Plant power: use botanicals to impress buyers

It’s true – the wonder of nature can be harnessed to help you sell your home. Homes & Gardens even claimed in a recent article that ‘houseplant staging’ was the secret to property sales success.

Botanical elements can definitely add appeal before you open your door to buyers. With everything you need freely available from garden centres, DIY stores and even your humble supermarket, what’s stopping you?

Fill a vase with flowers & foliage

Yes, it’s a cliché but cut flowers will always make a home for sale feel fresher and better dressed. If you’re heading out to buy a ready-made bunch, opt for UK-grown blooms to support local growers. If your garden is in good shape, you may be able to pull together your own display using what’s in season – and reduce the bouquet’s air miles to zero at the same time. Pad out your vase with foliage and twigs or opt for single-stem vases if you’re short of flowers.

Try a houseplant take-over

Achingly in fashion, houseplants are guaranteed to impress and you don’t have to wait for the right season for the best results. Their evergreen nature and adaptability is ideal if you have an empty shelf or a bare corner. Some houseplants prefer bright light, while others can tolerate shade. Some even thrive in steamy environments, such as bathrooms. If the thought of keeping a houseplant alive is daunting, choose almost-indestructible varieties such as pothos, money tree, lucky bamboo, spider plant or snake plant.

Prioritise pots of joy

The plus points of pots are numerous and they really are a seller’s friend when it comes to making a shrewd investment. Unlike shrubs and trees, which ideally need planting into beds, pots can move with you (even with plants and bulbs still in them) and provide years of joy.

Pots can go almost anywhere too – on your doorstep filled with bright bedding plants, by your back door crammed full of culinary herbs, grouped together on the patio or added to a balcony. Opt for vibrantly-coloured, unusually-shaped and interestingly-textured pots and they’ll become statement items on their own, or when paired with foliage-only plants.

To ensure the health of any pot plants, always add crocks to the bottom of the pots to improve drainage, use peat-free container and basket compost, ensure the soil doesn’t dry out and feed in the growing/flowering seasons.

Notes for the not-so-green fingered

Plants are a little like children – they need a certain degree of feeding and nurturing. If your past growing track record leans more towards neglect, never fear. There are low and no-risk ways to flood your home with flora and fauna.

  • Keeping it real

There are many houseplants that need little or no moisture. Ponytail palms, tillandsia, burro’s tail, sedums, sago palms and zebra plants (haworthia) are ideal for busy households who may overlook strict watering schedules.

  • If you can’t make it, fake it

Faux plants have evolved to become ultra-realistic but while they can fool even the most observant of property visitors, faux plants haven’t always had a good reputation in the sustainability stakes. Thankfully a number of companies are addressing the issue, one of which is Bloomist, who’s EcoFaux™ uses upcycled and recycled plastics.

  • The compromise

Preserved plants are an interior designer’s favourite as they keep the characteristics of living plants and fuse them with the zero-maintenance of faux plants. A more advanced art of flower drying has allowed gypsophila, hydrangeas, heathers, linum, bunny tails and craspedia to be preserved for natural beauty with none of the plastic.

  • Opt for flora and fauna on fabrics & wallpaper

Buds, petals, leaves and trees have long been fashionable motifs in the interior design world, with a style to suit all tastes. All manner of items can be boosted by botanicals, and examples include Cath Kidson’s ditsy design cushions and Orla Kiely’s retro stem pattern bedlinen, to Colefax & Fowler’s embroidered crewel fabric and Graham & Brown’s jungle wall mural.

We would be happy to provide a free, no obligation appraisal for a property you are looking to sell. You never know – a stunning garden or balcony display may just add a few pounds to your home’s value. Get in touch to make an appointment.

8 ways to decorate a rented property

Despite the image of tenants being flighty characters who move home every six months, renters are living in the same place for increasingly extended periods of time. Rightmove research among nearly 1,300 landlords in 2022 found the most common length of a private tenancy is over two years, with a fifth (18%) of landlords saying their average length of tenancy has increased over time.

Zoopla’s findings from 2022 concurred. Its analysis found UK tenants were staying in their rental properties for an extra five months, with the average tenancy length at 75 weeks – up from 51 weeks at the start of 2017. In England specifically, average rental durations are lengthening – rising from 3.9 years in 2016/17 and 4.1 years in 2017/18, to 4.4 years in 2021/22, according to the latest English Housing Survey.

With average stays increasing in duration, it’s no surprise tenants want the property to feel like home. Tailoring surroundings to personal tastes is something that is achievable, even if the tenancy agreement sets out some restrictions. Known as clauses, a landlord will detail what is and isn’t allowed in respect of DIY and redecoration.

