Just a Little Touch Up

When you drive through a neighborhood, what is the first thing you notice about it?  How the houses look on the outside and how well kept the yards are.  Curb appeal is important and it is what gives you an idea of what an area or home is like.  Think about it.  Would you move into a house that has an overgrown yard, with a junk car in the driveway, peeling paint and shutters hanging by their hinges?   First impressions make an impact on whether a buyer will even view a home.  You may have spent lots of money improving and staging the inside, but if you didn’t take a moment and put that critical eye on the outside, you may be missing a lot of potential buyers.  What good are all those updates on the inside if no one is going in to take a look?  Ask yourself, “Does my home stand out on the block or is it the pale wall flower of the street?  If buyers are passing you by, maybe you need to take a good look at your curb appeal and see what it will take to get them to come inside.

If you need to spruce up your curb appeal there are a few areas that you may want to consider to attract buyers to take a closer look.  The first thing to consider is paint.  Is your home looking tired from the buildup of dirt over the years or is your current paint peeling?  A fresh coat of paint can do wonders to make an older home looking new, just make sure to choose a color scheme that is contemporary and makes your home the focal point of the neighborhood, without clashing with it.  If your lawn is nonexistent or your trees and shrubs are over grown or even worse, dead to the world, maybe you need to spruce up your landscaping.  A well-kept yard says more about you and your home than you think.  Buyers have a tendency to believe that if you are not on top of maintaining your landscaping, then maybe you are not on top of other things, like home repair.  Keep your yard tidy and make sure anything you plant will complement your existing landscaping and give the impression of a warm and inviting home.   If your driveway, walkways, or sidewalks are cracked and unappealing, install new ones.  There are lots of choices out there and they can have an impact on the overall appearance of your yard.   Lastly, look at your home itself.  Does it need roof repairs, new gutters and downspouts, new doors, new windows, or other surface repairs?  These things may seem like a lot but they are important to buyers.  They want to feel like they are moving into a house that is theirs and move-in ready, without too many repairs.  You may not be able to do everything, but if you choose the most critical items in need of repair or touch up, it can make a huge difference in the amount of traffic you get through your home.