What’s curb appeal? Curb appeal is a synonym for how eye-catching your home is from the street. Making the right exterior decor choices and performing the right type of repairs can give your home curb appeal that causes buyers to stare in awe when they arrive. Even more lucrative, making the right type of “finishing touches” can add plenty to the sales price of your home.

Go out to the road and walk past your home. What catches your attention? The dirty windows? The pinestraw on the roof? The weeds in your planters? These are the items you want to take care of. Make a list of the things that catch your eye and stand out. Tackle the ones that can be remediated without a lot of expense and make the biggest difference in the curb appeal of your home.

• Remove the clutter and debris from your yard. Lawn mowers, children’s toys, grills, flashing neon pink flamingo statues… you get the idea. Pickup any fallen branches and rake up leaves and pine needles.
• Work on the landscaping. Purchase some inexpensive plants and flowers from Lowes, Home Depot or your local nursery and apply liberally. Don’t forget to put some type of mulch (clean pinestraw, cypress chips, rock, etc.). Mow the lawn and keep it neat throughout the period that your home is on the market. Sweep off the driveway and edge any concrete (driveway, walkways, patios) if necessary.
• Don’t ignore the exterior of the house itself. If the wood surfaces such as lap siding or fascia and eaves are looking rough, now would be a good time to make a new friend who will give you a good discount on exterior painting. Replace any rotted wood on the exterior of the house — 9 times out of 10 you will need to replace it eventually in order for your buyer’s lender to extend financing on the house. An inexpensive feature that is often missing from many homes is decorative shutters. If they jive with the exterior style of your house, install them beside all of the front windows and any other windows that are visible from the street.
• Check all “attachments” on the house such as front porches, patios, even things such as corner lights and landscaping lights. Make sure that everything is in good shape and working order.
• If you happen to live on the water, make sure not to overlook your dock and related structures. Replace the styrofoam floatation pieces under a sagging floating dock, seal the planks on the surface with a decorative type sealant, etc. In many areas, interest in homes on the water is generated not only by people driving by on the road, but also by passing boaters on the lake or river. This is very important in coastal markets where recreational boating and fishing are dominant activities. In addition, worn out decking and rails may mislead prospective buyers into thinking that dock supports may be worn out also.

If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve got some serious curb appeal! Keep it up while your house is on the market and hopefully you’ll see a big payoff when the right person sees your home!

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

Brandon L. Boyce is a REALTOR® and licensed real property appraiser in Liberty County, Georgia with Islands Real Estate and Appraisal Company (www.islandsrealestate.net). He has been providing marketing and valuation services to property owners since 2001 and specializes in coastal and waterfront properties.

Sponsored by Bob Roscoe, Mortgage Marketing Associates, Minneapolis, Minnesota

More on Curb Appeal

By Guest Author Donald Lawson

As a home inspector, I get to see many mistakes by people selling their home without a real estate agent, commonly referred to as FSBO’s or For Sale By Owner. If you do your homework and research and have some financial sense, you can probably sell your own home. However, I see many people who fail when going this route.

Here’s why:

1. Pricing The Home Too High: Seems everyone thinks they live in a goldmine. The common misconception is that they will price it high so they can come down a little bit during negotiations. This has several problems related to it.

Here’s one. Many homebuyers are on a budget. Let’s say I’m looking for a home like yours in your neighborhood and most of the homes there that are comparable are in the 135k to 145k ranges. However, you have tile floors and stainless steel sinks along with a few other cosmetic improvements. You think your home is worth at least 147k. Tack on a few thousand more “so you can come off of the price during negotiations” and you start your home at 152k

As a homebuyer, the most I can spend is 145k. Although your home is what I’m looking for, you’re outside my price range so I won’t even bother to look at your house.

That’s just one example of how a too high price is going to hurt you. There are many, many more!

2. Letting Emotions Direct Your Actions: Many times this is the reason your home is priced too high. Remember, this is a business transaction. You have a product to sell, you need act accordingly.

3. Failing to Get Your Home Inspected Before Listing: I’ve seen FSBO’s go to great trouble and expense to get their home ready to sell only to find out from the potential Buyers Inspector that there are major structural, plumbing, electrical or mechanical issues with the home.

Depending on the severity of the problems, this probably cost you a Buyer and it means your home will be sitting on the market for a few more weeks or months.

National survey’s reveal that homes that have had pre-inspections sell faster with less hassle at closing. FSBO’s are no different.

4. Being a Jerk: I see this one more than you’d think. For some reason selling your home by yourself seems to give you a special excuse to be a jerk judging by the way some FSBO’s act.

Being unreasonable in your actions will drive away Buyers. No one likes a jerk!

I’ve seen FSBO’s make some of the most stupid request of Buyers like; one guy would only show his home on Sunday afternoons between 4 and 6 p.m. and you had to RSVP so he’d have you on his “list”. He wondered why no one was showing up at this home. I saw another FSBO that would not allow his home to be inspected without him, his attorney and his inspector being present. He also required each item to be brought up to him and his group before telling the Buyer. Needless to say, we didn’t inspect this home. Note: many state SOP’s require that you do not divulge information to anyone other than the Client.

It’s a fact of life, being a jerk cost you money. Not only in real life, but also when you go to sell your home!

5. Not Pre-qualifying Your Buyers: Letting any old Moe and Joe lock up your home while they try and get qualified can cost you Buyers if they fail to qualify for a loan. Require that all potential Buyers be pre-qualified!