If You Want to Sell Your Home, You Need Curb Appeal

Potential home buyers spend a lot of time deciding which features they want in a house, examining real estate listings and driving through neighborhoods to investigate what’s available for sale.  Even if your home is the largest on the block or has the best description ever written to describe its interior, people will drive right past without stopping if it doesn’t have good curb appeal.  Curb appeal is an essential part of help selling home.

What is curb appeal?  It’s simply the view of your home from the street, what people see as they drive or walk by.  Whether it’s the case or not, potential buyers judge whether you have taken good care of your home by how the exterior looks.  If your home’s paint is peeling or the yard is weed-infested, buyers will assume that you’ve let maintenance issues go inside the house too.   However, you may have trouble looking at your home’s exterior through the same eyes a buyer would use.  You’ll have look at your house dispassionately, as a commodity rather than your family’s home.

Many of the things you can do to improve curb appeal are simple.  Your siding may need to be power washed, or the wood may need a new paint job.  Shutters and doors also should be thoroughly cleaned and repainted if necessary.  In fact, if while looking at your front door you realize it’s become really outdated, you should replace it.  Windows should sparkle, and gutters should be repaired and free of debris.  Even your mailbox should put its best face forward.  If it’s become rusty and dingy, it’s probably cheaper to replace it rather than try to fix it up.  Likewise, light fixtures around the property and at the front door need to be cleaned and updated if necessary.

While you’re working on improving your home’s facade, you also need to take a hard look at the landscaping.  Some of the most common problems real estate agents see in homes that aren’t selling quickly are shrubs or trees that block the view from the street.  You may have emotional ties to a particular plant, but a buyer won’t.  If a real estate agent recommends that you remove a plant to which you have sentimental ties, make plans to take it with you when you move.  Also keep the lawn mowed and the front garden weeded.  Another tip many people overlook is making sure the lawn is edged and there’s no vegetation growing between brick or concrete walkways.  If you take care to look at your home with the eyes of a buyer, you’ll find steps you can take to help selling home more quickly.