Repeat After Me: The Outside Counts!
Every single day we hear how appearances aren’t important and it’s what is on the inside that counts. The thing is, when it comes to selling your home, it’s really all about the appearance! Selling a house is no easy job, and while there was a lot of work that you put into your efforts to buy a house and do it up, the same level of effort has to be given when you want to sell it, as well. First impressions could make the deal, or it could break it into smithereens, and if you’re not paying attention to your exteriors, you could lose an entire deal.
The interior of the home is the most concentrated on part of a house sale. You know that people are going to be wandering from room to room, making judgements and imagining their own furniture and decoration in the place that you’ve spent years working hard to make look beautiful. It doesn’t work for books – you would never judge one by its cover – but when it comes to your house, how much attention have you really paid to the outside? Taking yourself across the street to just take a moment and look at your home is important. Are the garage doors looking tired and chipped? Are the light fittings outside dirty? Do the windows need to be cleaned? Are there any bright flowers looking nice outside? All of these questions need answering, and it could make the difference between whether your home is ready for viewing. The last thing that you want to do is to put your home on the market looking less than presentable, and while you may not have cared whether you have a garage door that’s a little stiff and doesn’t work, and you may not have cared what colour flowers are planted outside, other people will. Think about it; the most beautiful box of chocolates will be the first off the shelf, because it looks appealing and people can imagine biting into a luxuriously smooth sweet. You need to make your home the chocolate box that appeals to the people who look at it. You can’t imagine the house to look good, you have to make it happen so that your home sale can go through quickly.
[Photo courtesy of Caliber Roofs/wikimedia.com]
A potential buyer can take eight seconds to decide whether they could buy a home. Even if they could make changes to the exterior to suit them, they shouldn’t have to, and they’ll be thinking just that when they view your house. If you booked to view two houses and one had a beautifully laid out front lawn, a tidy driveway and daisies dotted around the grassy area, and the other was overgrown with weeds, had debris all over the drive and the only flowers were wild ones strangling the daisies, which would you pick? We know, we’d go for the tidy one, too. The moral here is that while someone could make changes and tidy a house up, they’d rather move into one where the owner has shown that they care about the house itself. If your house doesn’t have the right curb appeal, the only message that you will be sending is that you really couldn’t care less whether your house sells or not.
For most people, improving their curb appeal won’t add value to the house, but that’s not what you are aiming for here. The whole point of curb appeal is to attract buyers, and while that won’t necessarily add value, it will get you that sale that you so desperately want. Getting potential buyers excited and in the right, positive frame of mind before they even step into your house is important, as that could be all you need to entice them around the house and get them to make an offer. You need to set up your property on the outside as carefully as you would on the inside. So, if you’ve already added flowers to vases across the house, washed and pressed the curtains so that they hang in neat pleats, and shampooed all the carpets so that they look as good as new, you need to read these ways you can improve your curb appeal.
[Photo courtesy of Justin Henry/flickr.com]
Paint The Front Door
Your front entrance hall has already been repainted and decorated to look fresh and beautiful, but what about your actual door? The rust across the letterbox and the door handle are not appealing to buyers. They want to see some care, so getting the front door sanded down and repainted to match the tone of the house is important. Peeling paint that has been weather-beaten does not invite a buyer to want to buy, it tells someone that you haven’t shown your home due care and attention. The best thing you could do for your front door is to go bold with the colour. You could go for an electric blue or yellow like these doors here and really make people give your house a second glance. It also shows a little of your personality off, compared to the more neutral interior that you are trying to sell.
Door Furniture Matters
If you have a modern build, then heavy Victorian letterbox features and door knockers are not going to match and will look ridiculously out of place. Try and avoid a doorbell that plays a jingling tune other than the standard: it looks tacky and that’s something that you definitely want to avoid.
[Photo courtesy of Outdoor Lighting Perspectives of San Antonio & the Hill Country, LLC Follow
/flickr.com]
Light It UP
Outdoor lighting is going to change the overall look of your house, making it look beautiful in the evenings and stylish in the daylight. Most houses come with outdoor light fixtures near the front door, which add symmetry to the overall look. Update these if they are looking tired or out of touch with the neighbourhood. These little expenses will make a difference to the attractiveness of the home, and you want that to happen so that you can bring in the right buyers. If you really want to impress, make most of your lighting hidden and motion sensitive, so that when people walk up your front path their way is lit for them. Good lighting is mostly hidden and impressive when it switches on.
Tidy Up
The pathway that leads up to the front door should be clear of debris and look smart. If the path is uneven, invest in getting it levelled and tidied. You should be able to make an entrance from the beginning of the drive to the front door, which means tidying the flower borders and making sure bushes are trimmed back. Cars and kids’ bicycles should be parked out of the way and if they have to be out, not left halfway across the drive. Newly painted railings and a tidy porch are a must, as they have a reputation for being a bit of a dumping ground for coats and rain boots. Porches have the ability to give an air of distinction, but if yours isn’t looked after properly, the only air it’ll give off will be stinky!
Windows!
These are the eyes of the home. The light comes in through them to make everything inside look beautiful, but if your windows aren’t beautiful on the outside then all you’re likely to achieve is a nice house with dirty windows. Bring in professional window cleaners for the upstairs if you must but get the windows as sparkly clean as possible before you have any viewings. You want people to want to come into the house, not feel disgusted by the outside. Rotten window frames are also not a good look, and you should be ensuring your frames are sanded back and painted before you put your home on the market. They don’t have to be white, though, you can choose to colour match the front door so that you give your home a unique look.
[Photo courtesy of /pxhere.com]
Greenery
Flowers aren’t just something to see. They’re brilliant to give people a chance to smell their way into your home! Lilies are an example of a flower that is very strong-smelling, and planting these in the borders along your path can give your home a gorgeous scent, drawing people in and turning heads from the pavement. It doesn’t matter how small the space is in front of your home, you can do a lot with a little greenery. Making window boxes that are uniform in colour and even having hanging baskets outside the front door can really give your house a makeover. Try and avoid creeping ivy up the walls of the house, though. They make people imagine bugs and spider webs, which isn’t what you want people thinking about when they come to the outside of your home.
Curb appeal isn’t something that you should take for granted. You want to make a good impression, and the way that you can do that is with a beautiful exterior that matches the interior. Go big and go to your new home – because now you can afford it!
