← The Redlands Insider

September 2026 · Issue #5

Getting your place spring-ready.

Two jobs this month. One protects your home, one protects your price. Neither takes long, and both get harder the longer you leave them.

First: bushfire season

Council has started its annual preparation push, and it deserves more attention than it usually gets. If you’re on acreage or near the bushland fringes — Sheldon, Mount Cotton, the back blocks of Thornlands and Redland Bay — the checklist is the same every year for a reason. Clear the gutters. Trim the branches overhanging the roof. Keep the grass down, move the woodpile away from the house, and make sure everyone under your roof knows the fire plan. The hot, dry weeks arrive faster than anyone expects, and the difference between a prepared property and an exposed one is a couple of weekends’ work done now.

Second: presentation

Here’s the market context, briefly. Spring listings are already lifting across the Redlands, which means buyers have more homes to compare yours against than they’ve had in years. In a tight market, an average presentation still sells. In this market, the homes winning are the ones that show well from the very first photo — because the first photo is where buyers now make the shortlist, and the shortlist is where your price gets made.

The good news is that most of what moves the needle costs very little. Gardens tidied and edges cut. The deck oiled. That one room that became the storage room, finally cleared. Grout brightened, light bulbs matched, the entry made to feel like a decision rather than an apology. None of it is glamorous. All of it shows up in the offer.

If you’re thinking about a spring or summer sale, the single most valuable thing you can do this month is a 30-minute walkthrough with someone who knows what buyers in your suburb are comparing you against — while there’s still time to act on what you find. That beats any last-minute scramble in the week before the photographer shows up.

Greg Leigh — local Redlands specialist, Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty. 300+ homes sold across Brisbane in 9 years.