Getting Your House Ready to Sell: Curb Appeal

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Getting Your House Ready to Sell: Curb Appeal
by Rachel Paxton

Getting your house ready to put on the market? Moving is never fun, and what is even less fun is getting your house ready to be put up for sale. Especially if you have little ones underfoot, you are definitely going to have your work cut out for you.

After you get the inside of your house ready to show, it's time to move to the outside. There are a number of ways you can give your home the "curb appeal" that will attract potential buyers to your home.

curb appeal One easy way to draw attention to the front of your home is with flowers. If you have limited flowerbed space, containers are a great way to go. If you have a long sidewalk leading up to your front door you can set several large pots along the walk way, and then put one or two by your front door. You can also hang baskets from the edge of your roof. I have one hanging on each side of my front door just above the top step. If you have a lot of greenery in your front yard, this little bit of color can really make your front door stand out.

If your front door is old and worn, you might consider replacing it. We live in an older house, but the front door has been replaced in the past five years. It has a beautiful glass decorative window in the center of the door. When you drive up to the house, your attention is drawn right to it. It really adds to the curb appeal of the home.

Pay close attention to the front entryway of your home. Walk up to your front door and take a look around. Does your door mat look inviting, or does it need to be replaced? Do you have cobwebs up above your front door? Are there dirt and debris on your front steps and walk way? Pay attention to these areas and make sure they are clean and maintained. Take a look at the trim around your front door and see if it needs touched up. Some trim paint and a paint brush will have your doorway looking like brand new in just a few minutes.

Take a look around the outside of your home and look for any other signs of peeling paint. Peeling paint is very easy to fix and shouldn't be overlooked. You don't want prospective buyers to think they have a lot of work to do after they move in. If your house is in move-in condition, buyers will also be less likely to try to lower the selling price of the house if they think they are getting a house in good condition.

Depending on where you live and the price range of your home, you might consider adding some sort of extra feature like a water fountain to your front yard. The last home we lived in was a stucco home that had a southwestern look. We purchased a very large terra cotta fountain and placed it in one of the front flower beds near the front door, just off of the front walk way. We purchased it at an end-of-season clearance sale at a local nursery. When we put our home up for sale we got a lot of comments about that fountain, and the woman who purchased the home mentioned several times how much she loved it and how much it stood out when you walk up to the home. It seems silly a fountain can help sell a home, but little details do make a difference.

If you have a lot of landscaping, you might want to consider bringing in a professional to help get your yard looking its best. We have a couple of beautiful evergreens on either side of our front door that suffered slight frost damage over the winter. We also have a couple of boxwoods that are overgrown. Normally I might try to tackle these on my own, but as we put this house up for sale, we are going to have someone come in and trim everything in the front yard up for just a couple of hundred dollars.

While your home is for sale, make sure you mow your lawn every week and that it gets watered regularly. If you have any dry spots in the lawn, put an extra sprinkler on it if you have to. Use a weed eater to go around all the edges, and make sure all your flowerbeds are weeded. If you have bark in your flower beds, consider freshening up your flower beds with new bark. Bark fades quickly, but new bark really stands out and makes your flowerbeds look great. All you need is a thin new layer on top of the old bark. Last but not least, make sure you clean up after your pets. Yard work is never fun, but try to keep up on the smaller details so that your yard looks its best. When people see your beautiful yard they will be able to imagine themselves living there and enjoying the fruits of all your labor.

If you have any porches or patios, put out a table and chairs so people can imagine themselves sitting there and enjoying the yard. This is especially important if you have a swimming pool. If you have a pool, make sure the area around the pool looks as inviting as possible. Flower pots and tiki torches are an inexpensive way to decorate the area around a swimming pool.

Don't forget the windows! I don't normally clean the outsides of my windows very often, but you really shouldn't neglect this task, especially if you are using irrigation water to run your sprinklers. Ideally you should clean the outsides of your windows at least once a year. If you have second story windows, Windex sells a product that comes with a wand that will reach several feet. You spray the windows with a hose, apply the cleaner with the wand, and rinse. I had good results with this product, but if you have a tall home you will need a longer wand. We put the wand it came with in the end of the pole that we use to fish debris out of our swimming pool, and this worked great even on the highest windows.

When you are getting your house ready for sale, don't forget to get the outside ready too. It is just as important as the inside. People will get their first impression of your home from the outside of it, and what they first see will determine whether they want to come in and take a further look.

Rachel Paxton, owner and publisher of Creative Homemaking, is a freelance writer and mom of five.

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