20 Feb Curb Appeal Is Critical to Prepping Your Home for Sale
First impressions are everything when it comes to preparing to sell your home. Curb appeal is the initial preview of your home for potential buyers. In today’s real estate market, potential buyers will first view your home on the Internet. If your home matches the criteria they are using in their home search, these buyers will then drive by your home. If the exterior of your home isn’t well-kept or your landscaping isn’t on par with the other homes in the neighborhood, your home showing may turn into a drive-by, with those potential buyers not wanting to bother stepping inside your front door.
Implementing a few steps to update and maintain your home’s exterior is critical to prepping your home for sale. Doing this will invite potential home buyers to come closer to check out all that your home has to offer. The first step is to take an objective look at your front yard’s landscaping. A desert landscape littered with weeds and overgrown trees implies deferred maintenance in all areas of home care and upkeep. Trimming trees, weeding, and pruning shrubs will also allow potential buyers to actually see your home. Planting fresh flowers or desert plants in pots or beds near your walkway or front door is also another quick and inexpensive step to freshen up your home’s exterior and landscape.
Power-washing, hosing down, or simply sweeping your driveway, walkway and front entry way are other inexpensive steps that will pay off with a big impact when showcasing your home’s exterior. While you are at it, be sure that your windows sparkle with a fresh cleaning inside and out, so buyers looking out to the front yard can appreciate and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
If you’re lucky enough to have a front patio area or large entry way, stage this area by placing a chair or two here, to showcase a conversation area to your potential buyers as they are walking into your home. Furthermore, the simplifying rule that applies to the interior of your home also applies to the exterior and landscaping, so be sure to remove any yard or lawn art from your front yard and entry way. Keeping the door clean, and free of decorations is another way to showcase the architecture and beauty of your home without providing unnecessary distractions.
As your realtor, I can give you more specific advice unique to your home and neighborhood, to help you maximize your home’s curb appeal.