examine it objectively. Listen to suggestions from real estate experts, your friends, and/or potential home buyers about how you can make your house show better. Then, take a drive around your neighborhood and surrounding area and see which homes for sale appeal to you, and note why. Well-tended houses with trimmed bushes, groomed lawns, attractive landscaping, and a “grand entrance” (discussed shortly) will be more impressive than homes with an unkempt walkway, uncut grass, and a paint-peeling front door. The outside appearance of a property needs to be an invitation to come inside. Potential home buyers are drawn to welcoming entrances and uncluttered yards. They are unlikely to be attracted to a home with dead shrubbery and a weather-worn exterior. A potential buyer is looking for signs indicating how well the home has been cared for and maintained over a long period. The buyer can be influenced by signs showing the type of home owner currently living there. Packaging sells! Starting at the curb, a well-manicured lawn and fresh appearance of the exterior demonstrates that the home owner is up to an appealing standard and shows that the current home owner takes pride in the property’s aesthetics. The outside appearance of your property should serve as an invitation to come inside. Beyond aesthetics, the buyer will be looking for evidence of wear, tear, and neglect. Buyers who are greeted with peeled paint, trash, and dead or unkempt lawns will assume that a home neglected on the outside is neglected inside as well.
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