Charlotte Home Seller Tips | 7 Easy Steps for Improving Your Charlotte Home’s Curb Appeal
As a seller preparing to sell your Charlotte home, you may be busy emptying closets and painting interior walls but, don’t forget about the outside. Remember the old adage, “You only get one chance to make a first impression?” Well, this is your one chance! Many sellers tend to forget about the outside of their homes. Home buying is emotional and, like many emotional reactions, it can be heavily impacted by first impressions.
Here are some suggestions on how to encourage love at first sight by increasing the curb appeal of your Charlotte home:
- Repair the Front Walk – The very first thing that people notice as they’re walking to your front door, is the walkway. If you have crumbling cement or stepping stones that slide deeper into the mud with every raindrop, check into updating the front walk so that it is inviting, safe, and weed-free.
- Paint – If the paint is peeling on the outside of your house, potential buyers go in wondering how well your home has been maintained. Spending a little money before you put your home on the market will get you a better sales price and quicker purchase. If you absolutely can’t afford to paint the whole house, at the very least, the shutters and front door must be freshened up.
- Tidy up – You may be so used to seeing the crumbling stack of firewood by the garbage cans and the old paint cans by the shed that they fade into the landscape. However, potential homeowners WILL see the mess. As you look around the outside of your house, think about what you can throw away or put out of sight. The broken swing on the tree actually takes away from the grandeur of that old oak. And, please, remove those garden gnomes–all buyers are not as partial to them as you may be.
- Trim Everything – If the hedges under the front windows of your Charlotte home are so unruly that they cover the windows, it’s past time to find the clippers.
- Power-wash decks so they look fresh. You may want to consider staining them (or repainting, whichever the case may be) if they look too weathered.
- Clean the gutters – Tiny maple trees growing in your gutters scream “Water damage!” to potential buyers.
- Landscaped beds – If your green thumb is actually brown, and your garden sports a post-apocalyptic motif, hey, that’s okay! If that’s the case, consider the wonders of mulch. It covers up that patch under the oak where the grass won’t grow. Buy a few simple plants and mulch around them to achieve a calm canvas on which gardeners can imagine more complex plantings, while those with challenged gardening skills can envision easy maintenance.
The theme of all these tips is to create an image of your home as a place of order, calm and cleanliness; a place where prospective home buyers feel comfortable and cozy.
Whether you’re ready to sell or need more information before taking the plunge, I can help. Give me a call today at (704)491-3310 or email me at Broker@TheCharlotteScoop.com.