Curb Appeal- your home's first impression

When prospective buyers see your house for the first time, your front yard curb appeal will have an immediate and lasting effect on them. While your home’s curb appeal may not seal the deal by itself, it can certainly hurt your chances of making a quick sale if it creates a bland or negative first impression. Therefore, if you want to sell your home quickly (and at top dollar), you need to get potential buyers through the front door.  Unfortunately, if your front yard curb appeal is lacking, you may never get to that point.

Consider your house’s curb appeal from a buyer’s perspective. Stand in front of your house with a notebook and pen and objectively take in your surroundings. Look for things that stand out or detract from the overall look and feel of your home. Take note of the following:

overgrown yards can be hard to attract
potential buyers



• Is the trim paint fresh and crisp – or is cracked, faded and peeling?
• Is the entryway to your home cluttered with items such as  toys, small planting pots or other items that can be easily removed?
• overgrown?  Are large shrubs blocking the front of the house and hiding its full potential? Are the planting beds full of weeds or in need of fresh mulch?

The first two of these items are easy enough to fix, but you might be intimidated by tackling the landscaping. Don’t be – landscaping for curb appeal is easy to do for even a novice gardener. In addition, improving your front yard curb appeal does not have to cost a lot of money. You simply need to make sure your plants are neatly trimmed, with well-defined edges around your beds. Colorful flowers and foliage will further enhance your landscaping curb appeal.

If your landscaping has been neglected for a long time or is need of a major overhaul – you still don’t have to invest a lot of money to increase curb appeal. Ideas to consider:

• What type of sun exposure does your property get?
• What type of soil do you have?
• What plants can be saved and used to create the backbone of your new landscape?
• What is the overall scale of your property? (Is it a small city lot or an expansive country setting?)

These questions will help you determine what type and how many plants you need to buy to improve your landscaping curb appeal. No sense buying a bunch of stuff that won’t thrive in your environment or will overwhelm the space you have. At this point, a trip to your local home improvement store or nursery, plus some elbow grease should do the trick.

Here are few more easy-to-implement curb appeal ideas:

• Plant for all seasons. Evergreens offer a bright spot in the dead of winter and early spring flowers are a great pick me up.
• When adding color – don’t use just one plant. Instead, plant in odd-numbered multiples (3, 5, etc…) for greater visual impact. If your lot is bigger, use more plants.
• Don’t forget vertical space when landscaping for curb appeal.  Plant for staggering heights with taller plants in the back closer to the house and shorter plants toward the front of your beds.

 

 Not only will these curb appeal ideas help improve the overall look and feel of your home – they can definitely improve your chances of selling your home fast.