Selling Your Home? Don’t overlook curb appeal!

When I meet with homeowners who are considering selling their homes, there are things that are often easy to see to recommend to spruce up to help make the home more attractive to buyers.

Sometimes, though, it is easy to overlook some, or to decide not to do updates because of cost.

Door Emporium had a great infographic put together to show the cost vs return on many “curb appeal” items that homeowners may not think of or consider when getting ready to sell their homes. I wanted to touch on a few of the items below.

1) Roof, Chimney and Gutters. If your roof doesn’t look good from the road, a buyer may wonder if there is something wrong, and if they are going to have to take on a roofing expense soon if they were to buy the house, to make it look better you can use roof flashing. It may even knock the house out of the running before the buyer even enters the house. And clean out those gutters! It is especially important in the fall when the leaves and pine needles are clogging them up!

2) Wash/Paint the Exterior. Green stuff growing on the side because of the lovely mature trees you have? Those trees may be a great feature, but the moss/algae/mildew needs to go. Scrape and paint cracked and peeling windows. *Note: If your home is built before 1978, and if you aren’t sure whether the paint may contain lead, make sure to hire a professional who is licensed to work with lead based paint hazards! 

3) Landscape, Lighting, and Mail. Yes, landscaping is important, even in Fall. You don’t want to overdo it, because you don’t want buyers thinking that your yard is high maintenance. But clean up the beds around bushes, trees, and the like, make it tidy and nice! Make sure you have good lighting as well, because it is going to get dark EARLY in the Fall! And finally, make sure your mailbox is nice, whether next to your door, or at the base of your driveway. Remember, buyers are going to see those and yes, they will judge!

There are a number of good ideas in the Door Emporium post, and I appreciate their take on it. I hope you like mine!

If you are considering selling a house in Towson or Timonium or surrounding Baltimore areas, please contact me. I would love to help!

 

Photo courtesy of ARNOLD Masonry and Concrete via Flickr CC