Hi All!!
At the moment I am tossing up how to spend some money to improve the value of my property. I am looking at the garden at the moment. Purchased this property a year ago, and the previous tenants did not look after the garden at all. And there is alot of garden, 720 m2 block. Now to remedy this I am looking at putting in reticulation. This is based on the premise that the installation of the reticulation will add value to the property and then the gradual improvement of the garden will add further value to the property.
Now the other consideration is putting a bore in. They are expensive (~$3000) Now do people think it is worth while putting a bore in as well? Will the benefit out weigh the cost? I don’t foresee a huge saving in terms of running the bore as opposed to running off water mains, as the cost of running the pump my very well be more than the savings in excess water.
Any thoughts, views on this.
Many Thanks
Sebastian
I would not worry too much about a bore or pumping alot of money into the garden.
Do some minor landscaping if you have trouble finding a tenant otherwise I would not worry.
If you need a new tenant, ensure the garden is maintained and add a few shrubs and wood chips.
If you want the property revalued by the bank as you want to access more cash – having a good looking garden will effect the valuation – again do some minor stuff.
Just my thoughts. I would not worry about a bore. The tenant normally pays for water usage anyway.
I would get some leaky hose and bury it about 6cm underground (easy to do yourself). Then plant a few flowering natives close to the hose and put mulch and spreading ground cover natives over the rest. For an additional $20 you can buy a timer that when you want to water you just put to say 2 hours and leave (it turns itself off). If watered regularly in 1st 6 months natives will grow fast making stunning garden that is water friendly when established.
Great idea there misty.
Perhaps Burkes Backyard could get hold of that idea. I will certainly look at it while my $1000 computerised watering system is turned off thanks to Mr Frank Sartor.
‘Eat rich food, barbeque a yuppie’ [greedy]
Hi
natives sound good I have quiet a few and the thrive on neglect, longlife fertilizer, very occassional trim (if they grow out in the wrong place) look at what your local council is/has planted
becareful putting anything in that is “too easy” to use water,especially if it is included in the rent – one life style show said the average garden uses either 40- 60% of total water usage. as a tenant may not be as careful or conscious of there usage if they are not directly paying for it.
channel 7’s ground force had an episode on “xeriscape” gardening this week, (minimum water or rainfall only) there are supposed to be quite a few websites about it, but I haven’t had a chance to look yet- it is on i7 groundforce.
if your in brisbane buyna nursery is supposed to have tube stock for 75c – $1.00 further discounts for bulk buys – burkes backyard had an australian wide list last year may still be on his site.
enyoy your gardening regardless of the financial gain
Thanks for your replies.
So basically don’t worry about the bore. So I take it that it wont add much more value to my house then it is costs.
My main issue here is equity. Getting tenants is not a problem. I would however like to up my equity so I can borrow against for another property. That is why I am thinking garden, the retic is an improvment and then the garden will improve as a result, therefore It has a 2 fold effect on increasing equity.
I don’t see myself needing to spend much on landscaping. I have a few garden beds, which I will dig out and put some bushy plants into. The main thing is the lawn. What I will do here is buy some runners (as opposed to roll on lawn, which is much more expensive) So with some runners in place and retic, hopefully the lawn will start looking like one!!
Cheers
Seb
Introduce feng shui & target like minded buyers, in one of my experiences I spent $5000 total on a master to come in & put simple improvement in. Targeted my asian buyers and got a wopping 45K extra. ( thought it was flook at first ), not so some few PROP’s later.
[strum]
people buy what they love
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
