Whether or not you are planning to sell your home or just want to improve the overall look of it, investing in your home’s curb appeal always makes great financial sense.
If the front yard of your home looks like a barren wasteland or you have trouble seeing your house from the road due to overgrown shrubs, you should seriously consider investing in your home’s curb appeal.
Particularly if you are planning to sell your home, it is important to invest some money and time into your home’s front yard. Your home’s curb appeal is what generates the first impression to prospective home buyers. It could literally prevent a prospective buyer from looking any further at the home. “If this is what the outside looks like, what’s the point of seeing the rest of the house”, is frequently the thought that runs through a buyers mind when seeing a home without any curb appeal.
Adding curb appeal to your home doesn’t necessarily have to involve breaking your banking account. Listed below are some basic steps you can take to improve your home’s curb appeal.
1) Make sure the yard is free from clutter, e.g. lawn toys, patio equipment, unregistered cars and trailers.
2) Dispose of any old / broken lawn furniture or toys.
3) Make sure the yard is mowed, trimmed and raked.
4) If there are patches of dead grass, remove them and get some grass seed.
5) Make sure the gutters are in good working order and not hanging off the home.
6) Clean the gutters if they are not working properly.
7) If there are overgrown shrubs, prune them so the home can be seen from the road.
Add mulch around the shrubs to dress up the shrub area.
9) If the home is lacking shrubs plant some small inexpensive ones around the home’s foundation, and again apply mulch around the base of them.
10) Add a fresh coat of paint to the home if the home has either faded or cracking paint.
11) If the paint looks in good shape, then at least give it a power washing to get off the dirt and grime, and to brighten up the home.
12) Fix anything that is broken on the outside of the home, lights, gutters, shutters, door bells, etc.
13) Add some flowers to the front walkways and entrances.
14) Finally, make sure the yard is kept clean and neat.
With these basic steps your can dramatically improve your home’s curb appeal without breaking the bank. Most of these suggestions take only a little time and effort.
By: Mark Donovan
Posts Tagged ‘Prospective Buyer’
Improve Your Home’s Curb Appeal
April 27th, 2010Posted in Article
Tags: Banking Account Barren Wasteland Coat Of Paint Curb Appeal Dead Grass Dirt And Grime Financial Sense First Impression Fresh Coat Of Paint Front Yard Good Shape Grass Seed Gutters Home Doesn Lawn Furniture Mulch Overgrown Shrubs Prospective Buyer Prospective Home Buyers Unregistered Cars
Make Money From Home Improvements
January 29th, 2010
Increasing the value of your home with home improvement remodeling
When most people set about selling home they forget that their property is worth exactly what someone thinks that it’s worth. No more and no less. If a prospective buyer thinks that it’s worth more then you will make more money when you sell it. The location of your property and the size of it sets the base worth of the home but at the end of the day it won’t sell at the price you think it’s worth unless someone likes it when they view it.
So to increase the value of your home and make money when you sell it you need to make it look nice. That’s all you need to do, make it look great. By making your property look amazing instead of dull and tired you can increase the value of your home by as much as 20% in some cases and you can go a long way to achieving that goal without spending huge amounts of money.
Home improvement tip
So what makes someone like your property when they come to view? It isn’t the location or the size of the buildings because they new all that before they came to visit. Most people either fall in love with a place or hate it depending on what they see when they walk around. At the end of the day that comes down to the interior decorating and general impressions they get when walking around. Even clutter in rooms can put people off even though it has nothing to do with the property at all.
Concentrate on what your property looks like rather than trying to increase value with building work because that is what will give you the most increase in value for the least outlay of money.
Bathroom home improvement
The bathroom is a room that can really turn a visitor into a buyer if it looks good and there is a lot you can do to it without needing to spend a lot of cash on it.
Make sure that everything in the bathroom is spotlessly clean. Treat and eradicate any black mould that might be growing in places like the grout between tiles and the sealer around fixtures. The sight of black mould alone can be enough to put off a prospective buyer altogether. Always dry up any condensation as it forms as this encourages the mould to grow. Make cleaning a regular chore.
Lighting can play a big part in your bathroom experience so investigate soft soothing lighting arrangements. Small lights placed around the edges of a very small bathroom can make it look bigger than it really is which will immediately increase its perceived value.
Paint the walls and ceiling or better still, tile the walls. Light coloured tiles with simple designs are best for a bathroom and can be inexpensive. If you have the budget, tile the whole bathroom from floor to ceiling to give the biggest ‘oooh’ factor. This is very effective in a small bathroom.
You might decide to get a professional tile setter to tile your bathroom but you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself. It’s also a very satisfying job to do because it will look great and you can say that you did it all yourself. For tips on tiling your own bathroom read the article Setting Ceramic Tile With Ease
Repair and maintenance
Fix anything that doesn’t work properly and make sure that everything is well maintained. You don’t want your buyers to see the shower dripping because it won’t turn off.
Home improvement – remodeling and restoration
If you want to make a big impression on your buyers then you can think about more drastic measures like bathroom remodeling. Rip out all the old stuff, design a new layout that makes good use of space and add features that you didn’t have before like a separate shower cubicle. Provide subtle lighting, floor to ceiling ceramic tiles and your homebuyers won’t be able to resist.
By making improvements to make your home look better, no matter what they are, you can increase the value of your home by substantial amounts so don’t neglect it when you’re selling. Make money from home improvements.
By: Steve Gee