The Good Kind of Drive Bys
Making a great first impression when selling your house can start before anyone even walks through the door. Boost your home’s curb appeal to capture home buyer interest from healthy drive bys. A number of my clients will call me and exclaim, “Bob, I just drove by this great looking house.” And then I’m chasing down the information for my client!
Add Plants and Mulch To Boost Your Home’s Curb Appeal
An easy and inexpensive place to start is landscaping your front lawn. Fresh mulch is a great option. Its colorful and vibrant, good for the plants and really adds a pop of color. Try adding fresh plants on either side of the front door too. This frames your front entry – hanging plants, baskets, stylish potting containers overflowing with fresh flower. Can you imagine it?
During the winter, a colorful wreath at the front door is eye catching.
In the summer, a precisely cut lawn stands out as the drive down the street. With Spring, look to boost your yard’s impact. Landscaping is a very affordable way to make a big impact.
Staging Homes To Sell Indoors and OUT
Recently, Louise and Steve had me list and successfully sell their longtime family home on Orion. One of their favorite spaces was the covered outdoor porch. This had been a favorite space for entertaining friends and neighbors. As the house was about to enter the market, it was a big empty space.
Staging was the perfect solution. Boost your home’s curb appeal by adding staged furniture to outdoor areas as well inside. Home buyers see that space and think, “I can see myself sitting right there.” That’s the goal. And once they take the first steps inside your home – SOLD!
Clean Up The Yard
Simple, right? And yet, so easy to overlook. This goes beyond removing any evident trash. In Spring, we might get an out -of-the-blue winter storm. I’ve had this happen on listings. The cure: bring in a plow service for the driveway, walk and even the street in front of the house. Goal: plenty of inviting parking and safe dry walk to the front door.
I mentioned landscaping. Yard maintenance might involve fresh edging, laying new mulch in problem areas, hand watering a little earlier than your sprinklers are de-winterized — all to make a pop of color and improve your yard’s appeal.
Remember – buyers might first drive by and make a decision about entering just from the street.
Dress Up Your House Like You Dress Up For Sunday Church
Look, if it’s an important occasion, I’m showering beforehand and wearing my best clothes. Do the same for your home. Homes with siding can benefit from power washing at the minimum. When was the last time you painted the house? What about simply adding fresh paint to the front door!
And, if you paint the front door, what about doing the same for the garage door? While you are thinking about doors, here’s my two cents for my biggest pet peeve in real estate. Take the time to upgrade your front door knob.
I’ve been in countless houses with a difficult to operate lock/knob/deadbolt. Okay – so you’ve lived with it all your life. Don’t burden would be buyers with the hassle as they walk in, instead boost your home’s curb appeal with a new easy to operate lock set & door knob!
A fresh coat of paint offers a great ROI – Return on Investment. Boost your home’s curb appeal with paint and it might look brand new to passerby’s. Great value! And fresh paint protects the house – improving the value of the property.
Cleaning windows goes a tremendously long ways. This is something I do for all my listings. My clients are always blown away. Clean windows bring in so much more light and the view really pops. Buyers too will notice clean glass walking up to your house, catching peek-a-boo views of the interior.
Even merely washing door knobs and hinges will add luster and shine.
Extra Extra
Home buyers love extras and smart home tech is all the rage today.
Consider installing a ring doorbell or keyless entry as part of your home selling process. And then include these smart home features with the sale of the house. These will boost curb appeal. The keyless entry is better than a lockbox – no key to worry about losing and you can easily change the code week to week.
Ring does double duty. Home sellers can see when buyers arrive and depart – so they know its okay to go home after a showing. And buyers love to see seller improvements. This sort of exterior curb appeal improvement will have a buyer happy before they even see the inside.
Make Over Your Mail Box
This isn’t always practical in Boulder Colorado homes. So many homes these days are in communities with mailboxes clustered together to speed delivery and reduce costs. But when you have a free standing mailbox, consider investing a few dollars to improve it. It might be a fresh coat of stain or paint to make the color pop. Or spring for a new stylish box.
Similarly, consider a makeover for your house numbers. Is the address readily visible from the street? Can you shine the numbers up, add fresh paint? Maybe you want to add the number the curb (that was the big thing in the 70’s when I was a kid).