Increase Your Home’s Curb Appeal and Resale Value with These Simple Suggestions
Do you want to increase your home’s curb appeal and resale value? Whether you have just moved in or are looking to sell the house that you have lived in for years, increasing the curb appeal of your home is always a good idea. While it is true that it is what is on the inside that counts, the outward appearance of your home matters too. You spend a lot of time in your home, and you want to make it shine—either for you and your family or for the people who will live in your home after you.
Having a beautiful exterior is particularly helpful if you are looking to sell your home in the near future. A few simple fixes and a bit of sprucing up can make a huge difference in the final selling price of your home, They can also serve as an initial point of attraction to get consumers in the door to see the rest of your beautiful space.
Here are several tips to increase your home’s curb appeal and resale value…
Renew Your Exterior
If you truly want to transform the immediate appearance of your home, there is no better way than to replace or clean your siding if your home has it. For some homes, a fresh coat of exterior paint will do the job well enough (ensure you include your garage door too). Replacing siding, however, is the surefire way to give your home new life.
While siding replacement is one of the more expensive items upfront, it’s not as expensive as you might think, and it offers a complete renewal that no other simple fix can. According to my friends over at Vancouver Siding, estimates of materials and installation costs run between $6 and $12 per square foot.
With the installation of new siding, your home can be transformed into something entirely new. A modern, high-quality exterior can update the look of your home and up its potential resale value. Siding is an excellent investment beyond aesthetics as well, increasing the structural integrity of the building. New siding that is specifically engineered for your local climate can increase the longevity of your entire home, helping to keep you and your loved ones safe, warm, and dry.
Draw the Eye to the Entryway
You want your home to be a welcoming space, and one of the best ways to do that is to draw attention to your entryway. There are plenty of ways to increase the visual appeal of this section, with one of the simplest being a generous coat of paint. Brightly colored doors are crowd-pleasing features that appeal to a wide demographic. They help to draw the eye toward the entrance of your home, making guests or potential buyers feel like VIPs.
If you want to take this idea one step further, you might consider installing a steel door. These modern features come in many different styles to coordinate with a variety of home aesthetics, and have an excellent return on investment. Some experts have estimated that these investments will more than pay for themselves with nearly 102% of the initial cost recouped upon sale.
Beyond altering the door itself, there are other less permanent methods for drawing attention toward the entryway. One easy fix is adding in a bit of simple symmetry. You might try placing coordinating pots or plants on either side of your door, framing the entrance with life and color. A matching set of sconces is also an excellent and fairly low-cost investment that draws the eye in.
On a similar note, pathway lighting can lead the way to your front door with a bright and friendly warmth. Solar powered garden lights are an environmentally friendly and economical way to help guests find their way. For the simplest fix, try a welcome mat. This small addition is always a nice touch, helping to directly communicate the inviting nature of your home.
Pay Attention to the Ground Beneath Your Feet
Regardless of whether or not you yourself possess a green thumb, great landscaping is a must. With a few strategically placed plants you can take the land surrounding your home from fine to good and good to great in no time. If you have a pathway that leads to your door, you might consider lining it with flowers, or even herbs, for an edible addition. For larger shifts, planting a few new trees or relocating the ones that are already in your yard can make a big difference.
Much of the way that you style your front yard will depend on the architecture and location of your home. It is a good idea to invest in plants that are native to your area, as these will tend to thrive more easily than plants from outside of the local climate. It is equally important to use mulch materials (wood chips, rocks, pine straw, etc.) that accentuate your home and flowers/plants whenever possible.
If you do not know where to start, it is always a good idea to call in an expert. You might consider consulting with the employees at a local nursery or calling up a landscape architect to see what sorts of plants grow well in your climate. They know which plants work well and compliment one another. Utilize their expertise and the outside of your home will positively stand out in the neighborhood.
You will also want to be conscious of local weather patterns and the changing seasons. If your area has been in a drought recently, high-water plants are not likely to be a wise investment, whereas if you live in a particularly wet region, cacti and succulents could easily be overwatered.
Regardless of where you live, it is a good idea to get creative with the flora in your front yard. Start thinking beyond the usual green lawn—flowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs can all be beautiful additions to your overall aesthetic and provide an inviting entrance that welcomes potential buyers and drastically improves the curb appeal of your property.
Go for Detail
When it comes to increasing the curb appeal of your home, the little things really do count the most. A few small shifts can make a big difference in the appearance of your home. One of the best items to start with is one of the smallest and most-often forgotten features of a home exterior—the house number. The preferred styling of house numbers changes fairly quickly in the overall market, so odds are that this simple fix will add a flair of modernity to your facade. You will still want to make sure that the style is coherent with your overall aesthetic, though. Installing minimalist chrome numbering to a French chateau-style home is not necessarily the best choice.
Other simple switches in your aesthetic detailing include items such as a new mailbox and repainted trim. A fresh and friendly mailbox conjures up a feeling of small-town style and human connectedness, making it an appealing item to invest in. Repainting your trim can also be a wonderful and simple upgrade. Many homeowners find that a fresh coat of paint on the house trim makes the entire building look freshly painted, given a new lease on life with a few strokes of a brush.
You can also update your property by adding home automation features such as keyless entry and/or sensor/monitoring devices that can be smart phone controlled. They are relatively inexpensive upgrades and can be done yourself in a short time. Other options that can turn your home into a show house are to update the windows to energy star compliant options, add fencing to bring out important property features, and upgrading any old or weathered hardware (i.e. door handles, shingles, gutters, and even paving).
Do Not Forget the Roof
Because of the expense involved with replacing a roof, one of the very first things consumers will look at as they pull up to your home is your home’s top cover. Can you blame them? Whether it is missing shingles, flashing that has gone awry, or perhaps it is years of dirt, grime, moss, or algae that catch their attention, you can bet buyers will take a long look at your roof before entering the property.
Fortunately, the price to repair a roof is not always that costly. In fact, many repairs and professional cleaning can be done for under $1,000. Of course if a new roof is needed, and depending on your type/style, the costs could be well over $10,000. The more preventive maintenance you do to your roof while living in the home, the less you potentially will be out of pocket if the appraisal comes back with issues/concerns.
In Closing…
Regardless of whether you have just moved in or are planning to sell the home you have lived in for years, it is often a simple and worthwhile task to increase curb appeal. There are four categories to consider—the installation of new siding, the aesthetics of the entryway, the plant life of the front yard, and the little details that often get overlooked.
Look at your home and consider which of these suggestions might help increase the aesthetic appeal and resale value of your property. When you are all finished, you can step back and enjoy the beautiful new look, knowing when you are ready to put the house on the market, both buyers and investors will also be impressed as well.
Additional Curb Appeal Tips
30 Ways To Increase Your Home’s Value via HGTV
10 Steps To Great Curb Appeal by Karen Highland
Key Advice and Tips To Increase Your Home’s Curb Appeal and Resale Value
About Anita Clark Realtor
Anita Clark has written 648 posts on this blog.
by Anita Clark Anita is a residential Real Estate Agent in Warner Robins Georgia, with Coldwell Banker Access Realty (478) 953-8595, aiding buyers and sellers with all their real estate questions on her Warner Robins blog.