Don't Make a Bad First Impression

If you are getting ready to sell your home, your focus may be entirely on getting the inside of your home clean and decluttered so that you can stage it in the best possible light for potential buyers. Great! This is what you should be doing! However, don’t forget to take a good look at how your house looks from the outside. Buyers tend to be quick to judge a home and you don’t want them to have a bad impression before they even walk through your front door.  Here are some quick and relatively inexpensive ways to make a good first impression:

·        Sometimes all your house, driveway, deck, or patio needs is a good power washing. Washing away all the dirt and grime that inevitably builds up over time will brighten and refresh your home automatically. You can rent a power washer from most home stores for less than $50 a day. If the paint on your home is chipping or peeling on your home, repainting it may be well worth the time and investment.

·        One more thing that has a good return on your investment is to install a new front door. With all the pretty choices out there, It’s an automatic face lift to the front of your house. If you can’t install a new one, sometimes a fresh coat of pretty paint is all you need. Make sure it’s outdoor paint made to withstand the weather.

·        One of the quickest ways to make your landscaping look better is to lay new mulch down around the shrubs and flowers (if you haven’t’ done so in a while). If your landscaping is a little lackluster and there’s no time to plant flowers, place a few potted plants and flowers tastefully on the porch or near the front door.

·        This may seem obvious but mowing the grass, raking up any leaves, pulling weeds all naturally make your house appear that it’s well taken care of. If you’re selling in the fall, a yard full of leaves may turn off some buyers. They may think only of the effort needed to rake those leaves. Remember that old saying:  Out of sight, out of mind!

You only have one chance to make a first impression. Make it a good one!