Increasing Curb Appeal to Sell Your Home

If you have a real estate agent, one of the first things he’ll check is to see how appealing your home looks as he’s driving up to it. An attractive home is one that can hook a potential buyer’s interest and make him want to know more.

You want to make sure that the outside of your home’s exterior is clean. It can be easy for a home that gets shade to have areas where algae can grow. Get your home power washed or do it yourself to remove anything that makes your home look dirty.

A clean exterior can boost the asking price, while a dirty one can detract from it. So clean the siding, the brick, shutters if you have them, the front door and all the windows.

Don’t forget to wash the gutters and drain pipes. Paint whatever needs painting. For some people, this means painting the wood around the windows or the door. Some people paint their garage door.

You’ll want to be careful if you do that. Not all paints that say they can be used on a garage door are high quality. The paint will peel or fade in the sun and your garage door will look splotchy.

An agent will always tell sellers to make sure the yard is in good shape. This includes any side yards as well. The lawn should be neatly mowed and remain that way during the entire selling process.

You need to be sure the lawn is edged and no grass is growing in the cracks of any sidewalks that may border your home. If you have landscaping that’s not appealing, you need to take it out and replace it.

Potential buyers like to see color when the pull up to a house. That means you should have flowers in the yard or in containers on the porch. Hang ferns from the porch if it would look appropriate.

Or add other splashes of color such as upscale rocking chairs with colorful cushions. You can also build or have someone build flowerboxes and fill those with colorful blooms.

Put a beautiful wreath on the front door. Make sure that any shrubs or trees have fresh mulch. If you have bare spots in your lawn, fix those. You want the lawn to look beautiful and inviting.

Look at the shape of your mailbox. Many people forget to check this, but a rusted mailbox isn’t appealing. Replace an old one with an updated version and do the same with any outdoor lighting and house numbers.

Pay attention to how your fence looks. You may need to replace some panels or replace the entire fence. If your driveway has seen better days, you can get it repaired – and that’s fairly inexpensive – plus it adds good curb appeal

A real estate agent can give you a comprehensive checklist of what to make sure you take care of or you can get one yourself. You want to have someone else give their take on your curb appeal because they’ll be seeing it with an unbiased point of view.