Tag Archives: Curb Appeal

A Couple Quick Tips when Selling Your Home in the Summer

There are a couple things I see in the summer when doing Home Staging Consultations that many times need to be addressed and are super easy to correct.

1. Cobwebs

   For most of us, we go in and out of our homes through the garage door, very rarely using the front door or even taking a look at it. In the summer months a cobweb can appear in a matter of hours. Sometimes it seems like minutes.

Every day when I water the flowers on my front steps I see cobwebs in the corners of the house and around the door. I spray them off and the next day they are there again. If I don’t get out there for a couple days it looks like I have an abandoned house! There are cobwebs everywhere and they stick like glue. Even the jet force on my hose won’t  get them off and I need to bring out the broom.    

So please, when your home is for sale check your front door every day and wipe down any cobwebs. The is nothing more unattractive to a buyer than seeing these unsightly things and sometimes with spiders dangling from them to boot. It sets the tone that “if they can’t even take care of a few cobwebs did they take care of the larger things like the furnace and air conditioner?”

If you have a back patio area you may need to do the same thing there.

2. Flowers

Lately I have had a few homeowners not have a single flower by their front door, deck or patio. Their reasoning was “I’m moving so I don’t want to waste money on flowers.” I think this is a wrong mindset.

   The flowers not only add color for the buyer when they are at your home, they add color for the exterior photographs online which is the first time the buyer ever sees your home.

Flowers add a sense of beauty and calm and it sets an emotion for the buyer to see the full potential of your outside space. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on them, but a few pots in key areas will be well worth it. Plus you can take the pots of flowers with you to your new house to enjoy so it’s not a sunk cost. 

 

If you are selling your home, walk around the exterior of your home with a very critical eye. Sometimes it is difficult to see our own homes so bring in a friend who will be honest or a professionally trained Home Stager.

 

 

A Blog Post about Doors!

 

It is….a post about doors! And no it’s  not a construction post, ha. I recently was on vacation and one of the places we visited was Carmel-By-The-Sea, California. I fell in love with it!! And one of the main reasons was because of the doors. OH MY GOSH!

 

 

 

 

 

I seriously could not stop looking and photographing doors. Front doors, garage doors, gates and doors to gardens. Oh my! The character, the charm, the uniqueness got me to thinking…..why don’t we all have great doors?

 

 

 

 

I have a boring front door. I paint it a different color every year to bring life to it but it’s still a boring door. When I meet with home owners that are selling their homes I always discuss curb appeal and the front door is always top priority. Clean, fresh paint, repaired, working properly are all part of the discussion. Your front door sets the tone for the entire house.

 

 

When working with client’s in updating their home for living, many times the front door is also discussed. Replacing it for efficiency, cosmetic purposes or both. I have met with 3 people this week already who are getting a new front door or garage door and needed help it picking them out.

The garage door is many times 1/2 – 2/3 of the front view of your home. Have you thought about that and what it says about your home? Is the garage door in good shape, clean, freshly painted? If it needs replacing how about one with some character instead of the same old same old. Something to think about?

 

 

Okay so maybe we all can’t have a grass driveway! 🙂

 

 

My time at Carmel-By-The-Sea really got me thinking about doors in a whole new way. They just made me happy! I hope some of these photos made you happy as well and maybe something new to think about when it comes to doors.

 

 

As always, when making decisions about updates or upgrades to your home, hire a professional home stager or designer. Return-On-Investment is always a key factor and so many variables go into that calculation.

 

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