Beautiful on the Outside: Simple Tips for Improving Curb Appeal

Ways to Increase Your Curb Appeal

By Andrea Needham of eldersday.org

The way your property appears from the curb will likely have a huge impact on the speed and price at which it sells. If you’re looking to move, you’ll need to make adjustments. Luckily, these don’t have to be expensive and, with just a few key changes, you can drastically improve your prospects on the property market. Here are some tips from Windermere Group One to get you started.

Gardening

It’s amazing how much of a difference some basic gardening can make. Simple additions to your front yard (e.g. mulch) can profoundly affect curb appeal and the expectations of house viewers. Even if you’re not a gardening expert, you can practice basic lawn maintenance and use small tools to keep hedges and weeds under control. A well-landscaped home is believed to add anywhere from 5.5-12.7% of value.

Cleaning

Basic cleanliness can go a long way towards improving curb appeal. The first step towards ensuring that your front yard is tidy is to invest in a couple of useful tools. A power/pressure washer, for example, can be used to blast away any dirt or soil you have in cracks, animal droppings, or lingering trash. During the colder months, it’s important to spend some time leaf blowing or snow plowing – although this can be tedious, it’ll help keep up appearances and ensure that viewers can see everything you want them to.

Keep in mind that if you need to use any cleaners with chemicals, you need to take steps to reduce your exposure. Wearing gloves can protect your hands, and you can also wear a face mask to prevent inhalation of toxic fumes.

Repairing

Broken or worn-down features are likely to have a detrimental impact on your home’s curb appeal, which is why it’s crucial to keep up with repairs. Obvious areas include broken fences and skewed mailboxes but the minor details (like missing doorknobs) are equally important. If you want to avoid turning off potential buyers, you should be ready to take action fixing all and any areas visible from the street curb.

Lighting

For anywhere up to 10-14 hours of the day, your curb appeal benefits from daylight, but in the remaining time, you may need to look into artificial solutions. Landscape lighting is believed to provide one of the most assured returns-on-investment with LED and battery-powered options proving high on efficiency. If you have any large plants or impressive foliage, make sure to use underlighting to help accentuate their beauty.

Decorating

It’s common for sellers to overspend when decorating, this is partly because there’s no limit on how much you can invest doing so, but a few small adjustments can drastically improve curb appeal and shouldn’t cost you the world. You can start the decorating process with a lick of new paint. A good job will last over 10 years and, if you’re patient and careful, you won’t even need to fork out for a contractor. During festive periods, it can sometimes be a good idea to include a few seasonal decorations that will inspire feelings of warmness amongst visiting families. If you have any budget spare, you can even look into some more grandiose features such as boulders, fountains, or statues.

There are no clear-cut rules when it comes to curb appeal but it’s often a good idea to put yourself in the shoes of your visitors. Would you buy a house without a doorknob? Would you like to see the place lit up at night? If you can get the simple things right, there’s every chance you’ll spark enthusiasm and maybe even a sale.