How to Improve Curb Appeal to Sell Your Home

As a homeowner, you only have one chance to make a first impression on a prospective buyer. Before a potential buyer steps foot inside your home, you need a welcoming and well-maintained home exterior to make sure they don’t choose to pass and drive away. 

Luckily, you don’t need to invest an exorbitant amount to make improvements that will improve your curb appeal and start visitors off on the right foot.  

Why Curb Appeal Matters in Home Sales

Ignoring your home's curb appeal is one of the mistakes to avoid when selling your home. Curb appeal isn’t just about attracting drive-by viewers—it’s one of the most important testimonies to your property’s value and condition. 

 Potential buyers, and even inspectors, look at the surface details they can see and use that as evidence of how well or poorly you maintained the structure and grounds as a whole. Good curb appeal tells potential homebuyers how well the property has been taken care of. If visitors see cracks, stains, neglect, or drabness before they’ve even set foot in the front door, you’ve already convinced them that the property hasn’t been handled with care. 

Landscaping: Creating an Inviting Front Yard

Learning how to enhance overall curb appeal starts as logic would dictate—with the front lawn leading up the curb. In addition to general lawn care, plan to: 

• Pressure-wash siding, walkways, driveways, garage door, and fences
• Aerate, fertilize, seed, and weed your lawns
• Tidy and beautify any flower bed or garden bed (consider adding fresh mulch)
• Clean or replace outdoor furniture
• Touch up exterior paint

Consider enhancing or adding features such as: 

• Potted plants along walkways, entry, or porch
• Window boxes with seasonal plantings
• Plants in hanging baskets

If you’re adding plants, try to stick with low-scent options to avoid turning off allergic or scent-sensitive buyers. 

The Front Door: Your Home’s Handshake

Your front door needs to impress in terms of both appearance and security. To enhance the latter, consider a steel entry door replacement. 

According to Remodeling’s 2023 Cost vs. Value Report, the national average cost for a new 20-gauge steel door installation with jambs, casings, threshold, and lockset is $2,214, which generates a $2,235 increase in property value.¹ It’s one of the few projects with over 100% of the cost recouped. 

The paint or finish color of your front door should complement your home’s hue and setting, but there’s more to consider. In Zillow studies of homebuyer interest based on front door color, they’ve found²: 

• Black – Most preferred, most interest in a home tour, and offer amount up $6,450
• Oak wood or mid-tone brown – Offer amount up $300
• White and chalky blue – High interest and intention to tour
• Bright red – Favorable impression but less interest in touring or pursuing a listing
• Saturated blue or olive green – Least likely to tour, and offer amount down $1,300
• Cement gray – Offer amount down $3,365

Lighting: Illuminating Your Home’s Best Features

Outdoor lighting is also about safety, security, and beauty. Be sure to: 

• Replace any burned-out bulbs or nonworking light fixtures
• Ensure house numbers are visible and well-lit
• Illuminate walkways and steps 

Next, consider: 

• Replacing the front door light fixture if dated
• Spotlighting to highlight landscaping features
• Increased security lights on any unlit zones
• Simple but festive lighting over outdoor living spaces
• Adding or enhancing landscape lighting

Why Choose Truehold 

If you’re researching how to improve curb appeal before a home sale, then you’re at the right stage to pause and consider an option that doesn't require investing time and money in your property’s exterior. 

Truehold's sell and stay transaction allows you to skip the wait time and work of a traditional home listing and means you can:

• Cash out your home equity for a competitive, data-driven price
• Sell without updating, organizing, staging, showing, or marketing your property
• Schedule a closing date that works for you without waiting to lock down a buyer

A sell and stay transaction doesn’t end with the sale. At closing, you also sign a lease that permits you to: 

• Remain in your home as a tenant
• Rent your home, provided you pay rent and comply with the lease

Not only can you unlock your equity with a sell and stay transaction, but you’ll no longer be responsible for spending your time or dollars on: 

• Essential repairs
• Property tax
• Property insurance

Final Recommendations for Selling Your Home

Getting a competitive price from a traditional sale requires careful planning, upfront cash, and labor to improve your curb appeal alongside interior maintenance and updates. Done right, it may pay off with increased interest from buyers and higher offers. 

Your home's exterior tells a story to your potential buyers. While it can be tempting to leave the exterior alone, especially when selling a home as is, to catch buyers’ attention and help them feel confident in your property’s value, pay attention to lawn care and landscaping, lighting, the state of your front door, and ongoing curbside appeal maintenance.

Interested in a more streamlined and less work-intensive selling experience? Consider a Truehold sell and stay transaction. Call us at (314) 353-9757 to learn more about how to sell your home quickly with no fuss and stay in the home you love as a tenant.

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Sources: 

1. ‍‍Remodeling. 2023 Cost vs. Value Report. https://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2023/‍
2. Zillow. This Front Door Color Could Boost an Offer Price by Almost $6,500. https://www.zillow.com/resources/stay-informed/what-color-paint-front-door/‍