Curb Appeal: Your Home's Red Carpet
Our pre-listing plan focuses heavily on the interior of the home, but the outside is perhaps more important to capture top dollar. Think of your front yard as the "red carpet" you roll out to welcome buyers. You never get a second chance to make that first impression. Here are some tips on how to create a "love at first sight" potion for your property!
Landscape
The most obvious area is the front yard, which should translate as welcoming and well-kept. Remove yard art, fake or dead plants, and any empty planters. Neatly coil hoses. If you have a fountain, make sure it's clean and running. Depending on how long it's been since you did a major clean up, now's the time, and it can be expensive. Think of it like pet grooming: an overgrown, matted coat costs more to fix than an overdue trim. I once spent $5,000 to clean up a half acre lot that was so overgrown you could barely tell we did anything!
More often, it's just trimming/shaping bushes & trees, weeding/edging beds, and fresh mulch. Dark mulch is the most photogenic, but if you already have pine trees in your yard, fresh pine straw is the way to go ($8/bale). This listing in Rivertowne took 100 bales!
New sod isn't a must, but in order to see value in the backyard, buyers need to see grass. One pallet of centipede sod covers 500 sqft and costs $600 (or $800 if you need top soil). The yard needs to stay nice until closing. If you need help, we can recommend our landscaper who does one time clean-ups and routine maintenance.
Lighting
Changing out the front porch or garage carriage lights is an inexpensive way to update your home's look. Black fixtures with clean lines always work well - we like barn style or rectangular. It's better to go too big than too small, so look for fixtures that are at least 18" tall.
We don't recommend the staked, solar powered path lights. If you're going to do outdoor lighting, go with a professional install, but remember that showings happen in the daytime. Sellers rarely get credit for the twilight look unless a buyer is specifically tuned in to that (which would be me, because I'm obsessed with landscape lighting!).
Color
Your home definitely needs color to photograph well. If your exterior siding is a color, that could be enough (like the Rivertowne house above). But if it's neutral or brick, you'll want to add a pop of color at the front door. Lauren is a certified paint color expert. She'll bring swatches out to choose the perfect hue, like the Bracing Blue we chose for this Park West home.
We recommend a neutral color for the shutters. Charleston Green is our favorite - a green so dark it looks black. You can also achieve this with flowers! Two matching planters flanking the front door with brightly colored annuals will do the trick.
Before The Inspection
After reviewing hundreds of home inspections, we know what Inspectors look for. To prepare for the inspector, make sure:
-Bushes trimmed away from the siding
-Tree branches trimmed away from the roof
-Gutters clean & roof free of leaf piles
-Crawl space access door cleared and accessible
-Motion activated or dusk-to-dawn lights labeled so inspector doesn't note a "non working" light
