Planning to Sell Your Home? 4 Important Improvements to Increase Curb Appeal
First impressions are extremely important when meeting new people, and the same goes for meeting a new house. Home buyers today often make the mistake of saving the best for last, keeping the interior of their home preened to perfection while leaving the exterior plain and unattractive to the potential buyer. When a buyer first looks at your home, their impression is made and it will affect how they view the rest of the home. If you want your first impression to excite potential buyers, consider these four tried and true tips to increase your curb appeal.
Lawn and Landscaping
When the goal is to attract buyers to your home, then you have to understand the power of making your lawn and your landscaping look more clean and beautiful than like a potential fixer project. Simply mowing your yard and cleaning up your bushes can raise the perceived value of your home in the eyes of a prospective buyer. Avoid cluttering up the base of your home with too many shrubs and flowers, and instead, ensure they are tastefully placed in a way that makes them each an accent to your home. Take care of any weed patches in your lawn and keep it mowed and green so that buyers see a lawn instead of seeing yardwork that needs to be done. Your buyer wants to imagine themselves relaxing in the yard, not working in it, so ensure that a ready-to-use yard is what you’re presenting.
Painting Your Home
Nothing makes a home stand out quite like a fresh new paint job. Proper color coordination and clean layers will make your home stand out on the block in all the best ways. The trick is to get someone with a good eye for aesthetics to help you decide on the right colors to use for best results. When it comes to actually putting the paint on, you should probably leave this up to the professionals and call in someone who offers professional painting services. Paint looks best when it is applied by someone with real experience. Also, it is a good idea to work with a company that backs up their work with a warranty, so do your research before you hire so that you can get the best service and, therefore, the best curb appeal.
A New Garage Door
Garage doors can take a lot of beating over the years, and no matter how cluttered or clean the area behind it, you want your garage door to look bright and new. A brand new garage door will make your home look confident and classy and will provide far more curb appeal. In fact, you should strive to match your home with a garage door that makes your home appear to have a stronger presence. The material of your window frames can act as a guide to that, telling you the color and style that you’ll want to match for a coordinated accent look. If you can’t afford a brand-new door, consider getting the dents removed, the exterior cleaned and repainted, and the workings oiled so that your house shouts “new home” rather than “used home.”
Paving
Your pavement is another thing that will age the look of your home in the worst way if not taken care of. When making a first impression on a buyer, the last thing you want them seeing are the old oil stains where your car sits in the driveway. Your driveway should look as clean and free of all such stains. To get rid of oil stains, without harming your environment, you should look into using a microbial cleaner. The end result is that the cleaner the exterior region around your home looks, the more inviting and clean your home will feel to buyers taking a look for the first time. If there are major cracks or uneven slabs in your driveway or walkways, as well, then you’ll want to get those redone before you show off the house. Otherwise, the buyer will look at your walkways and imagine the potential hazards rather than consider the property as their potential new home.
There are many things you can do to improve your home to increase its curb appeal. A lot of times the things that really make the difference are things you may not realize might be a problem for a potential buyer. This is why it is always a good idea to invite people to tell you what they most dislike about the way your home looks. This kind of criticism can help you to identify things you might not even be aware of could be a huge turn off and might also be keeping you from obtaining your asking price during negotiations.
Article Submitted by Meghan Belnap / Blogger, Researcher and Freelance Writer
Meghan Belnap is a freelance writer who enjoys spending time with her family. She loves being in the outdoors and exploring new opportunities whenever they arise. Meghan finds happiness in researching new topics that help to expand her horizons. You can often find her buried in a good book or out looking for an adventure. You can connect with her on Facebook right here and Twitter right here.