5 Ways To Improve Curb Appeal
It’s common knowledge that before selling, it’s important to spruce up the outside of the home to give a good first-impression to potential buyers.
Small upgrades to a home’s exterior like adding a fresh coat of paint to a front door, installing new landscaping, and adding a new deck easy are ways to increase a home’s value and add curb appeal.
In fact, 2015’s Cost vs Value remodeling survey showed that smaller replacement projects “are the ones that are most obvious to buyers when they first view a house in person or online, such as new door or garage door” and bring the largest payback.
According to the Huffington Post, these five exterior home improvement projects will help owners boost a home’s curb appeal:
- Sprucing up the landscaping. A recent study found that a home landscape upgrade can raise a home’s overall value by 10 percent to 12 percent. If deciding what to plant and when to plant it is overwhelming, talk to experts at a local gardening store. For large landscape undertakings, it may be worth it to hire a landscape architect.
- Cleaning windows. Have you cleaned the front windows lately? It’s an easy way to make a nice first-impression. Power washing the home’s exterior can also increase curb appeal. While power washing can be done by homeowners, it’s highly suggested to reach out to a professional for help just to be safe.
- Upgrading window shutters and the front door. A quick way to turn off potential buyers is an outdated front door. “A dated front door makes a house look cheap, and a worn front door makes a house uncared for or old,” says Huffington Post writer Ashley Wren Collins. The good news is simply upgrading to a steel door is inexpensive and ranks highest on the payback scale, returning 101.8 percent nationally, on average, according to the 2015 Cost vs. Value survey.
- Driveway resurfacing. A well maintained smooth driveway is an obvious sign for buyers that a home is taken care of.
- Giving the deck a face-lift. According to Wren Collins, “when it comes to showings and open houses, prospective buyers will remember the expansive feel that a wide deck provides.” If the home doesn’t have a deck in the first place, adding a wood deck recoups 80.5 percent of the cost, according to the Cost vs Value survey. Even cleaning and sanding an existing deck will give prospective buyers a good impression of the home.
Source:“5 Outdoor Home Improvements to Increase the Curb Appeal of Your House,” Huffington Post, (July 7, 2015)
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