Love your garden

An attractive garden can make a home much more appealing to buyers, especially if they can easily imagine how it will fit with their lifestyle, whether that’s a busy family life or a passion for plants.

With summer on the horizon and the rise of easy indoor/outdoor living for entertaining at home, gardens often take centre stage at this time of year. The idea of sunlit afternoons around the barbecue with friends, cascades of brightly coloured blooms and the summer buzz of bees or birdsong, all add to the value of a garden.

But few people want the high maintenance that can often come with them. A townhouse with a sunny courtyard can provide a terrific low maintenance, high impact garden, perfect for enjoying a glass of wine or a good book at the end of the day.

And a family home can be really enhanced by a large lawn where the kids can make the most of a trampoline or kick a ball around with friends without worrying about delicate flower borders.

Just as everyone’s looking for something different from their dream home, taste is equally individual when it comes to dream gardens. So when it comes to selling your property, a complete landscaping overhaul is unlikely to be a wise investment.

Luckily there are a few quick wins which don’t cost the earth:

• Firstly, don’t underestimate the impact of a freshly mown lawn with neat edges.
• Spruce up the front garden for the right first impression and banish those pesky weeds.
  
• Adding one or two tubs of flowers will create a colourful welcome and you could always take them with you to your next home.
• Tidy all the children’s outdoor toys to one area of the back garden if possible and get rid of anything no longer used, like a rusty old climbing frame or broken pots, which you’d need to remove before completion anyway.
  
• Brighten up the patio with a thorough jet wash and get the garden furniture looking smart and inviting.
  
• If you have a summer house, clear out the contents if it’s been used for winter storage and present it as a lifestyle asset for that perfect finishing touch.
  

A beautiful garden certainly affects saleability - as does an overgrown patch - but it’s the overall combination of house and garden which influences its real value.

So if you’d like an updated market appraisal for your property, or advice on presentation prior to selling your home, then get in touch with your nearest branch of Henry Adams. We’d love to hear from you.