When one lacks curb appeal or have deferred maintenance on our home, you are decreasing the value of your home by 10%. Here are some maintenance chores (better known as "the Honey Do List") that will dramatically help the look and appeal of your house.
1. Starting with the front of your house: wash your windows insides and out, swipe cobwebs from eaves, and hose down downspouts. don't forget garage doors and parking lots.
2. Wash the dirt, clean the mildew, and general grunge from the outside of your building. Realtors say washing a house can add $10,000 to $15,000 to the sale prices of some homes. But I am going to take it one step further and suggest that if you have aluminum or old vinyl siding that has aged and/or the color faded, this is an excellent time to invest some money into updating the color of your home. Pretty basic as it requires either Gliddens Exterior Paint or a Low Lustre Oil Base Paint that can be sprayed over the current siding.
3. Neaten the yard and garden. A well-manicured lawn with fresh mulch, and pruned shrubs boost the curb appeal. Replace overgrown bushes with leafy plants and colorful annuals. Surround bushes and trees with dark or reddish brown bark mulch, which gives a rich feel to the yard. Put a crisp edge on garden beds, pull weeds and invasive vines, and plant a few geraniums in pots. Green up your grass with lawn food and water. Cover bare spots with seeds and sod, get rid of crab grass, and mow regularly.
4. Clean the carpeting in your condo entries and hallways and be sure the walls aren't marked up. Fresh paint in entries and on walls makes a huge difference. Shampoo the hallway and stair carpets twice a year, one in spring and once in the fall. Be sure the hallways aren't littered up with multiple pairs of shoes outside the unit doors.
5. Makes sure the name labels at the lobby door buzzers look consistent and professional. Handwritten labels of different styles and colors can mislead a buyer to assume it's a building with a lot of turnover.
6. Glam your address! Add a plaque with architectural house numbers to make your building stand out. If your building has wooden stairs leading up to the front door, you might consider adding some really great design style numbers to the riser on the second step to the top landing. Give your mailboxes a face lift with paint. These days, your local home improvement center or hardware stores has an impressive selection of decorative numbers. Architectural address plaques, which you tack to the house or plant in the yard, typically range from $80 to $200. Brass house numbers range from $3 to $11 each, depending on size and style.
7. Add a color splash to please the eye of would-be buyers. In spring, plant a tulip border . Dig a flowerbed by the mailbox and plant some pansies. Place a brightly colored bench or chair on the front porch if there is no room. These colorful touches won't add to the value of your house: appraisers don't lend value for them but beautiful colors enhance curb appeal and help your home sell faster.
8. Frame your back yard, deck or patio by adding a border or low fence. Be sure to maintain the gates in clean and working condition. Replace and tighten loose latches.
Until tomorrow,
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