Whether you need your home appraised to apply for a home equity loan or you are looking to put your home on the market, you’ll encounter a term that gets thrown around a lot in real estate.
Curb appeal is real estate jargon that essentially means the first impression. First impressions have been proven time and again to be what the majority of people make decisions based on.
It is so essential that a Homelight survey showed that 76% of realtors believed that focusing on curb appeal was the most important action a homeowner could take when selling their house.
Additionally, a study showed that homes that were optimized for curb appeal were valued at roughly 7% more than homes that were not optimized for curb appeal.
But what, exactly, is the goal of curb appeal?
What is the Goal of Curb Appeal?
Essentially, good curb appeal is the marketing art of tailoring the subjective experiences of potential buyers and appraisers. The overall goal is to have them imagine themselves owning the space.
It follows that this process would need to start from the outside, inward — just like their home tour or appraisal starts when they drive up to the house and ends when they have seen the interior.
Locking in that solid first impression helps prime the rest of their subjective experience of the home’s interior.
If the outside of the house appears dirty, shoddy, or ill-kept, then potential buyers and appraisers are more likely to experience the inside of the home as dirty, shoddy, and ill-kept.
Now it’s time to break down what good curb appeal looks like.
What Goes Into Good Curb Appeal?
There are essential boxes you must check off when improving your home’s curb appeal:
1. Well-Manicured Lawn
If your home is like the portrait’s subject, then your lawn and how you treat it is the canvas your home sits within. The lawn should not distract from the house but instead should draw the viewer’s eye towards it.
Lawns should be clean and complementary. Like trees, shrubs, bushes, and benches, its features should invite the viewer toward the house.
If you are not comfortable with landscaping and lawn care on your own, then for the time your home is on the market, you should hire a professional landscaper and pay for lawn maintenance.
2. Clean and Fresh Exterior
Next, you should focus on the exterior of your home. If you have wood paneling or vinyl siding, you should powerwash with a strong detergent and, if painted, apply a fresh coat of paint after cleaning.
If your budget allows, consider replacing the siding altogether if it is old and worn down.
If you have stucco or a brick exterior, check for cracks, chips, and damage. If there is damage that you cannot mend on your own, hiring a professional for stucco repair, remediation or replacement is your best bet to getting your home to look clean and fresh.
3. Front Doors Are the Icing on Your Cake
Believe it or not, there is a whole niche in the home design industry dedicated to choosing the right front door color.
Big market research bucks are spent on deciphering the annually changing consumer trends for front doors. The right door color can add as much as $6,000 to the value of your home, according to HomeAdvisor.
There isn’t a one-color-suits-all rule, either. Depending on the style, age, and color scheme of your house, the best color for your front door might be entirely different than for your neighbor’s front door.
Some colors have even been shown to reduce the value of your home, so make sure you do the research and perhaps consult with an exterior home designer who is up-to-date with the latest color trends.
4. Walk the Line Between “Unique” and “Depersonalized”
Ultimately, you want potential buyers and appraisers to envision themselves in the space. This is tricky because you need to appeal to broad sensibilities while still maintaining a unique appeal.
Avoid tacky, kitschy designs and go for bold simplicity. In a way, you are staging your home to be like a canvas for the potential buyer or appraiser to paint their life onto.
If you stage it correctly, they will project their own life’s experiences and desires onto the space. Hence, it needs to be depersonalized but still make an aesthetic statement.
5. Start Implementing These Suggestions And Boost the Value of Your Home!
You now possess some insights into the purpose and methods behind curb appeal. We have discussed what curb appeal is and how it ought to be achieved.
Now, the ball is in your court to start staging your home’s exterior to be both inviting and unique while also possessing blanket neutrality that appeals to a broad audience. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your sale or appraisal!