As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a gardener’s house. Full sun. Full composter. Native perennials. While the raised beds had seen better days, the soil within them was soft and lovingly tended. It was exactly the kind of place my husband and I had been waiting to find. Judging by the buyers lining up early for the next showing, we weren’t the only ones. How could we make our offer stand out? I write about homebuying for a living, so I knew exactly what conventional wisdom called for.