Curb Appeal - First Impressions Count When Selling Your Home
By Raynor James, Fri Dec 9th
People selling their homes via real estate brokers get lots ofcoaching. People selling their own homes as FSBOs need the same.One of the most important topics on which FSBOs can benefit fromcoaching is "curb appeal." How does your home look when apotential buyer drives up to the curb and takes that allimportant first look?
Be Sure It Looks Great
Single family residences require the most work. The FSBO sellerof a single family home also has the most control of what isseen from the curb, so let's start there. Make sure grass iscut, leaves are raked, sidewalks swept and edged, and plantingbeds are freshly mulched. That's just the beginning.
Narrow walks leading to front doors are not inviting. If you canafford to have the walk replaced with a wider
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one, do it. A walkwith some curve to it is often appealing. One which is widerwhere it meets the public walk and wider as it reaches the frontsteps can look particularly inviting. If two men can approachyour front door side by side without jostling each other, yourwalk is sufficiently wide.
What if you have a narrow walk and a small budget? You canimprovise with brick, stone, or concrete pavers from Lowes orHome Depot if you're handy and healthy. Choose whichevermaterial is most compatible with your house. Dig out the grasson either side of your walk and lay a line of the chosen pavingmaterials parallel along each side of your walk. Fill in withmulch (not the colored type, just good earth toned naturalstuff, please), sand, or river gravel. Make sure there's a crispedge where the grass starts.
Large, overgrown shrubs that crowd the house and cover windowsare a negative. Prune them back. If there is a narrow plantingbed along the front of the house, widen it. Have the bed swoopin a curve around to the side of the house. Depending on thesize and scale of the house, plant something like a dogwood, abutterfly bush or a holly in the curve at the corner of thehouse. Make sure it will not be so close or so large as tooverwhelm the house in a few years. Fill in with smaller plantsat the front of the widened bed. Mulch. Mulch. Mulch. But themulch should be only two or three inches deep. Don't let it pileup on the trunks of trees.
Plant colorful flowers in containers on either side of the frontdoor if the season is conducive. Geraniums work well in sunnyspots. Impatiens are good in shade. Make sure the containers areof natural materials. Most plastic containers look tacky andcheap. Advertisements for luxury cars show them near expensivehouses and beautifully dressed people for a reason. Association.You want the things seen on the way to your front door to be ingood taste and of excellent quality. Fortunately, that doesn'tnecessarily mean they have to be expensive. Clay pots are good.Old iron urns are great with traditional homes. Oak barrels canlook wonderful with rustic homes. The addition of a bit oftrailing ivy or sweet potato vines can be attractive. It'spossible to achieve a miniature garden by combining severalsorts of plants in larger containers.
Make sure the front door is clean and the paint is in goodcondition. Be sure it swings on its hinges well. It needs toopen and close well and firmly. The doorknob should work welland not have any "bobble" motion when it's used. Exterior lightfixtures should be clean and free of rust. Front windows shouldbe clean and shining.
When preparing to sell your house, make sure you get everythingin order. As superficial as it may sound, curb appeal is adominant factor in getting sales.
About the author:Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org - providing FSBOhomes For Sale By Owner. Visit our "sell my home" page athttp://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm to list and sell your homefor free for one month. Visithttp://www.fsboamerica.org/buyer.cfm to see homes for sale byowner.
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