7 Ways to Increase Curb Appeal and Home Sales

This post, written by Bobbi Peterson, especially interested me because I just moved from California to Arizona and sold a house. Before my home went up for sale I did a lot of tidying up to make certain the gardens were neat and that the front porch and patios were inviting. Remember, curb appeal is very important and 1st impressions do matter!

These 7 tips will help you get your home ready for sale and hopefully pull a buyer in as quickly as possible:

If you’re looking to sell your home, either now or in the future, you need to know about the power of curb appeal. Curb appeal is how prospective buyers view the exterior of your home, from the minute they see it as they drive up to the last lingering look as they drive away. It includes front yards and back yards, and generally refers to how the house looks from the outside.

Curb appeal is about the aesthetics and cleanliness of the outside, but it has great monetary rewards. Excellent curb appeal can raise the selling price of your home by 10 percent. Realtors name it one of the top 10 most important qualities in selling a house.

So, how do you make sure your curb appeal is the best it can be? Garden and maintain your house with curbside appeal in mind. Here are seven ways to do just that.

One: Make Sure Lawns Are Well-Maintained

If you have a green lawn, make sure it looks wonderful. It should be freshly mowed, trimmed and edged when prospective buyers drive up. If your lawn is prone to weeds or invasion, make sure you have dealt with that ahead of time.
If you don’t have a green lawn, but do have regional plantings that require less water, make sure they look wonderful as well! Make sure the plantings are pruned and in peak shape.

Be prepared to talk about how and why a yard with regional plantings will benefit homeowners. Many parts of the country are in profound drought. (California comes to mind, but water conservation is an issue for many regions — and for many people.) Regional plantings are one of the methods gardeners use to make sure their water use is at a minimum.

If that’s true of your yard, don’t be afraid to have the data about water savings — and thus lower costs

Two: Tend to Flowers and Shrubs

Your flower beds, container plants, pots and shrubs should all be in peak condition: healthy, trimmed and free of blight or insects.

It’s also a good idea to brighten up the area with color that will draw the eye and look exceptionally pleasing. You might line a walkway, for example, with fast-growing, bright red or purple flowers. Two bright potted plants on either side of a door will look wonderfully inviting. The front door is a key point of contact for prospective buyers, so particular attention there will pay off in the long run.

A beautifully trimmed Bougainvillea hedge.

Three: Plant to Enhance Your Patio and Other Features

If you don’t currently have plantings around your patio or other features, such as a walkway or a pond, consider adding them before you show your house. They enhance the beauty and charm of nearly any feature.

If you’re thinking of selling a house in the future, be aware of their ability to add to the resale value of your home. A patio’s recovery value, for example, can range from 100 to 200 percent when you sell your home.

Four: Prune Trees

Make sure all your trees are nicely pruned. If you have fruit-bearing trees, make sure any fruit they may have dropped on the ground are picked up. (Dropped fruit can attract insects, and buyers might notice and be concerned. It’s particularly important for families with people allergic to bees, wasps or similar insects.)

One note: if you have a tree that’s close to the property line, be sure that it’s pruned and trimmed to be clearly far away. Trees extending over property lines indicate potential issues with neighbors over their property, and buyers who notice might see it as an issue that undercuts their desire to buy.

This Mesquite Tree has been pruned so that it enhances the front yard & the surrounding landscape.

Five: Place Fresh Mulch

If you mulch your garden, make sure you place fresh mulch around it. Bark and other mulch can look very attractive in its own way! Also, it indicates a well-tended, healthy garden that will be in good shape once the buyers take over.
In addition to this, there are all kinds of less obvious benefits to maintaining fresh mulch around your property.

Six: Tidy the Yards

Make sure yards are tidy and not cluttered. That means perhaps removing swings or inflatable pools or other kid-centered materials. They may not be attractive to people without kids, and you want to appeal to as many buyers as possible for the sale to move quickly. Also, if you leave out gardening tools, make sure they’re nicely put away.

Seven: Power Wash the Exterior

Make sure your power wash the exterior of the house and the windows. A clean and sparkling house is one you’ll look forward to presenting.

Curb appeal can be part of the overall appeal of a house, and an important one. Make sure your house’s exterior looks outstanding!

This gorgeous pot planted with Lavender is a focal point & makes this entry so appealing & welcoming.

Bobbi Peterson loves writing and regularly posts on her blog Living Life Green. She’s also a freelance writer, green living advocate and environmentalist. You can find more from Bobbi on Twitter.