Homeowners who are ready to sell their homes can throw their house on the market and hope for a bidding war, or they can invest a little time and money into their home\u2019s curb appeal and watch an actual bidding war happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A recent study from the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics<\/em> set out to quantify just how much more a homeowner can make when they improve their curb appeal. By examining Google Street View photos and comparing them with the sold prices of homes, researchers observed<\/a> that homes with upgraded exteriors sold for 7-14% more than other homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If your home is listed at $350,000, investing in your home\u2019s exterior could yield <\/em>an extra $24,000-$49,000 <\/em><\/strong>from your home sale.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re ready to tackle the work it\u2019ll take to maximize your home\u2019s curb appeal, here are nine surefire ways to overhaul your home\u2019s exterior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if you had your yard designed and installed by a professional landscaper, it\u2019s still a good idea to start your exterior overhaul by critically evaluating the current state of your yard. Growing trees may have overwhelmed the rest of your yard, and formerly vibrant bushes may have died after a bug infestation. Now is the perfect time to step back and see your landscaping through the eyes of a potential homebuyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As satisfying as a closet decluttering session, clearing out the dead plants that aren\u2019t working in your landscape design can help you get a good look at the bare spots and trouble areas that you\u2019ll need to address. Start with the easiest task of weeding out the flower beds, and then move on to digging up dead bushes. Finally, take the opportunity to trim up the trees and remove low-hanging or dead branches.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pro-tip<\/em><\/strong>: Never cut off more than one-third of a tree at a time, and be sure to trim the branch back to the tree trunk so that the tree can heal properly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since you\u2019re not only trying to fix your landscaping, but also trying to impress some potential buyers, planting blooming bushes and flowers is the best way to nail that first impression. Add in an instant \u201cWow!\u201d factor with brightly-colored blooms that pop in your front yard. If you anticipate putting your home on the market later in the year, you could invest in fast-growing bushes<\/a> or trees to quickly fill in holes in your landscaping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pro-tip<\/em>:<\/strong> Planting phlox, rosemary, lavender, jasmine, citronella, or any other highly-scented flower or bush is another way to charm buyers as they walk up to your front entryway.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are almost a dozen varieties of grasses that are grown in different climates across the U.S. The fertilizers you\u2019d put on Bermuda grass might kill a lawn full of centipede grass, so if you\u2019re unsure about the kind of grass you have in your yard, reach out to a home and garden center. Your minimum goal should be having a healthy lawn without any dead spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pro-tip<\/strong>: <\/strong>The cost of grass seed and fertilizer can add up quickly, especially if you have a large lawn. Hiring a professional lawn service provider to get your lawn into tip-top shape may be the best use of your time and money.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s homebuyers start their home search online, and at the top of every listing is often an oversized picture of a home\u2019s exterior. What should be an immediate hook that invites buyers to check out the rest of the listing can also cause them to immediately click away if the shabby outside hints that the interior wasn\u2019t well-maintained either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like clearing dead plants can prepare the landscape for a makeover, a good pressure washing gives homeowners a clean slate to begin their exterior upgrades. Start your outside remodeling with these seven steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a good spray down of last year\u2019s accumulated dirt behind them, homeowners can begin address other neglected areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the easiest updates homeowners can invest in is as simple as a quart of paint. After analyzing over 100,000 homes, Zillow found that homes with a black front door sold for an average of $6,271<\/a> more than other homes. Why? Maybe it\u2019s the traditional feel of the color black, or the understated elegance it brings to a front entryway. No one really knows, but spending $15 on a quart of paint and getting back $6,000 is a pretty remarkable ROI!<\/p>\n\n\n\n While you\u2019re painting the front door, it may also be time to take a good hard look at your home\u2019s siding. Peeling or faded spots on your home\u2019s exterior is a classic sign of lack of TLC. If you\u2019re trying to sell your home for top dollar, you\u2019ll want to have a spotless exterior paint job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Depending on your location, your weather, and even the color of your home, you may have to repaint your home\u2019s exterior as often as once every five years. Dark colors like black or red can lose their vibrancy faster in bright sunshine compared to more neutral colors such as white or beige. And homes made of stucco or wood siding may need to be repainted once every three to seven years, while a painted brick home can last almost 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The color of the house itself can also reduce a home\u2019s price. According to Zillow, yellow homes sell for around <\/em>$3,400 less<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>than similar homes with a different exterior paint color. Like the Tuscan browns and reds from the 1990s, dated color combinations can signal to buyers that your home\u2019s interior is also stuck in the \u201890s. Maximizing your curb appeal can be as simple as bringing your home\u2019s exterior colors into this decade. In landscape design, softscape refers to the grass, trees, bushes, and flowers in a yard or all of the \u201csoft\u201d elements. Hardscape, on the other hand, are the permanent fixtures in a yard that create shape and definition. As your eyes move across a property, hardscape features give your eyes a place to rest, and they can delineate areas of a yard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hardscaping can include a variety of elements, depending on the homeowners\u2019 tastes and\/or the property\u2019s features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you choose to go the DIY route or you decide to hire a professional landscaper, you should carefully consider which hardscaping features best enhances your property before beginning the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than ever, homeowners are opting to relax and entertain at home. Even though the demand for outdoor living spaces has been steadily increasing for the last decade, the uncertainty in 2020 put that demand front and center for homeowners. By creating an outdoor space filled with privacy and shade, homeowners can increase the size of their living space without altering their actual square footage. This could be as simple as adding an outdoor fire pit, or as elaborate as building a covered deck complete with an outdoor kitchen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you already have good, solid hardscaping bones in your landscaping design, you may only need to clean up or repair your hardscape. By repairing cracks in the cement or restaining your deck, you\u2019ll give your previous landscaping investments a facelift. Check out this AgentStory article<\/a> for more quick and affordable tips to repair existing hardscaping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maximizing your home\u2019s curb appeal can be as simple as painting your front door jet black, or as complicated as building a new deck. Maybe it suits your budget to address just a few small projects, or it\u2019s time to undertake a front-yard overhaul. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever route you decide to take to maximize your curb appeal, you can feel confident that investing in your home\u2019s exterior will improve your home\u2019s sale price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homeowners who are ready to sell their homes can throw their house on the market and hope for…\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1508,"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions\/1508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentstory.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Refresh Your Landscaping<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Clear Out Dead Plants<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Accent Your Yard With Blooming Bushes and Flowers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Give Your Lawn Some Love<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Focus On the Home\u2019s Exterior<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Spray Down the Exterior<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Front Door Update Packs a Punch <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Updating the House Color<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
For help in choosing an attractive color that will appeal to more homebuyers, you can upload a photo on the Sherwin Williams website so that you can virtually paint your home<\/a> before committing to a new color.<\/p>\n\n\n\nInvest in Hardscaping<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Build a Hardscape Feature<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Create Outdoor Living Spaces<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Repair Hardscaping<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n