Are you planning on selling your home? Before you start packing up your boxes, you need to make your house look like the best pick in the neighbourhood. You want to create curb appeal.
“Curb appeal” is a real estate term that means that the exterior of your house looks attractive from the street. Good curb appeal makes people interested in buying your home. They will want to call their agent, book a tour and plan their down payment. With the right style choices, you could have people making offers that are well over your asking price.
To guarantee that your property has incredible curb appeal, you should follow these simple tips before sticking the “For Sale” sign in your front yard.
Spruce Up the Front Yard
When it comes to real estate, you need to ignore the adage “never judge a book by its cover.” That rule does not apply. Buyers can take one glance at an unkempt front yard and decide that they will never step foot in the house. A better motto to live by when you’re hoping to make a sale is “Presentation is key.” You will attract a lot more buyers when the front yard looks impeccable.
Make a Clean Slate
Start by cleaning up the yard. Remove outdoor furniture, children’s toys, pet toys, bicycles and any unwanted junk out of the area. Gather up natural debris like dead flowers, fallen leaves and twigs and put it in the yard waste bin.
You should also remove any personalized décor like garden gnomes, statues and holiday ornaments. While there’s nothing wrong with adding personality to your yard, you want to make it easier for people to project their own design plans onto your home. They need to be able to imagine themselves living there.
Take Care of the Lawn
Buyers won’t want to tour a home that has a lawn full of dry, yellow patches, or a lawn that’s overgrown and covered in weeds. They will assume that the current owners don’t take care of their property and that more maintenance problems lurk inside. If a person can’t manage their lawn, how can they manage bigger responsibilities like plumbing, pests or home repairs?
You want your lawn to look healthy and well-maintained. Keep it nicely mowed and clear of debris. Don your best gardening gloves and take an afternoon to pull out weeds and unwanted plants.
If the lawn is full of dry, yellow patches, it’s probably suffering from being underwatered. You should contact top sprinkler installation experts to install a thorough lawn sprinkler system that will make your grass look healthy and vibrant. They will find the best types of sprinklers and the best installation locations so that no patch of grass goes untouched. And they will introduce you to the sprinkler system so that you can optimize your lawn watering with scheduling features and rain sensors.
Getting a new sprinkler system installed will do more than refresh your lawn. It will add value to your home. It’s a nice perk that could inspire buyers to put down a more generous bid.
If the lawn is completely covered with stubborn weeds, you may have to take a more intensive approach:
- Spray your grass with herbicide. It will kill the weeds and grass within days.
- After applying the herbicide, mow the dead turf on a low setting.
- Power-rake the turf so that you can aerate the soil.
- Spread store-bought fertilizer over the soil. Or you can use compost. Find out how to make your own compost to nourish your front lawn and other greenery.
- After raking the soil, seed the lawn and then rake it again.
- Water the lawn regularly to get the new grass to grow.
- When the grass gets to 1 inch in height, put down fertilizer or compost.
- Don’t mow your lawn until it is at least 3 inches high.
Doing this may sound drastic, but it will give your unkempt lawn a fresh start.
Add Potted Plants
One of the best ways to add curb appeal to your home is to place some potted plants on the porch or along the front walkway. It will bring a bright pop of colour to a simple space, making it more exciting and memorable.
Why not plant a flower garden in the front? Using potted plants is an easy and budget-friendly solution for homeowners. Putting in an ornate flower bed could scare away buyers that don’t have a green thumb. Planters are very low maintenance.
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Buy Some Paint
A popular real estate trick is painting your front door in a bright colour — this will make it stand out from the sidewalk, especially in neighbourhoods where the doors are simple shades of white and brown. It draws the eyes directly to the front entrance, pushing you to wonder what the house looks like past that threshold. The strategy catches people’s attention and spurs their curiosity.
Choose a bold and unconventional colour like coral, sunshine yellow, turquoise or emerald green. It will be impossible to forget about your home.
The first things that people will see when they visit your home are the yard, the walkway and the entrance. So, if you’re planning on selling it soon, these all need to make a positive first impression. Follow these simple tips for curb appeal and you will have buyers clamouring to make you an offer.