Marketing your home February 15, 2017

First Impressions – Tip for Marketing Your Home #2

I know you’ve heard it said many times….”Curb Appeal”. What does this really mean and how can you improve it when it comes to preparing your home for sale?

The first thing I’d recommend you do is to get in your car and drive around your neighborhood and look at other  homes. How do they look to you? What features do you find attractive? What places look unappealing and why? OK…now that you’ve done that, come back to your place and pull up in front. How does it look?

  • Does it appear well-kept?
  • Does it look like it needs work?
  • How does the front door look? If it has a screen door, is it in good shape?
  • Is the front walkway and porch inviting?
  • Are the shrubs trimmed away from the house?
  • Do trees block the view of the house from the road?

Sometimes, very little change needs to happen to make your home much more attractive to buyers. The big trees that you’ve always loved because they give you privacy, may not be helping the appearance of your home. Taking some  limbs off at the bottom of the tree, may make the house look more approachable. If the screen door is older and the dog may have knocked parts of it loose, take it off and store it in the garage or repair it. Little things like a scratched up front door or trim that’s showing some exposed wood, will give the impression that the house “needs a lot of work”, when maybe it doesn’t. If you have children and pets, the doors can take a real beating but that doesn’t necessarily reflect the condition of the home. A little paint can go a long way and is a very inexpensive way to improve the buyer’s first impression of your home.

Spring is an excellent time to put your home on the market and a pot of flowers on the porch (next to your freshly-painted front door), will send the message that this is a house that feels like “home”….

For tips on staging your home