What are the garden makeover one percenters that really move the needle when selling your property?
Imagine this…you’ve spent hours landscaping your garden ready for the first open home weekend. Everything’s ready, the garden beds are weeded, the lawn is green and the pots are full of colour, but…as prospective buyers walk up the drive, the first thing they see are your bins. Urgh!
As a homeowner it’s easy to miss little things that make a big impact on first impressions. These one percenters’ are the wins that can be the difference between ít’s nice but…’ to ‘I’m making an offer!’
Completing a well thought out and spectacular garden makeover is not about doing 1 or 2 things really well. It is about ticking all of the boxes in every area with small finishing touches that don’t cost the earth. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you just need a well rounded landscape where nothing has been left out or forgotten.
Here are the top 9 finishing touches that are easy to implement but so often forgotten by the rest.
Lighting
Lighting is a wonderful tool to provide more opportunities for time spent in the garden. By installing some simple garden lights this now entices a prospective buyer keen to entertain and socialise in the warmer months of the year. Garden lighting can help create some magical evening photographs for your sales and marketing campaign, and they are very easy to DIY using simple solar powered lights.
Source: https://modularwalls.com.au/blog/backyard-lighting-ideas/
Top Tip – Avoid lighting the garden up like a football pitch, your goal is to highlight certain features and add mood lighting.
Annual Flowers
Add colour and brighten your garden with beautiful blooming annuals. These are a great way to fill the garden beds and create a lush planting design. This is a very effective and low cost way to enhance the overall look and feel of your garden. At around $2-3 per plant it’s always worth your while!
Top Tip – Pick a colour scheme and match your flowers broadly within this, if you’re struggling for ideas, take a look at this colour palette inspiration – https://www.canva.com/colors/color-palette-generator/
Outdoor Furniture
What’s the use of having a well paved courtyard if there is no furniture there to sit and enjoy with friends. It may seem like an obvious one but ensure you have the right amount of outdoor furniture in the right positions. The idea here is to create a more inviting feel to the landscape, a place where you can appreciate and take pleasure in. If you’re short of time or furniture, hire a staging team and they will design and rent out the perfect outdoor furniture for your property.
Top Tip – Style outdoor furniture with cushions that add a splash of colour (match this to your colour palette for bonus points)!
Clotheslines
Although a purely functional aspect of the outdoor area, clotheslines are still something important to consider. The typical median home buyer is a family with 2 kids. They will want to know there is somewhere they can hang up the clothes to dry. An important thing to consider here is to ensure it will not take up too much space. Generally it’s best to get a retractable clothesline that can be bolted onto the wall and easily folds down when it’s not in use.
Top Tip – Clear your clothesline from clutter during a home open, remove clothing, pegs and paraphernalia that draws attention to this functional item and distracts from your property.
Bins
We have 2 objectives when it comes to bins. Firstly we need to have a practical spot for the bins where it is easily accessible to move them out onto the street. Secondly we need to hide them out of sight! Use plants or construct timber screening to cover the bins from main areas.
Top Tip – Avoid fish waste in the bins in the days preceding a home open as this smell is hard to mask even with the most fragrant flowers!
Garden Art
A fabulous way to add interest and uniqueness to your landscape design. This can be a wall art used to ‘glam up’ a simple fence or feature statues placed strategically throughout the garden beds. There are many different options when it comes to art, be creative and enjoy adding some flare to your garden.
Source: https://www.homedit.com/outdoor-wall-decor-ideas-to-beautify-your-home/
Top Tip – Avoid overdoing it when it comes to garden art. These pieces are best used sparingly to increase dramatic effect and add the wow factor.
Letterbox
An essential item, we all need a letterbox yet there are plenty of styles available to choose from. Be sure to match your letterbox with the overall theme and layout of your garden.
Top Tip – Simple, elegant and understated is the name of the game when it comes out of letter boxes.
House numbering
Try some interesting and classy numbering. Home improvement stores have a wide array of house numbers all in different styles and finishes. You can even spell out the number if you wish. Be sure to install the numbers on your front fence or somewhere else clearly visible from the street.
Top Tip – Avoid overly fancy fonts when it comes to numbering your house, keep it easy to read, clear and highly viable so potential buyers can locate your house.
Organised Storage Area
A garden takes a lot of work to maintain, and in doing this you will need the required tools to perform your weekly gardening tasks. In having a designated area to store garden tools this allows for an organised space. Whether it be a small garden shed or just a garage with adequate space this will be another very useful win on our mission to tick all the landscaping boxes!
Top Tip – Using colour co-ordinated or decorative boxes within a storage area helps to hide a multitude of sins when it comes to the bits and bobs you want to hold on to.
Now your garden is not only landscaped, you’ve changed the overall look and feel with some amazing finishing touches that will add that extra wow factor.
But…
If your open home is fast approaching and you’re short of time, then we’re here to help. Whether you need a garden tidy-up, or a makeover to fix up those 1% wins, get in touch here or give us a call on 9013 6588.
