4 Tips for Improving Your Home's Curb Appeal
Sometimes, a home for sale just doesn’t want to move off the market. According to statistics, it takes the median home 65 days to be sold after a listing is published. However, this is just the median. In certain cases, a home can take much longer than this to sell.
If your home refuses to sell, you may end up feeling extremely frustrated. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to do a better job attracting buyers. One is to improve your home’s curb appeal.
Curb appeal is the view of a home from the street. It includes the house’s exterior, the yard, landscaping and more. Improving your curb appeal does take some effort, but it can produce a really great return on that investment. Below are some tips you can use to really improve your home’s curb appeal and increase its attractiveness to potential buyers.
Plant Trees
Landscaping is one of the most important elements of curb appeal. In regards to landscaping, something that is essential is the existence of trees in a yard. Healthy mature trees, in particular, are highly sought after by home buyers. One can add $1,000 to $10,000 to the value of a home.
Mature trees of course cost a lot to plant in your yard. However, if you plan ahead, you can save significantly by planting juvenile trees and waiting for them to grow to maturity. Certain trees grow to maturity in 10 years. If you plan to live in the house for a decade or more, planting new trees is a fantastic investment that is sure to pay off in the long term.
Consider Professional Lawn Care
While doing your own lawn care can save you money, it can also be very time consuming to get the job done right. If you work long hours, you may want to save that extra time you have off to spend with your family members. If that is the case for you, hiring a local lawn service company might be a great idea.
Hiring professionals is also a good idea if you’re looking to sell. A well kept yard is integral to selling your home quickly and for a fair amount. Using a lawn care service will ensure that an excellent job is done. Landscaping can increase the value of a home by 10 to 15 percent.
Clean Your Home’s Exterior
A simple maintenance task that can pay off big in regards to curb appeal and home value is giving your siding a good wash. Having your siding cleaned by professionals can cost $300 to $500. On the other hand, you can easily do the job yourself with a bucket of warm soapy water and a sponge.
If you want to do the job faster, you can also rent a power washer. In certain cases, you may discover mildew. If that’s the case, clean it off with a bucket of one part bleach and four parts water. However, you have to be much more careful when applying bleach to certain kinds of colored siding. You don’t want to damage the color just for the purpose of cleaning it.
Use Mulch Strategically
Part of landscaping is maintaining a tidy appearance around trees, flowers, bushes and shrubbery. It also includes stopping the growth of weeds. One way to do both is to lay down mulch.
Placing mulch around trees, flower beds, bushes and more can create a clean attractive appearance and help to stop weeds from sprouting up in areas where they’ll be hard to eliminate. You can place landscaping fabric or plastic under the mulch to increase its effectiveness. Landscaping rocks are also a good alternative to mulch if you want to spend a little bit more money.
Overall, curb appeal can make you more proud of your home. It can also have other great benefits such as increasing property value. Make maintaining great curb appeal one of your priorities as a homeowner.
