My job as a listing agent is to help you maximize the value of your home by selling it quickly and for the best price possible. First impressions are lasting impressions and can make a potential buyer excited about seeing your home, or not. Photographs of the exterior of your home will be the first to show in Multiple Listing Service, and we want those pics to have a WOW factor.
Once you make the decision to sell your home, it’s difficult to think about spending more money on it when you won’t be living there that much longer. But it is so worth it when looking at the bottom line at your closing. I have come up with a few inexpensive ways to increase the appeal of your home’s exterior.
Important! If you don’t have the ability or desire to do this work yourself, I can recommend someone who is reliable and has reasonable rates.
The Front Porch: Remove and replace old lawn furniture or decor. Add a new rocking chair (Walmart $115), clean, paint (adding a pop of color by painting your front door a bright hue) or varnish your front door (Lowe’s primer $14 per quart, paint $19+, supplies $15). Clean the porch ceiling and the siding around the porch, and add a planter with a grouping of fresh trailing and tall plants (from Home Depot $45+). Add a new doormat (Target $13+). With a little elbow grease and about $200, your home takes on a very welcoming look!
The Lawn and Shrubbery: Get your kids out there plucking weeds (entice them with a dime for every weed your child gets out by the roots), keep the grass cut and tidy, leaves raked, edge the borders, hide bare spots with pine straw and low profile perennial plantings, add pine straw under shrubbery, trim all shrubs and trees so they are not touching the house or obstructing the view of the home from the road. Pine straw is available for around $4.25 a bale. If it takes 10 bales to complete the look, that’s less than $50!
Clean your windows. According to BobVila.com, dish soap and water can clean the outside of windows very well and vinegar and water clean the insides about better than anything. Window screens should be cleaned as well. Best method – knock down dust and spiderwebs with a soft cloth and then rinse them well with the garden hose.
Touch up the paint. According to HomeBlue.com, in the Columbia area, exterior painting cost ranges from $30 to $60 per hour. Hiring exterior painters on an hourly basis may be appropriate when you need several smaller features painted (ie: a door, fence, a couple of windows, exterior porch columns, etc.) that you can’t or don’t want to reach. Again, I can recommend someone if you don’t know a good reliable painter.
Add new house numbers. This is something that buyers will look at as they try and find your house. New shiny numbers look great and are inexpensive. Pottery Barn has some nice ones for $24.50 ea. or Wayfair offers a custom plaque to hang on the front porch for $60.
May I help you with the sale of your home? I am happy to give you more ideas on how to make your home appealing to buyers, inside and out! Please feel free to email me at findkarenfoster@gmail.com or call/text me at 803-223-5723. You may also want to fill out the form below.
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