Curb appeal…First things to work on.
Curb Appeal
1. Curb appeal…First things to work on. When the prospective buyer drives up, we want your home to look appealing enough for them to want to come inside. We highly recommend doing the following:
- Add colorful plants or flowers near front door and porch area. Either plant in ground or in attractive pots.
- Mow, trim, fertilize and water lawn. You know this already.
- Prune trees and bushes, especially if they are touching house.
- Rake and bag fallen leaves.
- Remove unnecessary items such as gardening equipment, kids toys.
- Remove any signs such as” Beware of Dog or “Alligator Crossing,” could be scarey to some, distracting to others.
- Remove any personal items on deck and porch such as beach towels, old house slippers or yikes, dirty underwear! Only leave attractive items such as nice wicker chair, rocker, and Boston fern. Garden Ridge has great outdoor rocking chairs for under $100..watch for their often 50% off sales for even better price. Please, no aluminum lawn chairs with webbing, or old barbeque grills in front of house.
- A wreath on front door is nice. We do not recommend plastic flowers. Silk, dried or fresh are best.
- Remove weeds and dead plants.
- Re-sod bare spots on lawn.
- Add fresh mulch around trees or garden areas, or rake and fluff up existing mulch.
- Remove any oil stains on driveway.
- Repair damaged fence; paint or stain if necessary.
- Consider repainting or staining a deck or porch, or at least, power wash.
- Repair shutters or repaint.
- Paint or replace mailbox as needed.
- Large house numbers are great as they are easily seen.
- Scrape and repaint where necessary. If you would like a recommendation of local painters, ask your realtor. Under most circumstances, do not consider siding your home to sell it faster. Not cost effective.
- Tuck-point fireplace and repair any brick grout. May as well do it now as it will come up at inspection anyway. You won’t get by without doing it. Again, if you don’t like the idea of climbing up there, your Realtor can give you some recommendations of those that will.
- Repair any damaged screens seen from front of house. Sears Hardware stores will repair screen if you take it to them, for under $20.00 for an average size.