Do You See What I See? Curb Appeal Lessons

It was a gorgeous day today in San Luis Obispo...not an uncommon occurrence. I had planned to walk one of my local neighborhoods where our office has a listing, to see if I could promote a couple more for myself. I started off with a handful of flyers and business cards, and found myself looking at each home with the eyes of a prospective buyer (I was looking for listings, after all, and I wanted to imagine how a buyer would see them).

This is a middle-class neighborhood of single-family homes built about 20 years ago. Most have been well-maintained, with attractive landscaping and reasonably fresh paint. However, many would have failed the "curb appeal test!"

Walking from the street to the front door, I noticed weeds in the flower beds, leaves on the walkways, untrimmed shrubbery that could trip walkers or hide a thief, and even some fairly dead greenery. Children's toys littered some entries, and bikes and basketball hoops were all too much in evidence.

In this particular neighborhood, the front doors are all white. Imagine a white door that has not had fingerprints washed off in X number of years...or has not been painted in much too long a time. Accompanied by the original hardware, not expensive to start with, now weathered and tarnished beyond belief. Add a few well-placed cobwebs, and a spider web or two...and some semi-dead plants in a dusty pot. Even the doorbells looked dirty! If I had dared, I would have used a tissue instead of my fingertip.

At a glance, the streetscape looks fine, but when you actually get out of your car and walk to the door, as a buyer would do, you notice things like this. When your real estate agent suggests that you clean up, he or she means it!

Try approaching your home as if it were someone else's, and see what hits your eye. If it isn't fresh and attractive, make it that way. Otherwise, you're going to lose buyers or money or both. People might not be able to pinpoint why a house doesn't have that "come hither" appeal that it should, but they simply will not make an offer unless it does. So make it happen!