If you were buying a house how important is the garden to you?
Posted by iffyClyro@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 54 comments
Thinking about selling my current place. Have spent a few years renovating and it’s more or less immaculate inside, new bathroom, new kitchen all new windows and a brand new central heating system as well as all freshly decorated.
Problem is I’ve left the garden till last. You can sit out in the decking(which I built) and it’s generally pleasant however the old crazy paving and scabby old fence do it no favours.
lovesorangesoda636@reddit
I'd care more about the fence than anything else as it might be a faff to sort a new fence with the neighbours when you've freshly moved in.
Just make sure its freshly weeded, grass cut, and looks tidy and you'll be fine I think.
Gauntlets28@reddit
A nice garden is a bonus, but it's not entirely world-ending, so long as it's big and has potential, and the work isn't entirely overwhelming. Our garden was in a total state when we arrived, and two years later, it's finally starting to get close to our original vision. We don't mind putting in the work though.
Flat_Development6659@reddit
The size of the garden matters a lot but the stuff you're describing matters very little to me.
We moved last year and I noticed when looking around the decking in the garden will need replacing in the next couple of years (for now I've just restained it and it looks good), I don't mind spending a bit of money getting it sorted but I need the space to actually be able to host.
Realistically work needing to be done inside the house is a pain and interupts day to day life but for the garden it's not an issue, if you spend a couple of weeks with your garden in a state while it's getting dug up or new paving put down it's not gonna impact anything you do. I wouldn't worry about it.
inevitablelizard@reddit
Exactly, leaving the garden until last actually makes total sense. It being neglected won't affect how liveable the house is on a day to day basis. Unlike for example bits of the bathroom crumbling, or if the stairs or floorboards are a bit dodgy.
magical_bergs@reddit
As long as someone has the ability to see what it can be then it shouldn’t be a problem.
Estate agents seem to be doing AI generated pics showing the “could be” alongside the as is photos. Not that I totally agree with it but that’s just me.
Mine was the deciding factor on the house, it was more about the size and aspect than how it was done. Tbh the guy that had it did very little and it was pretty much weeds in 1/4 of it but I knew how I wanted it to look eventually.
One-Cellist6257@reddit
The garden was the biggest deciding factor when we bought our house. It’s more about the plot size, direction it’s facing, neighbours, etc than whether it has old paving though.
Ours was a blank slate (just lawn) and we’ve since built a decking, a greenhouse, raised beds, shed, and more. I love gardening and spending every free minute outside. Our pets love it too. However, I am aware that it’s not everyone’s priority.
iffyClyro@reddit (OP)
It’s going to be my priority with the next move. Really enjoy sitting out here and regret leaving it as long as I did.
One-Cellist6257@reddit
Ohh, enjoy! And I’m sure you’ll find a buyer who appreciates the current garden. It’s always fun to put your own stamp on it.
This is the view of the garden and paddocks we have out of our living room now. I’m pretty sure it added about 25k to the house price😅.
TruthfulRepugnance@reddit
That's nice. One of the factors we had for our choice was the likelihood of the surrounding land being built on, which is, in our case, zero. A wooded hillside. When I was small we lived in rural Cumbria, then moved to the suburbs when I was 7 - the change from looking out the window at The Solway Firth and Scotland beyond to looking straight at other people's houses has never left me.
WanderingBasenji@reddit
Currently looking for a house!
The size of the garden is very important to me. I also don't want to feel too overlooked by my neighbours, if possible.
The state of the garden, I don't care about. I'd want to re-do it all anyway. If anything, I'd prefer it looks chock-full of weeds, that means you probably haven't been using weedkiller. That poison stays in the ground for years.
iffyClyro@reddit (OP)
Tend to just burn the weeds to be fair. Quite reluctant to use weed killers.
markvauxhall@reddit
In my eyes, things that would actively destroy value in a property:
Honestly I'd clean up what you have than spend money on doing anything new as I am sure each person has their own taste etc
TruthfulRepugnance@reddit
Add to that paving over the front garden so you can park a fleet of vehicles.
mdmnl@reddit
Neighbour has the AstroTurf and plastic plants "garden" .
It's fucking awful.
FlamingosFortune@reddit
Should be illegal, for environmental and taste reasons!
WitRye@reddit
Kerb appeal is essential to getting in buyers in who want a 'turn key' home. If a buyer feels that the place is loved and well looked after, it gives them much more security in placing an offer.
I've not always done a great job with the garden when selling in the past and I still think about that. Making sure the front door looks good, putting fresh seasonal plants by the front door, creating an obvious seating area for coffee and reading a book ( or a bbq area for entertaining), plus weeding and power washing the crazy paving will go a very long way to helping sell. With regards to the fence, can you give it a coat of paint or plant some reasonably cheap but tall foliage plants along the length of it to camouflage it?
