Simple tips to making your home sale-ready

Spring heralds in new life in the property sector, with homeowners putting their properties on the market. Home stager and CEO at Illuminate Home Staging, Lucy le Roux, provides simple DIY advice on making your listing more attractive to potential buyers.

Garden Tips: “Now is not only the time to feed your garden and get it primed for spring, but if you are thinking of selling now is also the time to ensure your garden in compliant with the new Alien and Invasive Species Regulations which have come into effect and will soon be enforced,” says Nick Spargo of Spargo Landscape Consultants. “These regulations require homeowners to either document or remove these species from their homes prior to selling.”

If your lawn is looking brown and dry and you are desperate to list your property, there is an eco-friendly quick fix: paint it! There are special pigments for grass that are used by the televised sports industry in South Africa that are natural and biodegradable, and last up to three months.

According to Richard Erasmus, CEO of Lawn Pro SA, “A green lawn enhances street font appeal, making the home appear well maintained,” he says. “Painting is a cost-effective quick fix for damaged or dying turf.”

Exterior Tips: If your exterior paint is looking a little worse for wear this is your last chance to paint before the rainy season sets in. You can save a lot of money by being very targeted in the areas you address. You may think that your whole house needs a fresh coat of paint but sometimes just by painting the boundary wall, gutters, window frames and addressing any peeling varnish your whole house will get a face lift.

If you have an outdoor seating or pool area, simply refreshing some of your outdoor accessories by buying new patio cushions or repainting your planters can make a big difference.

Interior Tips: Spring is the perfect time to spring clean. Over the years most families accumulate piles of items they no longer use that take up space. For many homeowners the thought that they might one day need an item leads to them holding onto a lot of clutter that takes up space in their homes. If this is your concern, simply get a few of your friends together and discuss sharing a storage unit. “The costs are much lower than you would think and for an amount of R570 per month you get a unit big enough to hold all your clutter and free up your home, which in turn will give you a lot more space,” says Nilla Persi at Eezispace Self Storage.

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Who is Lucy le Roux?

Lucy le Roux is the entrepreneur behind local property innovation: Illuminate Home Staging. Growing up near the Drakensberg foothills Lucy has always had an appreciation for beauty and design. After completing her two degrees in marketing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Lucy went on to work in marketing for seven years, finally combining her two interests as marketing manager at a prominent interior design firm in 2012. Lucy saw the potential to apply her skills set to the local property industry by starting Illuminate Home Staging in 2014, offering rental furniture and styling services to property sellers.

For more visit www.illuminatehomestaging.co.za