Curb Appeal Exercise

The next time you come home, stop across the street or far enough down the driveway to get a good view of the house and its surroundings.

1. What is your first impression of the house and yard area?
2. What are the best exterior features of the house or lot? How can you enhance them?
3. What are the worst exterior features of the house or lot? How can you minimize or improve them?

Park where a potential buyer would and walk towards the house, looking around you as if it were your first visit.

Is the approach clean and tidy? What could you do to make it more attractive? Take photos of the home’s exterior. If you have a digital camera, view the color versions first, then remove the color and
look at it in black and white, because it’s easier to see problems when color isn’t around to affect our senses.

Make a list of the problem areas you discovered. Tackle clean up and repair chores first, then put some time into projects that make the grounds more attractive.

• Kill mold and mildew on the house, sidewalks, roof, or driveway.
• Stow away unnecessary garden implements and tools.
• Clean windows and gutters.
• Wash dirty siding and dingy decks.
• Edge sidewalks and remove vegetation growing between concrete or bricks.
• Mow the lawn. Get rid of weeds.
• Rake and dispose of leaves, even if your lot is wooded.
• Trim tree limbs that are near or touching the home’s roof.

Don’t Forget the Rear View

Buyers doing a drive-by will try their best to see your back yard. If it’s visible from another street or from someone’s driveway, include it in your curb appeal efforts.

Evening Curb Appeal

Do your curb appeal exercise again at dusk, because it isn’t unusual for potential buyers to drive by houses in the evening. One quick way to improve evening curb appeal is with lighting.

- String low voltage lighting along your driveway, sidewalks, or near important landscaping elements.
- Add a decorative street lamp or an attractive light fixture to a front porch.
- Make sure lighting that’s visible through front doors and windows enhances the home’s appearance.

Landscaping Decisions

There are times that adding elements to your landscaping can improve curb appeal, but there are other times when removing something is even more effective. For example, we had a listing for a large brick house with large white columns. Tall evergreens, planted in front of each column, had grown taller than the roof. They obscured the columns and windows and made it difficult to see the front of the house. We suggested that the owner remove them. She trimmed them back, but it didn’t do the trick—they were unattractive and still kept potential buyers from seeing the true character of the house. I sold the house to a couple who could see past the trees. One of their first tasks after closing was to yank them out of the ground, instantly boosting the home’s curb appeal.

Most buyers cannot visualize changes, and often won’t take a second look at a house if the first look doesn’t appeal to them. Home buyers who can visualize changes, and are prepared to make them, expect you to reduce the price of the house to compensate for the work they plan to do.

I want to remodel, but where should I put my money in Today's market?

In today's real estate market, anxious home sellers -- or those merely thinking about selling -- might well heed a finding of the latest annual remodeling study: It's what's outside that counts.

Each year the remodeling trade journals study typical projects in various cost brackets to calculate which ones have the greatest rate of return when a house is sold. In 2007 the top projects were those that ostensibly contributed to the homes' curb appeal.

Face it, sellers: In this current and near future market, choosy buyers can -- and do -- keep driving if they don't like what they see from the street. So, the magazine's survey says an "upscale" siding replacement could provide the best return at the closing table. 

In the study, such a project about 1,250 square feet of fiber-cement siding (example Hardi-board) would average $14,000 in the Chicagoland area; the magazine estimates a homeowner would recoup 100 % of that if the house were sold one year later. Mid-range siding (vinyl, costing about $11,759) would return 100 % in the Chicagoland area, the magazine said.

Other top paybacks went to new decks/porches (returning 81 to 94 % in the Chicago market, depending on material and cost) and wooden replacement windows/storms (returning 90 to 94 % of the cost in Chicago), the magazine said.

The jobs that did the least, nationwide and in the Chicago area, were back-up power generators, sunroom additions and remodeled home offices, the magazine said. Those returned 62 to 66 % on investment, depending on the job.

This was the 20th Remodeling study, which it calls "Cost vs. Value Report." In recent years it seems to have improved significantly in its sophistication and depth.

The bottom line of this bottom-line survey, its editor's report, is that the marketplace seems to be trending toward practical and maintenance-oriented projects -- the stuff that needs to be done, as opposed to the things that might make your heart sing. 

For the complete report on our area:

http://costvsvalue.com/eastnorthcentral.html