Selling a rural property? The cleanup that lifts the sale price

Agents will tell you presentation matters, and on rural property that goes well beyond the house. Most buyers for acreage around Central Victoria are buying a lifestyle they can picture. If they can't see the paddocks for the scrub, can't drive the driveway without scraping the car, or can't work out where the fences are, they picture work instead. Work means a lower offer, or no offer.

Start with the approach

The driveway is the first thing a buyer touches. Potholes, corrugations and scrub leaning over the edges set the tone before they reach the house. A grade and a tidy of the entrance is the cheapest money you'll spend in the whole sale prep.

Open up the land

Slashing the paddocks and around the sheds shows buyers the actual size of what they're getting. Overgrown land looks smaller and harder than it is. If there's scrub or blackberry taking over sections, mulching it back turns 'that bit out the back' into usable land they can see.

Sort the fire risk before they ask

Buyers in this region are switched on about bushfire. Long grass against the house, no defendable space and overhanging limbs will come up at inspection or in the building report. Cutting in an asset protection zone and cleaning up around the house answers the question before it's asked.

What not to bother with

Don't pay to remove every fallen limb in the back paddock, and don't clear land that's naturally treed. Buyers for rural land expect trees. The target is: maintained around the house and sheds, open and visible in the paddocks, safe and drivable from the gate.

Timing

Give yourself four to six weeks before the photo date. Mulched land looks better a few weeks after the machine leaves, once the mulch settles. Slashed paddocks look best within a month. Book the work, then book the photographer.

Got a job in mind? Send your address and we'll come out, have a look, and put a written quote together. No obligation.