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You know the basic curb appeal storyline: If potential buyers don’t like what they see from the street, they might never get inside the front door. You might have done the same at some point yourself when shopping for a home.
Fortunately, unless you’re living in an Addams Family-like spookhouse, there are plenty of quick and easy ways to spiff up your home and give potential buyers a reason to come inside.
Yards should look appealing and inviting, a place where you’d like to relax on a pleasant spring afternoon. An easy way to do that is to keep the grass freshly groomed – don’t forget the edging – and plant beds freshly mulched, says Scot Kenkel of Clinton, TN., who trains real estate professionals through his Success Learning Institute.
An easily overlooked detail is the mailbox, Kenkel says. If it’s rusty, paint or replace it, whether it’s at the curb or by the front door, he says.
Kenkel says another detail easy to overlook when trying to boost curb appeal is the appearance of the windows. Sheets or blankets doubling as curtains are a definite no-no, but he says you also want to shoot for uniformity and balance in the windows. Leave all the curtains open, rather than some open and some closed.
“It isn’t the obvious, it’s the subtleties, like mini-blinds drooping in the middle,” Kenkel says.
Class up the joint by removing any junk cars, or even just extra cars in the driveway, he says. And bring the trash cans back from the curb as soon as possible and store them where they’re not visible from the street.
If you’re willing to roll up your sleeves, painting the front door in a contrasting color can spruce up the whole front of the house, he says. “Flanking the door with decent-looking greenery will help make the door appealing,” he adds.
Jeanette Fisher of Lake Elsinore, CA., a community college home-staging instructor and author of several books on staging and design, agrees with the concept of painting the front door in a contrasting color. It leads the eye to the front entrance, especially if there is a separate walkway to the front door from the street, she says.
But she cautions against ruining the curb appeal impact by painting the garage door in the same color. The garage door is bigger, and that’s all people will see, she says. It’s also a bad idea to paint the garage door a color different than the siding, she says, because the garage door should blend with the home rather than dominate it visually.
Fisher also advises decluttering the area around the doorway. “Get rid of all the little pots by the door. One massive pot is better,” she says.
When mulching, give yourself an edge by using cocoa mulch, Fisher says. It smells good, a bit like chocolate, she says. Talk about curb appeal!
Published on March 12, 2007Read full article at realestate.com