Curb Appeal is Crucial When Selling Your House

A great ROI in the real-estate field. And a bonus mistake to avoid.

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Last week a woman approached me at the Pearson Airport to say hi. Super friendly. She was a realtor and had seen me speak years before in the Bahamas at a convention. She said something I spoke about there had really influenced her and it made a big difference in her career. Her career, not her personal finances. And of course, that surprised me.

I guessed, “Was it the fact that I pushed you to read a lot?” “No, I did follow that,” she said, “but that wasn’t it.” Before I had a chance to guess again, she said, “It was you talking about how key it is for an owner to do all the little things possible to improve the curb appeal of their house before they list it.

You talked about pulling the weeds, painting the front and garage doors, planting some shrubs, adding some colour, all of that stuff. I’ve preached that to great success in my career.” To be honest, I don’t even remember that speech, I mean, I’m old – but I sure stand by what I said. How your house looks from the outside, from the curb, hugely influences how potential buyers view the rest of the house.

That’s right, how they view the rest of the house. First impressions, so key. We often subconsciously extrapolate from them. What’s more, all potential buyers care about what others think of their home. They want their friends to like its curb appeal when they come to see it. The vibe around the home, to use today’s lingo, often flows from the curb appeal.

Owners want to feel good about pulling up to their home. They want to feel proud. Some research says improving the curb appeal of your house through doing all these small things well, through getting on top of them, can increase the value by as much as 7%. Now let’s say that figure is too high and the proper number is only half of that, so let’s go with 3.5%. Well on an $800,000 home, that’s $28,000! That’s a lot of money. And it’s key to note that most of the exterior improvements we are talking about here don’t cost too much. I’m not saying get out there and get a metal roof and a gazebo. I’m saying clean your eaves troughs, paint the shutters and get a new welcome mat.

Do this stuff! Great ROI. Oh, one more thing. People who list their homes on MLS with horrible pictures? C’mon. That’s crazy. “Oh, Dave, you won’t believe it. My nephew Henry took those with his iPhone.” No, I do believe it. We all believe it.