There’s nothing worse than getting offers for your home that are significantly less than what you listed it for. If you haven’t made a commitment to junk removal, then you’re probably getting low-ball offers, even if you renovated the master bathroom and sunk thousands into that media room.
Why? The magic word is curb appeal. If people drive up and your house looks like a rubbish disposal drop-off site, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done on the inside. No one will think that you’ve taken care of the property. Here are five simple things that you can do to make your home look better from the street.
1. Get a move on for bulk trash pick-up day.
Call your city’s waste recycling and trash handling department and find out when you can send items in bulk off to the dump. At least once a month, if you live in a city with trash services, a truck should come by and pick up those large items that you can’t fit into the trash barrel each week. And if you have an old propane tank, or an old refrigerator, or just the remains of a trampoline in your front yard, it’s time to say “Good-bye” to those items.
2. Use a sense of whimsy to improve your front yard.
An easy way to get a quick flower bed that looks creative is to submerge a large planter pot at an angle in front of your house. Then, start a bed running away from the tilted opening of the pot so it looks like the flowers spilled out into the yard and took root.
3. Hang a tire swing.
It sounds corny, but even if you don’t have kids, get a tire and a chain, and hang a swing. It will put a smile on visitors’ faces when they show up to tour your house.
4. Power wash your windows.
You don’t even have to hire a company to do this. Go to your local home improvement store and rent the machine yourself. This will only take you a couple of hours to power wash the windows from the outside, and all of that gunk will go away.
5. Paint your patio furniture.
If your metal chairs and table are looking a little rusty, go get some spray paint and give them a new coat. You’ll spend a few dollars and a couple of hours giving your porch a new level of shine.
Staying on top of your junk collection and managing the outside area of your home well can earn you the interest of prospective buyers. Never underestimate curb appeal and you will soon enough see how much money you can make.
