First impressions make a huge difference. At The Henry Wong Team®, we’ve learned that this is especially true in the real estate industry. Think about it, would you hire a real estate agent who dressed poorly, drove a beat-up old car and had unattractive marketing for their own business? The answer is probably no, because the first impression you get is that they’re not successful at their job.
The same principle applies to your home itself. When you’re trying to sell it, you want to make an immaculate first impression, one that lingers with a potential buyer as they inspect your entire property. The best way to make that first impression is to work on the street appeal of your home.
What is Street Appeal?
Street appeal is how attractive your property looks from the street. It’s what people see when they walk or drive past, what turns their heads and gives them an immediate first impression of your home.
In selling real estate, street appeal is something of an X-factor, because if a home presents well from the front a potential buyer could be instantly taken with it. It can also entice more people into your home, as passers-by impressed with the street appeal are intrigued to see the rest of the home.
So how does a seller tap into the potential of street appeal? What tricks can you do to boost the attractiveness of your property from the front and lure in more buyers? We’ve put together a few tips and hints to improve your home’s street appeal below.
Pressure Clean
First things first, dust off the pressure cleaner and give your driveway, paths, roof and walls at the front of your home a good blast with it. Things like grime and mould build up over time, often without you noticing how bad it gets. Removing it will give your home a fresh, spruced-up feel, with things like tiles, bricks and concrete looking new again. It will also expose what areas need more attention than just a clean to get them back to a visually attractive state.
A Coat of Paint
The façade of your home is its front face, usually looking out towards the street. Sometimes to restore it to its former glory a coat of paint is required in addition to a pressure clean. Sometimes cracks, fading and peeling can develop in the paint, and a fresh coat covers these up and brings a new feel.
Painting is also a good opportunity to modernise the colour palette of the front of your property. Sometimes people live in a home for many years, and the colours originally used become dated and out of touch with the modern aesthetic. Painting over this with a modern colour brings your property back into the current time.
Fence
Your current fence could be drab or broken, or you could be letting your property down by not having a fence at all. A good-looking fence can have a very positive effect on the street appeal of your home. A fence and gate add an extra layer of security, putting the mind of potential buyers at rest. It creates a border that keeps people out, and it also helps keep pets and kids within the confines of the garden.
Choose a fence that doesn’t hide the façade of your home but enhances and complements it instead. It can frame the front of your house and make it more inviting.
Front Door
It may sound like a simple thing to do, but changing the front door of your home can really have a dramatic effect on a buyers first impression. The front door hints at the quality of the internals of a home, stirring intrigue in a buyer and enticing them to see more. If you just have an old and tired looking screen door in front of a plain and boring painted door, consider swapping it out for something a bit more exciting and attractive. Feature timber doors are a sure-fire hit,
Garden
If your home has a front yard, you want to make sure its in the best condition possible. Fertilise the lawn and keep it nicely mowed. Keep the flower beds neat and don’t be shy to add flowers that bring a spot of eye-catching colour to your garden. Another handy tip is to mulch all the flower beds, it gives them a fresh and new feel.
Another thing you may want to consider is keeping your verge neat and tidy too. There’s very little point having your own garden looking amazing when the verge in front of your house is in bad shape. So, give it a quick mow and a tidy up. Also make sure there aren’t kids toys and other thing lying all over the front yard come inspection day, or any day of the week for that matter. The less clutter the better.
We hope these tips and tricks help you to improve your home’s street appeal when the time comes to sell your house. If you’d like any more information on presenting your home for sale, or you’d like to chat about real estate on the Brisbane Southside, please get in touch with The Henry Wong Team®. Henry would love to answer any questions you may have.
