You need something guests actually want to use.
This property in Houston was a 100-year-old house with a long, narrow side yard that was basically just a gravel driveway running alongside the house. Not exactly a selling point.
Rob brought it to the Funkit team and the question became: what can we actually do with this?
The answer was to enclose it, lean into the narrow shape, and fill it with the right amenities for the space.
Nothing crazy.
A hot tub ($5,500), some fencing for privacy ($2,000), artificial turf and crushed gravel for the ground ($2,000), and a few finishing touches: a neon sign, string lights above the hot tub, a simple mural, a fire pit, a ping pong table, some lawn games.
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That's the whole list. Total spend: $10,000.
Rob DIY'd most of it, which kept the cost down but stretched the timeline out to a full year.
He’d do that part differently now. A year of delays on a $2,000/month mortgage adds up quickly.
But the backyard itself? It worked.
The property was underwritten at $40,000 in annual revenue. After launching with the upgraded exterior alongside a well-designed interior, it grossed $84,000 in its first year.
Double the projection, and double what comparable properties in the area were making.
What made this work wasn’t one big feature. It was how everything came together.
The hot tub gave people a reason to stay outside.
The string lights made the space feel intentional at night.
The mural gave the listing personality.
Together, it turns a forgettable side yard into the kind of backyard that actually shows up in the photos and makes people choose your listing over the one next door.
This is about as bare-bones as a backyard upgrade gets. There's no pool, no sports court, no custom build. And it still doubled revenue.
The threshold for "good enough to compete" is lower than most people think, but you do have to clear it.
A grill and some plastic chairs won't do it anymore. A hot tub, some lighting, a few games, and a mural that photographs well? That still moves the needle in a real way.
If you're sitting on a property with an awkward or underwhelming outdoor space and wondering whether it's worth putting money into, this is probably your answer.
Want to know what your backyard could realistically be doing? Book a call and we'll look at the data and the space together.
