3 Ways Curb Appeal Can Enhance Buyers’ First Impressions

Curb appeal is a very important aspect of selling a home. Popular television shows have encouraged potential buyers to be less interested in opening the front door if the outside of a property looks neglected or unloved. That’s why curb appeal has been shown to have an impact on both your home’s resale value and the time it takes to sell.

If you’re looking to boost your home’s value by investing in curb appeal, consider these three areas first: easy upgrades, simple security, and inviting landscaping.

Easy Upgrades: A Welcoming Picture

Think of your front door as a picture and the front of your house the frame. What do you want this picture to say to house hunters? Ideally, it says, “Come on in! The inside is as lovely as the outside.” While you can scale these upgrades to fit any budget, we’re going to focus on a few easy, simple and inexpensive ones to get you started. 

• Modern Address Numbers: Switch out those dull, lifeless house numbers that date back to the year your home was built with fresh, stylish modern numbers. 

• New Mailbox: According to Redfin, it’s important to replace a damaged, broken, or dented mailbox with one that is new, crisp and attractive. Remember that your mailbox is one of the first things a homebuyer will see. 

• Painted Door and Shutters: Update your doors and windows with a splash of paint to cover knicks, dings, chips and peeling paint. It’s always an easy way to update your exterior without having to repaint your whole house. 

• Clean Gutters: Take some time to remove any leaves and debris from your gutters. Not only is this a nice bit of maintenance to do to give new homeowners a fresh start, but it also adds balance and a clean image to your property.

Simple Security: A Safe and Comfortable Home

If your property looks secure from the outside, homebuyers will feel more comfortable on the inside. Some kinds of security features, such as bars on the windows, can often give the wrong impression about your neighborhood, so keep these features simple. 

• Installing a video doorbell that will give homeowners a chance to hear, see and even interact with people at their front door, even if they aren’t at home.
• Replacing a standard key lock with a keypad, which not only enhances security but gives your home a more modern feel and makes it easier for people to come in with full hands.
• Using motion-sensor lights that turn on when movement in the yard is detected.

Inviting Lawns and Gardens: Landscaping Made Easy

Lawn maintenance is one of the most important curb appeal elements that homeowners can prioritize. An easy one to start with is simply keeping your lawn trim and neat. If you aren’t sure your schedule can keep you on top of regular lawn maintenance, hire a landscaping company to come by each week and manage the lawn for you.

You may also want to add in these other aspects of landscaping: 

• Trim your trees and shrubs so you can enhance their foliage. The US Department of Energy says that homeowners could save more than $200 each year in heating and cooling costs with trees that are lush yet properly trimmed.
• Add symmetry and balance with walkways evenly lined with flowers or planters on either side of the front door with similar flowers or shrubs.
• Place high-quality mulch and native plants in flower beds.

Curb appeal is the easiest and most effective way to manage homebuyers’ first impression of your property. While you want to add these enhancements to your home, you also want to make sure it doesn’t imply that maintenance is a lot of work. Strike a balance between elegance and ease to ignite excitement and intrigue in house hunters, which will, in turn, help your home bring in higher asking prices and sell more quickly.