landscape lighting curb appeal

12 Tips To Improve Your Curb Appeal In One Day

This is second in a series on Increasing Your Home’s Curb Appeal.

Remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

There is a wealth of small, and not so small, projects you can do to improve the curb appeal of your home to better increase the salability of your property. Today, let’s focus on some exterior projects. If you’ve only got a day, consider these 12 steps:

1. Create balance. If you plan to install exterior lighting for your front door, or your front walk, consider lights on each side of the door or path to create symmetry.
2. Upgrade your hardware. If your existing lighting fixtures, your house numbers or even your lockset are looking old and worn out, replace them with shiny new hardware to add style and interest to your entryway.
3. Paint your front door. Give your front door a fresh new coat of paint that says, “welcome.”
4. Replace your mailbox. Giving your home a fresh look by replacing your mailbox and perhaps painting your mailbox post is a quick and easy project.
5. Install outdoor lighting. We discussed the importance of improving your curb appeal with new landscaping in an earlier post. Now that your new shrubs are established and growing, install low voltage lighting to bring them to life after dark. This will also add a safety feature prospective buyers will notice.
6. Plant a garden. Purchase a few pre-made garden containers to create colorful, attractive arrangements for a vivid entrance.
7. Restore planters. Prune out the old growth, remove weeds, bring in new flowers and shrubs, and add mulch. Install stone or brick borders for a finished look.
8. Hang window boxes. This is a quick and simple way to add color to your home’s exterior, while drawing attention to the windows themselves. Be sure to color coordinate the plants and flowers you use with those in your planters and garden areas.
9. Add shutters to your windows. These days the design, style and materials available vary greatly. They’re affordable, easy to install and they add an established touch to your home.
10. Enhance your entry. Consider a creative custom tile design that blends well with the materials used in your porch floor or front stoop.
11. Fix your driveway. If you’ve got cracks, stains or weeds working their way through your driveway, repair and kill them then think about staining, if concrete, or top-coating if asphalt. If your driveway is in really bad shape, think about installing pavers.
12. Repaint. Number 12 is a no brainer, but it might take longer than a day. If your paint is looking tired and dull, freshen up the entire exterior with a new coat and perhaps a new color scheme to work well with all the planting you’ve done. A fresh coat of paint can be one of the most cost effective ways to add value and great curb appeal to your home.

Hounchell Real Estate-RE/MAX Metro is the leader in general real estate, pre-foreclosure, short sale and foreclosure markets in the Pinellas County area. Contact us today at 727-642-9107.