house with small patio - resale

[user1480889603]

I bought a small house 2 years ago and I’m worried that it when comes to sell I won’t be able to. It was a 2 up, 2 up down, with bathroom upstairs. A property developer renovated it and installed a loft room and ensuite. So it’s now a 3 bed and when I moved in I stripped the floorboards, added a wood- burner and extra storage. But the garden, whilst ok for me and my teenage son and very low maintenance, is only 15ft x 16ft. I think it’s the smallest garden in the whole street - the others are not amazingly big either. The house is ideal for rental. I have a lodger and it works very well with the extra bathroom. But sometimes i wish I had a bigger, leafier garden and I am quite concerned about resale as I think probably families would look at a house like this. When I was buying it, there wasn’t much competition for the house. I got it for £20,000 less than the asking price but it was probably already over priced. And by then I’d already paid for the surveyor (and there wasn’t too much on the market where I wanted to buy). So the property developers did not want to negotiate as they did not need to sell, I was told they could just keep it and rent it out if they didn’t get the price they wanted.
What do people think? I know it’s too late to worry about it but I am worried! A year ago I had it valued to see what difference my floors and redecorating had made and the estate agent valued it at 20,000 more than I paid and thought it would be easy to sell.

It looks fine, do you have pots in the garden to make it less plain ?

Put a few containers with plants to soften it and a bench in there to give the impression it is lovely to sit out there.

Dd and SiL's first house had just a patio that looked about the same size. It suited them fine until they had children old enough to want a soft surface to run around on. They sold it to another pair of FTBs who were expecting baby no. 1.

If you were selling, I would definitely soften it with plenty of plants, maybe troughs with climbers and trellis on the fences. And some nice garden furniture, which needn't be expensive.

I think it's lovely, I especially love the French doors. We are not bothered about a proper garden, and we do plan to have a child, so it's not a concern for every young family! All our potential houses have either had no garden or a small patio like this, perfect for us as very low maintenance. You would want to highlight this in the description for anyone that dislikes gardening! And I agree with putting up some trellis or pot plants. You can get a cute little Ikea table and chairs too.

It's lovely & low maintenance. Watch gardeners world on catchup - they have a slot on tiny gardens, they can be epic. I'd put in a raised bed or two-some great inspiration on the ones they featured though. It could be very green if you wanted

I think it's lovely, I'd get some hanging baskets on either side of the French doors and some big leafy plants in pots. Throw some fairy lights up on the fence and you could make it look amazingly with little effort.

My garden/yard is a similar size, for a four bed house, but then none of the houses round by me have bigger gardens, and very few have any grass. I’ve got loads of pots, and climbing roses, clematis and honeysuckle. It looks totally different now, and I wasn’t put off by having a yard not a garden. I had a 45ft garden in my old house and don’t miss having to cut the grass!