Far-Presentation6307@reddit
Really important. I only viewed properties that had at least 1 acre.
You can do a lot with your house if you want to spend the money, redecorate, extend it .etc, but the one thing you can't do is add more land.
shredditorburnit@reddit
I just don't want to have to clear it if it's a mess.
Nice and maintained or a blank canvas with decent boundaries. Anything besides that is nibbling into the price I'd offer.
FloofyRaptor@reddit
Having one is, I would probably change it so as long as it's not a giant rubbish heap, covered in dog shit or full of Japanese knotweed or something else hard to deal with it being a bit neglected wouldn't put me off.
Our house the garden is on two levels, one level was a bare patio and the other just gravel with a couple pot plants. We've put in an outdoor sofa, removed some of the gravel on one side, planted small trees and bushes and fixed bamboo fencing with climbing plants to the concrete wall. The patio has planters and pots with fruit bushes. The concrete and gravel moonscape is slowly going.
mousepallace@reddit
I vividly remember looking round the house I bought and thinking… it’s ok. And then going into the garden and deciding, this is the one. It was basically just grass at that point. But a simple blank canvas with perfect south east aspect.
redunculuspanda@reddit
Important. But maybe talk to the estate agent and see if the cost/effort of doing anything is worth it.
I would much rather have a blank canvas garden the buy a house and have to do a load of work stripping it all back.
asymmetricears@reddit
I wouldn't do any extra work to it. You might spend say 5k on it, but does it add 5k of value? It might do to the right buyer who wants the same as you, but do they exist? Alternatively, you can leave it as is as more of a blank canvas, and accept 5k less for the house, and the buyers can use that extra 5k to do what they want.
evenstevens280@reddit
Personally, not very. It's just another thing to maintain, and another thing to worry about.
I much prefer using public spaces for outdoor downtime, so I'd be looking for properties within walking distance of parks, woods, etc.
I'd be okay with a low maintenance garden, almost like a courtyard style, but a huge lawn and flowerbeds is absolutely not for me.
dan-72@reddit
I love gardening & wouldn’t mind a bit of a clear up but I have dogs so the hassle of the fences would put me off!
Petrichor_ness@reddit
The fact you've got your home looking amazing inside is going to juxtapose the outside.
It might be worth just borrowing a pressure washer to clean the paving, buying a can of fence paint and a spray painter and giving the fence at least a facelift and chucking £100 at a local gardener for an hour or two to give it a tidy - at least it will aesthetically match the rest of the house then?
You're either going to have keen gardeners which will appreciate the blank slate, families who just want somewhere for the dog to run around and to put the kids trampoline, or the immaculate crowd who need everything to look perfect - these will be your main problem.
therealhairykrishna@reddit
Anyone who cares about the garden will have their own ideas on what to do. The fence is (relatively) cheap and easy to do though - I'd sort that out personally.
FreeBogwoppits@reddit
Extremely important, but I don't care if it's unkempt with old fixtures.
My big nopes are plastic grass and large areas of slabs, decking or patio.
Frog_Life2000@reddit
I’d probably care more about a ‘scabby old fence’ as they’re pretty expensive to replace should they get blown over/knocked down.
Otherwise it’d be more about size/which direction it faces than whether there had been an excellent gardener living there before. (Especially as the house itself sounds pretty well equipped!)
phantom_phreak29@reddit
The direction is a massive one for me. It's like half the new builds where I'm at are north facing gardens, like you could literally build them the other way round with no issues and have them south and make more money selling them seems dumb
Acrobatic_Block4226@reddit
Depends who owns said scabby fence. Not necessarily yours to pay for, but then means you can't do anything about fixing it up
iffyClyro@reddit (OP)
It’s sad I think maybe an owner of two ago there was a keen gardener who looked after the garden but whoever lived her before I bought it obviously didn’t bother with it.
Dissidant@reddit
Very little its a few extra days work putting it right
Slightly annoyed if the access were poor, like properties where the adjoining layout of rear gardens means you can't actually get any devices (mini digger) on the rear garden
AllOfficerNoGent@reddit
We waited to purchase a house with a south facing garden that we had to make compromises internally for because we both grew up in terraces & then lived in flats & I’ll be dammed if I’m spending that much money & not having a nice garden we can spend 11 minutes a year in!
iffyClyro@reddit (OP)
I’m definitely going to build some kind of shelter/pergola type thing if I/when I move again. It rains all the fucking time in Scotland.
