Ten Easy and Cheap Ways to Kick Up Curb Appeal

Canadian Real Estate magazine cites the ten ways to make a home more sellable. To extend the helpful read to our clients and followers we overview them here, while adding our own twist (as always).1. Give it a little wash: A pressure wash of the home’s façade and a good scrub of the windows will leave a good first impression on potential buyers. A clean home is a happy home, so put in the effort to get the grit outta there.2. Get the cracks filled: Fixing a rundown driveway will make the house look better and give you extra bonus points in the way of safety. Canadian Real Estate magazine suggests an interlocking stone driveway for anyone who isn’t a pro.3. A nice entrance is important: Do a quick overview of the front door and see if it needs replacing or repainting. Think of it like this: if the gateway to the home is unattractive, the rest of the house might be as well.4. Upgrade the lights: Replacing the exterior light fixtures might be a small adjustment, but it helps in the way of improving the home’s overall appearance. Note: remember lights require electricity! So take every precaution and don’t zap yourself (and definitely don’t sue us if you do).5. Tighten what’s loose: The railings in particular. Not only is it just safer for a new buyer but it is a small detail that will make the home more presentable.6. Seal the driveway: Applying a sealant to an asphalt driveway will spruce it up and takes very little skill. So those of you who are less-than-handy should be able to manage this one.7. Give the eaves trough a little attention: if paint is dirty and flaking off, use sense and decide whether or not it should be replaced or fixed. And definitely clean the gunk out of the trough, it shouldn’t look like it can feed pigs (we’ll let you stew on that one or Google ‘pig trough’ if you haven’t caught on by now).8. Take a look up top: If the roof is noticeably decrepit from the street it might be worth it to invest some money into fixing it. It might take changing out some shingles that are past their prime, but leaving an ugly roof as-is might discourage homebuyers who don’t want to deal with the headache of fixing it themselves.9. Clean up wires: organizing all the wires hanging outside the house is just a small but helpful pick-me-up.10. Landscape: This one should be obvious. Trim the dead branches, prune the unruly bushes, mow the patchy lawn… have a ball!