Once tenants are familiar with the clauses, they can start planning how to add colour and personality. While drilling holes in the wall, repainting in bold colours and wallpapering may be off limits, here are 8 ideas that will give any rental property unique character and style:

1. Add a statement rug: a rug is a great way to add colour and texture, as well as cover up a floor covering you’re not fond of. Interior designers advise to go for the biggest size rug possible for both impact and balance.

2. Go green with house plants: air purifying, mood boosting and affordable, house plants have so many benefits. Lush leaves, bright flowers and coloured pots will look fantastic against a plain wall and if you opt for herbs, you’ll enrich your cooking too.

3. Lead with light shades: many rental properties have bare light bulbs but shades can quickly be added for a designer look. Plain, pleated and patterned pendant shades are freely available and for maximum impact, buy matching examples for table lamps too.

4. Try removable wallpaper: if you’re prohibited from painting, investigate removable wallpaper. Specific ‘peel and stick’ varieties are designed not to damage what’s underneath or leave behind anything tacky.

5. Add the latest trend to tiles: in the same vein as removable wallpaper, you can buy stickers and self-adhesive paper, which add a temporary splash of colour to bathroom and kitchen tiles. Simply cut to fit, apply and remove with ease.

6. Let soft furnishings do the talking: if you’re faced with four magnolia walls, use this base as a foil for furniture. An armchair upholstered in cobalt blue, an ottoman in mustard yellow or a chest of drawers painted candy floss pink will really ‘pop’ in a neutral setting.

7. Accessorise with bold colours: cushions and throws are the natural place to start and it’s easy to create a design theme with these two items alone – perhaps Art Deco or botanical. You can enhance the look by adding matching items, such as candles and vases.

8. Try ‘no-damage’ strips and hooks: when nails, screws, pins and even Blu Tac are banned, tenants can try Command™ Strips & Hooks. These products are specifically designed to be damage-free and come off clean when removed.

If you’re thinking of adding a touch of personality to a privately rented property, please contact us and we will explain any clauses that are listed in your tenancy agreement.

Should vendors commission surveys before they sell?

The buying and selling process in the UK hasn’t changed for decades. Most home movers understand a survey that examines the condition of a property is commissioned by the purchaser as part of ‘caveat emptor’ – let the buyer beware.

There is, however, another approach that puts the seller in the driving seat when it comes to surveys. It’s very much a pre-emptive move that arms a homeowner with essential facts about their home before they put the property on the market.

You may ask why a seller should bear the cost of certain surveys when usually the bill is picked up by the buyer. Let’s explain. One of the most common reasons for a purchaser to withdraw from a transaction is a negative set of survey results. By the time the survey is received, the transaction is usually quite far along, with the house taken off the market, a degree of financial investment and the seller making onward plans.

If a buyer isn’t happy with the survey results, there are a number of paths they can follow. They can ask the seller to reduce the asking price to a figure that factors in the cost of remedying any issues; the buyer can ask the seller to undertake the work to correct defects in order for the sale to proceed, or the buyer can walk away from the purchase.

Each option delays the process and the first two options will cost the seller money, as well as incur delays. Pre-emptive surveys carried out by the seller before the ‘for sale’ board goes up can help mitigate these scenarios and prevent unwanted surprises.

So, what type of surveys should a seller consider commissioning? The top two survey discoveries that would prompt a buyer to withdraw from a purchase are subsidence and Japanese Knotweed. Other aspects that may trouble a buyer are damp and mould.

Seller-commissioned surveys are sensible if the homeowner suspects there is an issue – perhaps they have seen large cracks appear since they bought the property. It’s also worth bearing in mind that some problems can be genuinely missed. A new survey by Legal & General’s team of accredited surveyors found damp was the most common issue to go unnoticed by homeowners prior to a survey. Asbestos and electrical issues were also aspects that were only picked up by a surveyor’s assessment.

Such issues can be identified upfront by specialised contractors, who will inspect the property and grounds, highlight any issues that may come up in a buyer’s survey, give an estimated price to correct the faults and carry out any work necessary.

The information gleaned from any specialist surveys allows sellers to take a course of action that best suits their circumstances: carry out any work before a sale starts, price according to the home’s condition or prepare to make allowances when the buyer’s survey results are received.

Not every seller will need to conduct their own specialist surveys and we feel they will never replace a HomeBuyer Survey or a full structural/building survey carried out on behalf of the purchaser.

If you’re a potential seller in any doubt, we can advise if any action needs to be taken before your home comes to market. The age, location and condition of your property will be taken into account, and the survey report from the last sale may be used for background information. Please contact us to discuss your moving plans.