Although some experts are predicting a great spring market, others are forecasting a real estate bubble burst. What most areas are feeling, however, is a surge in home sales. If you are considering putting your house on the market this spring, there isn’t much time to waste. Since it is a buyer’s market, putting a little extra effort into upgrading your home can make a big difference in how your house stacks up against others in your area and the amount you can get for it.
There are many things you can do to spruce up your curbside appeal for the spring that will cost you very little but sweat equity. If you want to create a favorable impression of your house, these are ways to make your landscaping come alive and capture onlookers’ interest from the street.
Clean up beds
There is nothing that can make a house look worn-down and neglected more than flower or shrub beds that are full of waste, which means garbage or otherwise. If you didn’t get to last year’s fall clean-up, don’t think the additional leaves are serving as mulch. They aren’t; they are just sitting around making your exterior looked unloved. If you want to up your curbside appeal, then the first place to start is by cleaning everything up — and that means everything. Don’t think you can just throw some wood chips over rotten fall foliage and call it a day.
Power wash your house
When walking around your house after you’ve lived in it awhile, all those imperfections around you begin to fade and you can’t see them anymore. It is very common to walk through your front door every day without ever taking the time to look around and see how ragged and worn down the siding of your house is. If you have been fearing the cost of repainting or re-siding your house; stop. Often, all your exterior needs is a little TLC with a power washer.
Many of the power washers that you purchase for residential use simply aren’t enough to clear away years of grime and dirt. Instead of hiring painters, call in a professional power wash company. They can get to the high and dangerous parts and do a better job. You would be amazed at how much you can restore the aesthetics of your siding with just a little washing.
Paint your entry door
Your front door gets a lot of abuse, but you don’t have to replace it to make it beautiful. Sometimes all it takes is a nice paint job with a refreshing color to alter the brick walkways entrance of your home or spruce up your front door to make it look less lived-in. If you have a door that has been painted several times and is looking a little haggard, if the wood is good or has character, consider having it stripped. Bringing back the natural wood and staining it again can give your older home, a classic and traditional charm that you can’t get with new wood doors.
Add pops of color
If you want to attract the buyer’s eye and grab their interest, then add color for a focal point. Put flowers in urns around the door to make your home look more stately, or use hanging baskets to add charm to the front porch. Just a little mix of color will add a homey and traditional look to your home and let people know that it is well-maintained and cared for. If you have some rough spots, flowers are a great way to hide imperfections.
Change your mailbox
There is nothing that makes your exterior look drabber than an unexciting mailbox. Although they are a utilitarian necessity, there is no reason why you can’t also make your mailbox beautiful and whimsical. Consider putting flowers on it, using a reproduction mailbox to make your home look more elegant, or completely scrapping the old and putting up something that looks more modern and contemporary. You may not notice the mailbox on your front porch anymore, but someone new who is coming to look at your home will.
The biggest way to improve traffic flow to your home in the real estate market this spring is to make small improvements that don’t cost much but make your curbside much nicer. It is the small details that attract the buyer’s eye and may help them make an emotional connection more than major renovations that may not end up paying for themselves.