Preparing your home for sale can be very stressful and the yard is the most often overlooked section. But it shouldn’t be. Your yard is the first thing potential buyers connect with when they arrive for an inspection.
Here are some, easy and inexpensive, top tips to get your garden ready before the ‘For Sale’ sign goes up.
Hack and slash
- Weeding – Start by removing all of the weeds from your garden beds. They can be a nuisance to remove, but it is important when making your home as appealing as possible.
- Pruning – Trim back all your hedges, trees and plants to have them looking their best. This should be done at least 2 weeks before it hits the market to give the plants time to look fresh before buyers arrive to inspect.
- Remove the evidence – All offcuts, old sticks, rocks and anything else that is unappealing that could have made it into our garden over the winter months should be removed. Also when doing further garden maintenance while the house is for sale, ensure you remove the waste so that it is out of sight. You want potential buyers to have the impression that the garden has been consistently looked after.
Get rid of it
- Declutter – Remove any items that are in your yard that do not add to its appeal. If you need them, find them a home. If you don’t, either give, sell or throw it away.
- Skip it – If you usually don’t have a green thumb, there may be quite a lot of waste to remove. So it may be necessary to hire a skip bin.
Maintain it
- Hydrate – Keep your plants and lawn watered as much as possible. Your grass and plants will become dull and will detract from the appeal to buyers.
- Fresh face – Give your garden beds a fresh look by planting seasonal plants and flowers that will be in bloom during the sales period.
- Mulch – Once you have your garden beds looking great give them a layer of Mulch to help keep them moist. This will also make them easier to maintain.
Outdoor living room
Australians spend a great deal of time outside so it is important to dress your outdoor areas to sell all of its potential to buyers.
- Space – Highlight the area you have in your yard by spacing things apart. If you do not have a great deal of space you can give the illusion of space in the dressing, for example on a small pocket of grass leave a child’s soccer goal and ball in one corner. This presents to buyers that area has space it does not.
- Dinning – Ensure your BBQ area is clean and in ‘ready to use’ condition and leave the BBQ uncovered, this helps buyers visualise themselves in the space.
- Furniture – If your outdoor furniture looks tarnished and in poor condition, remove it and either replace it or leave the area empty.
- Repair – If it is necessary, repair decking or concrete flooring.
