Curb Appeal Pitfalls to Avoid

With a little planning and foresight, you can avoid these common pitfalls. Avoid these mistakes and your curb appeal will be sure to dazzle. 

1. Overlooking Curb Appeal Completely
   Whatever you do, try not to forget about curb appeal completely. If you’ve spent a considerable amount of time cleaning, prepping, and staging the inside of your home for sale, it would be a shame to overlook the outside when that’s the first thing buyers will see. The curb appeal is like the cover a book, and can make or break a buyer’s reaction to a home before they ever walk inside. Lack of lawn care sends the wrong message: that you don't care about the condition of your home. It can also indicate the need for repair when that isn't the case. 
2. Outdated Fixtures
   Outdated fixtures send the misleading message that a home requires renovation when it might not. Even if it does, it's a message that shouldn't be glaring to a potential buyer from the get go. By updating outdated fixtures, you can avoid this pitfall right off the bat. Additionally, updated fixtures cast a brighter light for potential buyers who drive buy later in the day or early at night. 
3. Clutter
   Remove anything unnecessary in the yard like you would inside. Clean up brown leaves, dead branches, and weeds, and toss that rake that's been propped up against the side of your house back in your garage where it belongs. Also store things like your hose in your garage as well, or at least neatly coil it for better presentation. Toys should be stowed, bikes out of sight, and yard waste removed. 
4. Landscaping
   Landscaping for curb appeal is essentially staging for your exterior like you did for the inside. As you removed some furniture (more than likely) in a few rooms, you’ll want to clear out some of your beds. It’s minimizing excess and strategizing what’s there so that potential buyers can imagine the space as their own. Though you may love the vegetable garden and raised beds you've planted, they may not be terribly practical for the neighborhood. This is the time to put yourself in the buyer's shoes and think decorative plants rather than hobbies. 
5. Paint!
   Peeling paint is one of the biggest deterrents to potential buyers when they see your home for the first time. If you have the time to address peeling paint, you absolutely should. There are many debates about which renovations are worth investing in, and touching up the exterior paint of your house arguably one of the most agreed upon ones. It won’t fix major repairs, but it will give your home a facelift and if you can only do the trim, even that will go a long way, especially around the front door. In additional, think neutral with your paint colors. You were probably told to go neutral indoors and the same applies outside as well.