Curb Appeal & Preparing Fronts Of Houses To Sell

So you've decided to sell! Or maybe you've just moved in! You've calmed down the colours, tidied away the clutter and created an harmonious interior...but have you given any thought to your Curb Appeal?

Selling Your Home?

Don't Leave Money
On The Table
Stage Your Home
To Sell Faster For More

How To Create Curb Appeal Curb appeal what's that?

This term seemed to cross the ocean a few years back but like ‘Entrepreneur’, ‘Bureau de Change’ & ‘Schadenfreude’ there doesn’t seem any better way of saying it.

Whatever your home is like, it will have a front door, and very probably a path leading up to it.

Your potential buyers will have wandered up the road and past all the other fronts of properties, wondering ‘which is the property I am going to view?’. This is likely, as they may only have seen internal photos of your property so far. Will yours stand out for the right reasons?

Does yours 'Do Good Front'? Has it got Curb appeal?

It doesn't matter if you are moving or staying put...Who wants to be greeted every day as you leave or return to your property by:

Rubbish & recycling bins.
Sad looking pots and planters.
Scraggy bare bits of earth.
Litter strewn paths and flower beds.
The kids toys and buggies.

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Take a pen and paper and take a look...walk down to the end of your road then turn and walk up to your front gate, if you have one!:

Is your front hedge tidy and neat, or can’t you even see into the front garden it is so overgrown?
How about the boundary wall or fence? is it well maintained or is half of it creating an impromptu 'rockery' in the flower bed?
What about the front gate, oiled and easy to use or fallen down and rusting nicely in the flowerbeds?
What about the path leading up to the front door? Even and firm or is it like a 'funhouse' path...you're never quite sure which paver will rock, unexpectedly!
How about the flower beds…Barren and bare or flourishing?
Is it an obstacle course dodging the wheelie bin, recycle boxes and abandoned kids toys…mmmm nice way to greet those buyers!
What about the gutters and down pipes, neat and tidy or sprouting a few plants in all the debris that’s built up?
How does the front of the house look from the path, the windowsills, the paintwork the pointing? Is it flaking and dirty? Could the window sills do with a bit of TLC?
What about the interior that you can see from outside, does it look welcoming or worrying?

There are lots of easy ways of improving the Curb Appeal of your property.

Start with the practicals

Is there a clear path between the pavement and your front door, If not, what is in the way & What needs to be there?
How's the upkeep and appearance of the front?
Is anything infront of your property that could be a distraction?
Is there anything attractive to draw the eye to the front door?

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Dustbins
If there is no other space for the dustbins/ wheelie bins/ recycling containers then can you create a specific area to the side of the path that will house these, often unsightly, containers. How about building a dedicated storage area in brick or wood to screen these containers?

Paths, Gates, Boundaries
Is it time to get the front area repaved? Does the drive need relaying? These are not the most exciting projects but they are very important if you want to maintain the value of your house.
Showing that these practical but still essential areas are well maintained will send a signal to your buyers that the overall maintenance of your house is good.

It's worth bringing in the professionals to do the work here. Laying a path is one thing but creating a solid and long lasting drive is dependant on using good quality materials, reparing the area thoroughly and using the correct machinery to carry the job out.

Paintwork, Windowsills, Down-pipes and Drains
Are these all looking well kept. make a plan of the work that needs doing and tackle one job a weekend over the dry spring and summer months. Check the guttering for a build up of vegetation, flush out the down pipes and clear the drains.

Check for rotting sills and bases of window frames. Catch rot early and treat it before you need to replace a whole window or frame.

Bikes? Toys? Buggies and Sports Stuff?
Do you need to store all of these on the doorstep? Perhaps you haven't used the bike for a few months. Could it go somewhere else? have the kids stopped playing football? Time to put it away until the new season.

Do you have room to build a simple storage seat or cupboard in your porch area? this could neatly house all those small but messy bits and pieces that often get left at the front door:

Wellies & boots
Dog toys and leads
buggies and pushchairs
toys and outdoor sports equipment.

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Now the Pretty Bits

Give the garden a good 'haircut', has that bush in the front become rather overgrown...it is probably blocking out light to your front garden and front room.

Time to rethink the beds. In these days of water shortages perhaps you want to look into planting a low maintenance flower bed with shrubs and bushes that supply year round foliage but grow more slowly and densely.

Perhaps think about getting some advice from your local gardener or landscape gardener. They will suggest plants that will create an attractive, coordinated front and may even draw up a planting list for you.

Add seasonal colour near your door with planters, boxes and baskets. Group pots together on the doorstep during summer, this helps reduce the water loss and create more impact than having the odd pot scattered here and there.

Don't forget to treat your front door to a bit of TLC.

Its worth washing it down in the spring and summer, air-born dirt and soot eats into the paint and glass and reduces the life of the paint.

Polish up your brass once a quarter. Doing this regularly will stop the build up of hard to shift tarnish. it's much easier to do if you take it off and polish on a flat surface.

Add an attractive good quality door mat...that tatty old one looks awful and is shedding fibres all over the place.

Remember - You never get a second chance to make a great first impression, so follow these great staging tips and prepare your home to sell faster, for more!

Other rooms covered in this series of articles:

For more advice on how to tackle and stage every room in your home take a look at The Property Coach™ Home Staging Handbook