The Wheaton Blog
Preparing your house for selling: Step One, your lawn.
The old saying of ‘judging a book by its cover’ has never been more applicable. When you are preparing to sell your house, it is important to remember to start with the outward maintenance and work your way inside. More than likely, if the outward appearance of the home is lacking, people will assume the inside is too. While your house might be ‘a diamond in the rough’ on the inside, the goal is to attract potential buyers with just a glance.
A Five Star Lawn
I used to wonder why my dad would spend hours – sometimes full days tending to our lawn and manicuring every detail. He had a philosophy that ‘a good home started with a good lawn.’ While I found this to be a bit extreme, I never read too much into it. Until one day I pulled into my cul-de-sac and thought, ‘Wow, it really does look good!” The hours of edging and attention to detail had paid off and actually made our house stand out significantly next to our neighbors’ brown crunchy lawns (It was a tough summer for lawns, in their defense.). But the point is, a little tender love and care to the lawn can go a long way to the outward appearance – especially when your house is on the market.
- Less is more, when it comes to watering your lawn. Watering the lawn deeply, but less frequently will produce results of greener grass. It’s recommended to water every two weeks or so.
- Don’t be afraid to let your grass grow. A common mistake is cutting the grass down too short. This can cause soil to dry out quicker, which heightens the likeliness of drought.
- Pick up the grass clippings. Do not leave your grass clippings laying on your lawn. They will likely, mat down the area and prevent the living grass blades to get the rays of sunshine they need. Instead, try using clippings for mulch in your garden – be resourceful!
- Make life interesting by switching up your route. Not only will switching up your mowing pattern make it more ‘exciting’, it will help will make a cosmetic difference. If you want to get the ‘golf course effect’, as my dad referred to it, you have to put in the time. Differentiating the course will help the color of the grass appear lighter or darker, depending on the way the blades hit the grass. This is also how you can give your yard character. You really outdo yourself if you get special blades with intention of creating one-of-a-kind designs.
- Finally, take out the weeds one by one. It might take some time, but it’s well worth it. If your lawn is covered in weeds, purchasing a hose-end sprayer and liquid weed-killer will help you tremendously. If you have a few weeds that you just can’t seem to kick, grab a smaller pump sprayer to narrow in on your targets.
With summer being the peak season for several moving companies, spring is a great time to start tending to your lawn and preparing your house for the market. You get the lawn ready and will get the moving boxes. Relocating will seem like a breeze after all the yard work!