Everyone wants to get the most they can for their house. If you’re looking to sell your house, what’s the best way to increase its value without spending too much money? Two words: curb appeal. Even if you aren’t getting ready to sell your home, you want it to look nice to everyone who passes by. When you’re selling a home, you have to make some investments in improving your home’s curb appeal if you want it to do well on the market, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a huge expense.
According to bradsdeals.com, there are plenty of great coupons out there that can help turn your home repair dreams into a reality. The following affordable ideas will make your property the apple of any buyer’s eye.
Repaint your door
The front door is one of the first things people look at, and also one of the parts of your home that sees the most wear and tear. You don’t have to completely replace it, though. A fresh coat of paint and a bold color choice is enough to make it look good as new or even better. You have plenty of different options for this, depending on your taste, too, as both neutrals or bright pops of color look great on a front door. This gets people’s attention quickly and helps set you apart from the rest of the homes on your block.
Wash the exterior
Dirt and grime accumulate between pieces of bricks, boards, and aluminum siding all the time. It’s unavoidable unless you’re willing to enclose your entire property within a giant protective bubble. Less extreme is taking a power-washer to the exterior on a regular basis. After years of this building up, you might not even notice how much dirt has built up around your home. Even power washing your sidewalk and driveway can be a drastic change for many homes.
Maintain your lawn
Your front lawn is going to be one of the first things people notice when they drive by your home. Keeping your yard short, healthy, and weed-free can sometimes be a battle all its own, but the laxer you are about it, the harder it gets over time. Although it can be some tough work, keeping your lawn looking cared for is the least you should be doing to make your home look good to the outside world. Keep it trim and tidy by raking leaves, mowing the grass, and watering any brown spots until they return to a lush, vibrant green.
Hang some décor
You spend years finding the perfect decorations for the inside of your house, but what about the outside? You don’t have to turn the front yard into a fairy-tale wonderland to give it some personality. Restraint is often more attractive, as even the smallest touches can make a big impression. Putting a wreath on the door makes a property more inviting while hanging curtains on the porch create a warm, cozy, lived-in feel that buyers love. Small personal touches like this can help make it easier for buyers to see themselves living there.
Add outdoor furniture
Another way of making your property feel like not simply a house but also home is to add some outdoor furniture. If you have a front porch with enough space, give it more of a purpose by buying some seating and a table. A couple of wicker chairs and a small table can tempt buyers with mental images themselves enjoying a glass of lemonade on a warm summer day, while a porch swing will have them fantasizing about lazy nights beneath the stars with a loved one.
Install a porch-light
If you don’t already have a porch-light, it’s a good way to add both visual appeal and a sense of safety to any home. Buyers will likely want one in the future anyway, so you may as well have one ready to go before they buy. If you do have one, now might be the time to double-check how well it illuminates the front walkway, retest the wiring, change that lightbulb, or replace the fixture. Although it might seem small, it’s the little touches like this that buyers will want to see.
Plant some greenery
Nothing beautifies a home-like planting a garden of flowers, a row of shrubs, or even a tree or two. If you’d rather not commit to something that requires too much maintenance, consider buying some potted plants and flower boxes instead. Either way, a little plant-life goes a long way. Once you have some type of plant life in front of your home, all of your potential buyers are sure to be charmed by your home’s exterior.
Hide utility equipment
Utility equipment can stick out like a sore thumb even once you’ve gone to the effort of improving the rest of your outdoor space. This stuff is essential, but, boy, is it ugly. Electrical boxes, water valves, gas meters, air conditioner units, propane tanks, and the like can turn even the nicest homes into industrial tangles of wires, pipes, and clunky metal boxes. Depending on where they’re located, you might want to paint over them, conceal them behind bushes, or build small fences around them.
Clean those gutters
No one likes climbing a ladder and cleaning out the gutters. But you know what people like even less? Losing out on a sale because of how unsightly a backed-up gutter can be. Or, even worse, suffering water damage to the house itself due to overflowing rainfall. No one likes to clean out their gutters, but this has to be done, especially if you’re selling your house.
Update the mailbox
Mailboxes are often the most neglected part of a property’s exterior, as many of us care more about function than form. But if your mailbox is old, beat-up, or just plain bland, it won’t go unnoticed by potential buyers. This simple swap can help quickly make your home’s exterior look more modern. An attractive replacement may not be a deal-maker, but it is one more subtle detail that could help nudge negotiations in the right direction.
