After getting a lot of emails about my Curb Appeal Strategy Packages, I thought I might post one, so you can see what exactly it is that we do for $179.99. Do you think it is worth the price?
This is a property I got received last week via an REA who needed to help her seller. This house was built in 1987.
Here's the house with digitized enhancements, geared toward high-impact using a low budget.
The actual assessment report text is below. You will see this is no cookie-cutter report. Each suggestion is carefully and effectively detailed, and worded to encourage and empower the seller to make the necessary changes to expedite the sale of their own home.
THE TOTAL COST FOR THIS TRANSFORMATION IS $1500 FOR THE SELLER TO PERFORM.
CURB APPEAL STRATEGY PACKAGE
for
Your House at 123 Mockingbird Lane
Courtesy of
Rhonda Realtor, No Excuses Realty
Prepared by
Feature This... Interior Design and Real Estate Staging
Abbeville, Louisiana
(337) 652-3983
We are a team of experts with decades of experience offering and performing interior and exterior transformations. We consult both locally and throughout North America, and instruct the members of the Real Estate Industry on how to elicit the most appeal from residential and commercial property. We are dedicated to facilitating an enhanced image using a judicious budget and time constraints to prepare your property for market.
Dear Homeowner:
Each home has unique curb appeal challenges. For this particular listing, the home has several unique architectural features that could be emphasized to maximize their impact. Our goal in preparing this report is to show exactly what steps can be taken to feature this house to appeal to a wide range of buyers and stand above the competition. Using not just one or two curb appeal tips, but several in conjunction to coax the entire façade to sing this home's praises to buyers in photos and seal the deal when they come to view the property in person.
Here in Acadiana, buyers clamor for French architectural detail, and this home definitely offers those details. The present monochromatic scheme, while very pleasant, could be working harder to elicit a standing ovation from today's finicky shopper.
Our plan features those target-market hot-buttons, using the present color scheme, and a few adjustments here and there to make this house sing it's own praises.
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The main focal point should always be the door, particularly for this house, as the façade is flat. The present door appears to be in excellent condition, and is well suited for the house, with cut glass insets in three dramatic panels. Also, the awning-type accents over the windows and doors are a unique detail that should act as a support for the color scheme, and add visual interest. Re-painting them to a color that resembles a copper patina adds more perceived value, and also happens to coincidentally tie in with the existing fence accents around what appears to be two courtyards flanking the main house.
Adding a line of the patina-color from the awnings to accents over the courtyard walls draws the eye horizontally, and gives the home a wider, more interesting look that makes the courtyards instantly more effective as noticeable space for both entertaining and relaxing outdoors.
The roof has a pleasing, dramatic slope, and is in keeping with the French style that is highly desirable in our area. Cleaning the roof to remove existing vertical staining gives the house a well-maintained edge upon its first impression.
The driveway and pathway to the front door, once darkened with a very inexpensive acid stain treatment, serves to both update the house and reduce the impact of the driveway, which seems to be in need of some possible repair. It gives the entire home a rich visual grounding that otherwise can only be achieved when large, mature trees shelter a home with branches. In lieu of shade trees, the stain offers a similar gravitational trick of grounding the home to the landscape. This effect is subtle, but highly effective, and again lends a higher perceived value by subtracting a buyer's attention from the typical gray cement driveway, and gives the home a more customized palette that harks of natural stone.
Pumping up the existing tidy landscape by adding more frequent clusters of the compact yellow flowers, along with the infusion of a creeping white flower, truly aids to funnel the eye toward the entry. A taller white iris or lily helps to add that French Manor feel, being reminiscent of the flowers glorified by Monet in so many of his works. The height of the bloom also enhances a large expanse of brick on each side of the door.
Additionally, we suggest larger, darker light fixtures (only one is seen in the photo we have, but we suggest two), to flank the door, preferably with a slope to its shade-cap that echoes the design lines of the awnings.
A couple of other minor issues jump out, and can be rectified visually with little effort or cost. The masonry on the chimney has a base that is pale gray. That should to be changed with paint to reflect the stucco color. That band of gray might cause buyers to wonder if the chimney leaked at one time and the gray part is the remedy. Another area with a similar appearance is the change in roof levels over the courtyard to the right of the façade. Change that color also. Even if they are not repairs, they appear to be, and that is what matters, to once again protect the instant visual decision home buyers will make that this home has been very well-maintained by it's previous owners.
Finally, the lawn needs some plumping. Houses for sale require lush, green lawns. Prospective buyers want to see a house that they can imagine themselves and their families enjoying. A lawn reminds people of playing catch and older kids tussling over a football. A lawn that has areas of yellowing grass shatters that fantasy. Consider fertilizing all of it, or re-seeding parts of it. You cannot underestimate the power of a large expanse of cool green grass leading up to your doorway. It is irresistible.
Strategy Plan:
1.) Clean the Roof. See www.roofreviver.com for an excellent do-it-yourself product that requires minimal effort and a video of the procedure.
2.) Paint the awnings with a Benjamin Moore product called Metal and Wood Paint, in color 2135-40, Province Blue. Paint the details over the courtyard walls the same shade, as well as the fabulous statues on top of the stucco walls.
3.) Paint the base of the chimney and any other roofline seams with the same color you have on your stucco (the darker of the two colors you have).
4.) Acid Stain your concrete with a mixture of two colors by Kemiko Stone Tone Stain, called "Black" and "Cola". Mixing the two colors will result in a coffee-bean-esqe color that is rich and dark, to de-emphasize any cracks or discolorations in your concrete. You can purchase it for well-under 50 cents a square foot at Accent Walls, www.accentwalls.com in Lafayette. Figure out your total square footage, and they will show you exactly what you need to do, step by step. Or visit www.kemiko.com
5.) Add more frequent yellow clusters of flowers, and add a white creeping flower that can flow charmingly over the edge of the walkway a bit. Add iris or daylilys by the entry, against the house.
6.) Fertilize and re-seed the lawn. We have found great success with the Quick Lawn product, which covers 500 square feet for less than $8 (Yes, eight dollars). www.gardenerschoice.com
7.) Purchase two new light fixtures that are dark in color to flank the entryway.
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You will receive your Benjamin Moore paint chips in 3-5 days via U.S. Postal Service in the colors we have suggested.
All these projects are do-it-yourself, and will cost well under $1500 for materials, total, to complete all the recommended projects outlined in this plan.
We hope you have found this Curb Appeal Strategy Plan to be of assistance to prepare your home for the current real estate market, and hope your sale is both quick and lucrative.
Best of Skill to You,
The "Feature This..." Team
Carol Hebert-Harper, Interior Designer
Michelle Molinari, Certified Staging Professional
Sue Eldredge, Certified Staging Professional
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