PK9/4/04 6:35
Mike wrote:
.
BUT
his comments were that the Kitchen and the Garden would sell the
house :-)) yes we have a garage and additional parking which were a
plus, but he went ape over the kitchen and garden :-))
He said our house has 'Kerb Appeal' (ought to, we have just had it
painted).
Soooooooooooooo
if you are thinking of selling, a garden 'well cared for' is a plus
Rule of thumb that some people use is 5-10% of house value spent on a
designer garden will add more than that to the house value.
I'm not sure it can be applied across the board - most london houses (500k)
would not support 25-50k spent on the garden. but the same house at £150k in
more sensibly priced areas would probably support 7.5-15k, and upper end
properties anywhere do support the 5-10% rule. I'd aslo be very wary of
spending much on the garden of a house that is already "the best house on
the street", as the price limit is set by location.
snip
'Tidy' is what sells most gardens to most people. They can alter, add,
re-plant etc. to their heart's content after that. A swimming pool won't
add a great deal of value and to some, it's a positive disadvantage within a
certain price range. The prospective buyer doesn't want the bother.
Big houses in big grounds with big pools tend to have nannies watching
children, man to maintain the pool, smaller houses etc. etc. probably don't.
Years ago, I was told by an estate agent in Jersey, where properties go for
a true fortune, that pools and conservatories add little value to a house,
'good' looking gardens help a lot and, providing it's not actually growing
mould, don't worry much about re-decorating, as most people will do what
they want, anyway.
Things that *do* help to sell a house to most people (because they don't
always look beyond what they can change *easily*) are clean and tidy, fresh
flowers, lights on, fire lit in grate (in chilly weather) total lack of
'clutter' and no pet smells e.g. dog on sofa, cat litter etc.
Purely for myself, I've bought and sold a few houses, re-decorated them etc.
and am both able and prepared to look past the incredible muck some people
leave for others to see. I've been shown houses where dirty laundry was
piled onto the floors of rooms with unmade beds, where corridors were
festooned with cobwebs to the point where at first glance I truly thought it
was part of the decor (!) and where kitchen sinks were piled with dirty
dishes and living room tables and sofas bore all the signs of a beer
drinker's dream party. All that can be cured easily.
But a seriously and horribly brambled garden would certainly make me think -
lots of labour for many years, perhaps. Re-painting a house? Matter of
months.
So - if selling a house, keep the garden tidy, have a bit of colour around;
*clean~* the house from top to bottom and using large bin liners or boxes
chuck out or at least, hide, absolutely every bit of tat you possess. At
the very, very least, have your dirty washing OFF the floor and into a linen
basket. There's something very unappealing about someone else's greyish
underwear on the floor of a room you might consider sleeping in one day.....
--
Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)