MobileOrdinary6827@reddit
We painted our fence and shed before we sold and tidied up the garden. The buyer did not care at all about our efforts. The house we are completing on tomorrow is a 14th century cottage that's been vacant for a year. The garden is well overgrown with tall grass. My husband doesn't mind mowing it. He's just happy to have a garden.
Iforgotmypassword126@reddit
Different people want different things tbh. If the house is immaculate you’re more likely to attract people who don’t have the appetite or time for DIY.
However most want to put there stamp on it. Make it tidy and I agree to focus on the fencing if you’re going to do anything.
Psychological-Bag272@reddit
I am an obsessive gardener so it is really important to me that I have a lot of garden space to work with. I would at least expect any house I buy to come with a garden free of rubbish at the very least and the fence, can be old, but must look maintained.
wonky-hex@reddit
Garden is entirely secondary to the house. I'd be put off by too many high maintenance plants.
alekcand3r@reddit
You can expand your house most of times, but you cannot expand your plot
terryjuicelawson@reddit
I don't think it needing work done would be a clincher, it is more about the actual space. If you spent say a grand on doing it up, would you add a grand to the asking price? Not sure.
Trishshirt5678@reddit
It's very important to me to have a garden, but sounds like I'd look at yours and be thinking: 'Ooh! the scope!' I would be checking that the fencing was secure (have dogs) but I think that people enjoy sorting out the garden themselves.
Nym_Nightingale@reddit
Garden is important to us.
But we care more about an intact fence and the size of the garden than how it was cared for. I'll rip out everything eventually to make it my own.
The_AJR@reddit
Size is very important to me but how it looks I'm not too fussed as it's one of those things that is nice to make your own anyway. I would say just make it as presentable as possible in terms of mowing the lawn and getting rid of weeds and that'll do for most people. Fencing is relatively inexpensive compared to new patios and decking etc so most people would accept that as a job that probably needs doing - assuming it's not falling down completely, in which case it could be worth getting done beforehand to try and maximise how much you get for selling the house.
Purp1eMagpie@reddit
The fence would bother me because that's a big cost if it needs fully replacing. Other than that, all I care about is that it's a decent size because I'd be doing my own things to it anyway
Illustrious-Air-7777@reddit
I like my garden so provided there’s space and I can see it’s neglected rather than abused I’m not fussed. However to make it an easier sell clear out any rubbish, give the crazy paving a quick blast with the pressure washer and cut whatever grass there is.
iffyClyro@reddit (OP)
Sound advice. Thank you.
knightsbridge-@reddit
I wouldn't really worry about presentation. I'd be more worried about things like how big it and and whether there are any expensive problem objects (big trees that need to be removed soon, drainage issues, massively overgrown).
There are, broadly, two types of people. People who enjoy gardening and will enjoy revitalising and maintaining a less-than-perfect garden, and people who don't enjoy gardening and just want a low-maintenance, fully slabbed outdoor space. You probably can't set your garden up in a way that will appeal to both, though if your house has a lot of outdoor space, you're more likely to attract the former.
baeworth@reddit
Gardens are expensive to renovate, but I don’t know if a really nice one necessarily adds much monetary value to the home so from a sellers perspective I wouldn’t bother. Sure if it were done up it would be more attractive to buyers, but as long as it’s tidy and mowed then that sounds good enough to me
phantom_phreak29@reddit
One of the biggest reasons we bought the house we did was the garden. Could have had a more expensive house but wouldn't be anywhere near as good a garden. In the end our income is about 120k combined, house was 125k as an ex council fixer upper (north east) in a nice estate near schools etc but the garden is South facing so sun all day about 30m x 25m (lawn area) with 7 mature trees a 5m x 6m deck that leads onto french doors of the sitting room, lots of privacy as it all backs onto other gardens and we are the end of terrace. Always say if we move again it's gonna have to have a bigger garden and south facing which I think is gonna be a massive ask.
Ok-Slip-8663@reddit
I’m an avid gardener so reasonably important, but only in that I can see a vision. We are just about to buy a newish build where the garden has been neglected but it’s a reasonable size for the location and gets good sunlight. For me, as long as it’s not going to be huge amounts of work that I might need to get a professional in for (eg clearing) then I’m not too bothered if the current owners haven’t done much. Artificial grass would really put me off.
Substantial-Bug-4998@reddit
Garden is massively important to me but I care more about the plot rather than whats in it.
Xaavuza@reddit
It's important to me but not something I'd heavoly prioritise.
ClaphamOmnibusDriver@reddit
Having a garden is important but it's not overly critical to me that it's perfect or anything, you just factor it into work you want done.
Ultimately, it's rarely worth spending money beyond the basics (removing rubbish, pressure washing, mowing, trimming back) as whatever you do beyond that, is unlikely to be what a purchaser actually wants.
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