So, you’ve had the carpet cleaned, some painting, got those “never to be used” bath towels that you hang up on open house days. Still, something feels like its missing…you didn’t mow the lawn!

When you are selling your property, first impressions count, and many sellers forget that the first-first impression comes from the front gate.  Here’s some tips from the Bliss Conveyancing team on how to give your garden a makeover and help you sell your property.

A Load Of Rubbish

Nothing gives the impression that you have failed to look after your home, quite like debris, leaves and clippings laying around the yard.  Of course, if you’ve gone to the effort of putting your stolen Torana atop blocks on the nature strip, you should probably start there. Grab a rake, some trash bags and get it all out of the yard.  Skip bin hire is relatively inexpensive if you have a lot of material, but make sure the bin is gone before you have people viewing.

Cover Up

Soil garden beds can easily start to look a little dull, or unkept as weeds start to grow.  Spreading some natural, or even coloured bark over them is a great way to delay weed growth, give a fresh look and bring some contrast to your garden’s colour scheme.  Bark is comparatively cheap, compared to other products, and it is also light and easy to manipulate.

Oh, and Mow The Lawn

Sure, we didn’t need to tell you that! In Spring and Summer Australians can relate to the Cat In The Hat, where “weeds were all weeded and lawns were mowed daily, twice daily if needed”.  A fortnightly mow is not going to “cut it” when your house is on display, regular mowing is needed to keep the lawn looking neat, it is also an effective way to control weeds and green-up the lawn.  Don’t forget to do the edges and the hedges.

If you need to lay turf, or seed some patches of dead or drowned lawn, make sure you give yourself four to six weeks before you start bringing prospective buyers through.  That way it will look natural and not like you have covered something up.

Get Inspired

Stand back from your property, maybe even across the street, and get a feel for the design or architecture of your home.  Ultimately, you want your garden to compliment and enhance your home.

Think about the colours of your home, and what colours you can include in the garden via planters, stones and pathways.  There are some great apps and tools to assist you finding complimentary colours, we like the ColourSmith app by Taubmans.  You can use your phone camera to determine the colour of something and be shown colours in the same palette.  You can see some other apps that we think are useful here.

Make use of hedges and climbers to draw attention to key features for the building, or sculptural elements of the garden.

Low Maintenance Looks

Everybody likes to look at spectacular gardens, but very few want to maintain them.  You need to strike a balance between an amazing outdoor space, and a constant time-sucking endeavour that is never complete.  Buyers want to feel the gardening is a nice, attractive place that won’t take up their every waking moment to maintain.  Some tips to keep things on the low-low are:

• Use low maintenance plants like succulents, or Australian natives;
• Add some colour with shrubs and perennials;
• Reduce the lawn area with paving, stones or garden beds;
• Prune and retain mature trees; and
• Install a watering system

General Tips For Houses

The outside of a house is vitally important to it’s overall feel, here are some essentials for freshening up:

• Replace tired and broken features like lights and watering systems
• Keep the pool and furniture clean;
• Replace dead plants;
• Replace sagging shade cloth;
• Re-stain faded decking; and
• Replace pots that are weathered or broken.

General Tips For Apartments

Apartment owners may have limited outdoor space, however it is still important to make it feel like a place that people will want to be.  Try these tips to create your sanctuary:

• Style the space with cushions, outdoor furniture and accessories;
• Use pot plants to soften balcony areas;
• Trim excessive foliage from existing plants;
• Replace chipped and cracked tiles;
• Clean the windows; and
• Hang a mirror in smaller spaces to make it feel larger.

If you have selected a great agent, and engaged an expert like Bliss Conveyancing, you can confidently focus on getting your property ready for sale, knowing that all the technical aspects are taken care of.  You can focus on the flowers.