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motria_gw

how to promote "garden for sale"?

motria
11 years ago

Hi folks! We just put our house on the market. The official listing doesn't say much about the outdoor amenities, but I'd like to reach out to potential buyers who would appreciate the huge garden that I built over the past 10 years.

Is there a forum on Gardenweb or elsewhere to let people know about my "garden for sale"?

Comments (7)

  • pdsavage
    11 years ago

    Well if you have picture of your garden in full bloom that would help alot for visual.I have seen alot of realtor ads that say in the listing BIG GARDEN!!!

    Seams gardens are big now and if the house all ready has one that will save the new owner lots and lots of money and time trying to set one up.

  • christie_sw_mo
    11 years ago

    I don't think you'll reach that many people that are searching for homes by posting on Gardenweb, but you never know.

    I do think it's smart to do some extra advertising. I would start locally though. You could check to see if the Chicago Botanical Gardens has some kind of publication that they send out. Maybe it has a space for classifieds. Some of the larger nurseries might have a bulletin board where you could put a photo and phone number. There might be local garden clubs that send out newsletters or perhaps they would have a place to post it on their website.

    Your real estate agent should include something like "extensive landscaping" in the listing. If you get lots of birds and butterflies, it should mention that too. If she/he doesn't think it's important enough to mention, maybe you need a different agent. Something like that makes your property unique so it stands out against every other house that's for sale in the area.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Chicago Garden Clubs

  • terrene
    11 years ago

    I have used Craigslist to sell a few perennials, like when the town was going to put in a sidewalk and I had to remove about 100 feet of border along the street. I have also seen listings where gardeners have sold off their gardens.

    I have also taken many plants to local swaps, given away plants to neighbors or other gardeners on the New England Gardening forum, and also used both CL Free and Freecycle to give away plants when I wanted the recipients to come and dig them up.

    I plan to sell off many plants before I move from here, my gardens are way too big for the average homeowner, or even the average gardener (I am obsessed). Also, why not make a little extra $ to pay for your moving expenses? :)

  • silverkelt
    11 years ago

    Exactly right terrene,

    Most homeowners will acquire maybe 30 plants.. and they better have the "easy care, no care, plant and forget" label on it.

    What most of us have is extensive gardens, becuase we enjoy gardening and plants and the cycles for plants ect, Its not a plus to have a big garden to sell your house.

    Ive gone through this before, my old garden now is gone, the people moved and ripped up all my front perrenial borders and planted a few yew trees. (that included iris, japanese iris, roses, lillium, delphs, lupines, dianthus, asters, columbines ect) However, once you sell a place, you have to give that stuff over as well, unless you agree to take some of it with you (which I did, but couldnt take it all, and wintersowing allows you to grow alot of stuff easily and quickly.

    Silverkelt

  • terrene
    11 years ago

    That's exactly the reason Silverkelt, I KNOW the next owner will not want to maintain these large gardens. I can't bear the thought of them using a bobcat to wipe out beautiful plants that could be sold or given away to appreciate recipients.

    I don't blame new owners though - it is their house to do with what they want at that point. Which will probably be creating grass, or a play area for the kids, or a pool....who knows!

  • albert_135   39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
    11 years ago

    FWIW, my wife is currently buying houses as an investments. She specifically looks for places that have been neglected. She does not want to pay for the previous owners pride, loving care and the like.

    She does all her shopping online. Never looks at printed stuff.

  • motria
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank you for the comments, folks. Apparently I didn't need to do anything to attract additional interest, as we've had a bunch of showings in the first few days and a couple of strong offers.

    Before the listing went online, I made sure the realtor included the sentence: "Over-sized sunny lot - a gardener's dream". Hee hee. If my hubby had given any advanced notice, I would have asked them to get pics of the yard when the photographer was sent out.

    Per our contract, the vegetation is considered part of the property. (This is either the law in Illinois or just common in property sales.) In any case, I decided to selectively remove or take divisions from a short list of my very favorite perennials *before* we started showing the place. I like the idea of a plant sale - I guess you'd have to do it before showing the house. I just took a few of my dearest plants and made peace with the fact that the rest may wind up neglected or torn out. *sigh* I also told my realtor that I have a nice spreadsheet listing all the plants in the garden which I would be happy to pass on to the new owner - sort of a garden manual.

    In case you're wondering which plants came with me to the new house: dictamnus (gas plant) grown from seed and which took 3+ years to bloom. I took divisions of ironweed, joe pye weed, perennial sunflower, blackberry lily, and queen of the prairie. I took all of my little geum "cooky", scabiosa "fama", and bottle gentian. I resisted taking a lot of easy-care plants like coneflowers, asters, etc. and didn't take so much of anything to leave big gaps.

    Anyway.. now I'm getting sentimental again. ;-)

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