If you are landscaping to simply make your yard look nice or if you are doing it to attract those potential buyers, there’s no difference to how it should be approached. At the end of the project, you simply want it to look nice. Whether you would like people to notice or not, they will. And even moreso if the landscaping is out of sorts and unsightly.
When possible buyers take a first look at the house, they most often make up their mind without getting out of the car if they should even go inside and have a look around. How your yard and front yard landscaping looks usually makes for an easy quick decision. If you have a wild over grown lawn, there will be a question as to what does the inside of the house look like? These buyers have the attitude of “if the front lawn looks like this just imagine what the inside looks like”. The front of your house is important for attracting people. If it’s not up to standard, then most folks will not even bother stopping.
If you want to be sure that folks are going to be coming inside, you’re going to have to spend a little time – maybe a few hours on the weekend – working on the landscaping as well as the outside of your home. Improving curb appeal also means improving the exterior of the home itself. It’s often hard to look at your home the way a buyer will look at it because when we become accustomed to how things look and the way they function, there are no faults. We don’t see them. You can start by not looking at the home as your home. Look at it as a property. It is a commodity that you are trying to sell for as much as you can. Now what do you see?
Here are a few things you can try.
The next time you come home, stand across the street and try to get a complete view of your house and all of its surroundings. What is the first impression you get when you look at your house and the surroundings? What are the most impressive exterior features? Is there a way that they can be enhanced? Point out the bad features and ask yourself if you can minimize, hide, or maybe improve them? Park somewhere you think a buyer would park and now slowly walk towards the house. Look around as if this is your first time here. Is it clean? Is it tidy? Are there things that can be done to make it a bit more attractive?
Go as far as taking pictures of the landscaping and of the exterior of your home. If you have a digital camera that you can view and print right away, even beter. Take pictures in color. Now when you go and view these pictures on the laptop or computer, pay attention to them and look closely at them. Now use the grayscale function and make them black-and-white. It is much easier to point out problems when there is no color present. Color affects your senses and you are not able to see certain things. B&W pictures will surprise you to just how much you will actually see.
Note down all the problems outside your home. It is always easier to tackle repair chores and then clean up chores. In order to repair some areas, you may have to mess them up first. It is important not to rush through a chore. Spend more time on those projects that help make the grounds and landscaping ideas more attractive. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time, then tackle the simple smaller things.
Get rid of any mildew and mold on the sidewalks, on the house, the driveway, on the roof, etc.
Put away those garden tools and implements.
Clean the gutters on the roof and the windows.
Pressure wash those dingy decks and dirty sidings.
Spend some time on the sidewalk and remove vegetation between bricks or concrete blocks.
Get rid of all the weeds in the grass and then mow.
Dispose of raked leaves.
It is important that you cut or trim all branches that are touching the house’s roof.
One more thing. Don’t forget the backyard landscaping. Buyers will probably not make the effort of walking into the backyard to see what it looks like over there, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to let it go. They can possibly make an effort by driving around the block and maybe finding it visible from a neighbor’s driveway or another street.
Tags: landscaping to sell your home | landscaping to sell your home | front yard landscaping | front yard landscaping | curb appeal | curb appeal