Moving to a new house comes with a tidal wave of mixed emotions. The excitement of starting a new chapter in life against the sadness of leaving your old place can get you feeling all deep about life, while the physical demands of moving day can leave you worn and weary with a hint of a bad back.
In amongst all this is the stress of selling your current home. With house prices falling for the foreseeable future, anxiety about getting a good price and selling quickly is par for the course. Naturally, much depends on the presentation of your home and whether you can wow potential buyers.
This means the ultimate spring clean and the house looking in tip-top shape, but have you remembered the outside? The garden, of course, is the thing your potential suitors will see first, so what about making sure it’s fit for purchase as well?
Get the Basics Right
Think of preparing your garden like getting a car ready for sale. The outside is the first thing your buyer will see, and we all know that first impressions are everything. So, what do you do? You make any repairs possible and wash and polish the car within an inch of its life, so when the buyer lays eyes on it, it’s looking the best it ever has.
The same goes for the garden, just without the bucket and sponge. Mow the lawn, weed the flower beds and feed the plants so they’re healthy and standing tall. It’s certainly not rocket science, but a well-presented garden sets the tone for the rest of your buyer’s visit.
The condition of your garden will, rightly or wrongly, give a potential buyer an insight into your behaviours and how you have treated the house. A beautiful lawn suggests a property well looked after, lived in by clean people. A scruffy front terrace suggests the rest of the house might be in similar disrepair.
Again, first impressions can define the course of a potential sale.
Get the Pros In
There may be certain complexities to your garden that have rendered your personal efforts to tidy somewhat ineffective. Perhaps you haven’t treated particular shrubs correctly, provided the right nutrition or done a slightly skewed job on the hedge.
If all else fails, the professionals are there to help. Treating it as a one-off cost, utilising the expertise of a trained and experienced gardener could be just what you need to take the garden to the next level.
Going back to the car analogy, if you’d done a sub-par job of cleaning your vehicle up pre-sale, then you might well consider taking it to the car wash and stumping up for the premium valet option. A notable cost, but one that could be the difference between getting the sale price you want rather than one you begrudgingly accept.
When dealing in the property market, where increased buyer interest can be worth thousands of pounds, a professional gardener may well be the right financial choice for you.
Do a Dry Run
Finally, once you’ve carried out your horticultural preparations, put yourself in the shoes of the buyer and ‘take a visit’ to your home. Doing a dry run akin to that of interested parties will help you understand their experience when walking around the property.
When it comes to the garden, be thorough in your inspection for any issues in presentation. Chances are the buyer will be nowhere near as detailed in their analysis as you, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Carrying out a walkaround will help you spot areas for improvement, not to mention give you confidence in your work to get the house and garden in peak condition. This should help ensure your satisfaction with the final sale price, as you’ll know you did all you could to attract the best possible offer.
Selling your house is undeniably a stressful time where it’s important to make the right financial choices. By taking care of the aesthetics of your home, both inside and out, you’ll give yourself the best chance of achieving the sale price you want in the quickest possible time.
