The outside of your house is the first thing that prospective buyers see, and can set either a positive or negative tone for the whole showing of the home. Even if the inside of your home is spectacular, buyers who are disappointed with what they see outside may enter your home with a poor attitude, or worse yet, not even take the time to see what the inside is like. On the other hand, great curb appeal on the exterior of your home can have the buyers in a fantastic mindset before they walk through the front door, and can make a sale that much easier. Who would have thought that exterior decorating could have as big or bigger of an impact on potential buyers than the house itself?!
The first step is to take a good, long, completely objective look at your house. Cross the street or stop on the other side of your driveway and really look at your house. What do you like about what you see? What don't you like? Look for things that obviously need fixing - like broken railings, chipped paint, broken stairs, missing boards in your fence, etc. After you have picked out the obvious, look for less subtle things. Has the grass grown up between the cracks in your sidewalk? Is your siding dirty or dingy looking? Make a list of the features you like and those you don't like. Be sure to view your house from several different angles. Once you have your list, take a look at it and see if you can think of ways to downplay the features you don't like while drawing attention to those you do.
Now that you have an idea of what you need to do, the next step is to clean up your yard and driveway. Eliminate all clutter, clean up debris. Mow your lawn, trim down the weeds around buildings and fences and pull any weeds in the cracks in your sidewalk. The cleaner your yard looks the better, so be brutal. Do you have a rundown swingset in your yard and your kids are away at college? It's probably time to get rid of it. You get the idea.
If your paint on your siding seems to be in good condition and the color is not outdated, sometimes all that is needed to completely rejuvenate it is a good washing. You can either rent a power washer or wash it by hand. Try a small area first and see how well it is cleaning up. If it doesn't look like a simple washing is going to do the trick, you should strongly consider repainting it, which is covered in the next section.
Paint is relatively inexpensive, can be done quickly with a rented paint sprayer, and can add a whole lot of money to the selling price of your home - especially if your house is currently an unattractive or outdated color, or if the current paint job is not in great shape.
When picking a paint color, you should pick something neutral, but don't be afraid to go with a rich neutral (ie. a warm taupe instead of a plain white) Avoid choosing colors that could turn away potential buyers - just because you love bright purple doesn't mean that the people buying your home will. Before you buy all of the paint for the whole house, buy a sample of several different colors and paint a section about 3 ft x 3 ft with each color in an inconspicuous place on the house. Allow them to dry, then leave them on for at least a day. Take a look at them at different times throughout the day as changes in lighting will change the appearance of the color of the paint. After a day with the samples on your house you should be able to make a choice as to which color looks the best.
You'll also need to choose a color for your trim. Often times you can find paint chips at the paint store that have coordinated colors already on them to make the job of choosing easier. If not, consider going with either a cream or a dark neutral depending on the main color you have chosen for the house.
Another point to think about is that if your entryway is hard to see or blends with the rest of the house you should consider painting your front door an eye-catching color. Consider red if it will work with your color scheme, or go with a dark brown or black if red won't work. It will help the entry to stand out and seem more inviting.
Once you have chosen your paint color, the next step is to determine how much you need. Behr has a great calculator that can help you figure it out here:
Once you have your paint you just need to rent your paint sprayer, cover your windows and doors and paint away. Also, be sure to coordinate any outbuildings or fences to match with your new paint color. The more united everything looks the sharper it will all look, which means more money in your pocket.
Flowers, flowers and more flowers. There's something about flowers that makes people feel like they have come home. You can plant them in the ground, or if you aren't up to digging flower beds plant them in planters. Consider putting flower beds on either side of the sidewalk coming up to the front of your home. Or, place two large pots of flowers framing your front door. Try a hanging basket to liven up a dreary porch.
Or, if you have plain old boring windows across the front of your house consider adding window box planters. Plastic window planters are inexpensive and can immediately pump up your curb appeal. Plant eye catching plants like ivy, geraniums, pansies, petunias and snapdragons. Check out our section featuring pictures of homes useing window boxes to increase their curb appeal and ideas of how to make inexpensive planters to get inspired!
If you have a porch consider finding a wicker chair at a thrift store or garage sale to put out. Get a small table to go with it and you have an instant place where buyers can envision themselves relaxing in the evening after work. If you already have a little table and chairs that will work, all the better!
If you want to see some inspiring before and after photos to get some ideas of what magic you might be able to work with your own house, check out this page on the HGTV website: