Sell Your Home Tips – Adding Outdoor Appeal

Remember the long, hot summer of 2020?

Oh, you do. It started at the end of March as the country went into lockdown, and everyone with a garden languished in it, mistakenly believing that their confinement would last a month at most.

Fast forward three months and we were still unable to leave the house for anything other than exercise or to purchase essential items. But, BOY did our gardens look good!

As a result of those hours spent painting, pruning and planting, our outdoor spaces have never been more appealing, and as an added bonus, they’re a surefire way to attract buyers to your property if you’re looking to sell your home.

Sadly, Spring/Summer 2021 didn’t behave as well as its predecessor, and 2022 has got off to a patchy start. Add to that the nationwide return to the office and it’s likely that you’re now finding you’ve neglected your garden a little, so it may be worth making the most of the upcoming four-day Platinum Jubilee weekend to treat it to some TLC to maximise your property’s appeal – and if you are looking to sell your home, it’ll be time well invested.

Lush lawns sell homes

The key to a lush lawn is weekly maintenance; raking up dead leaves, mowing the lawn each week to ensure it stays a uniform length and gets plenty of sun, keeping it lush with a nitrogen-rich lawn feed and watering it should the forthcoming heatwave actually materialise to ensure it doesn’t dry out. We’re not saying it’ll rival Wimbledon, but it’ll look healthy and well cared for.

Worm out the weeds

Time to tackle the weeds – everyone’s least favourite job. Ensure you’ve chosen a dry day to dig out weeds so that they don’t re-root in moist soil, and look to keep them contained in a bucket or green waste bag to ensure they don’t get blown to another border to take up residence there.

Cut back unruly branches

There’s a tendency to allow shrubs and trees to keep growing – we all love the idea of the privacy ‘established shrubs and trees’ suggests. But established doesn’t have to mean over-grown. Lopping off branches and shaping shrubs to attract more sunlight will also encourage more wildlife, and create a much more pleasant environment for yourself, your guests and potential buyers to enjoy.

Create colour

However manicured and lush your trees and lawns are, bursts of brightness draw the eye. Hanging baskets and patio containers should be coming into bloom now to present easy riots of colour. If you haven’t planted and established yours, garden centres, DIY stores and supermarkets will be brimming with ready-made examples to put into place and water.

Take a breather

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, but often people buy into a lifestyle as much as a home. Identify which areas of your garden are the most welcoming and capitalise on them – if your patio attracts the early morning sun, make the most of it with a seating area to enjoy a coffee with the newspapers. If you’re lucky enough to have a West-facing garden, invest in solar lanterns and lights to shimmer after dark and position furniture to enjoy the late afternoon/early evening rays, and ensure the photos taken to capture them.

Gardens have never been as important to a buyer as they are in the post-lockdown so make sure yours doesn’t do you a disservice when it comes to showcasing it to sell your home quickly.