Beyond Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is the cover of the book, first impressions are what people remember when they go home

You know the basic curb appeal storyline: If potential buyers don’t like what they see from the street, they might never get inside the front door. You might have done the same at some point yourself when shopping for a home.

Fortunately, unless you’re living in an Addams Family-like spookhouse, there are plenty of quick and easy ways to spiff up your home and give potential buyers a reason to come inside.

Yards should look appealing and inviting, a place where you’d like to relax on a pleasant spring afternoon. An easy way to do that is to keep the grass freshly groomed – don’t forget the edging – and plant beds freshly mulched, says John Merrill, American Lawns.

That is the outside of your house. Assuming that your property has plenty of curb appeal, the next step is to make sure that when they first come through the front door, it has some WOW APPEAL, and not a bow-wow let down.

It's very difficult for you to make that assessment. Each of us have grown use to many things about our house that we don't even notice any more. It takes a somewhat discriminating, trained eye to get you headed in the right direction.

Get someone else's opinion

Ask someone that can be honest with you and someone that won't be afraid to give you their opinion for fear of alienating your friendship. Ideally, that person would be a completely disinterested party, but unless you're ready to pay someone, like a professional home-stager, you're going to have to rely on a friend or relative that you trust.

Ask them to come to your house and walk through it with you as you ask questions about their feelings. Are there any smells they might notice when first entering the house? Does the entry appear clean to them? Does anything distract their eye? When they point out something, make a note of it, without trying to explain it away, and take steps to make corrections.

Continue next to the closest major room, usually the living room. Ask them if it feels inviting? Does it feel crowded or cluttered? Does it make them want to come in a stay a while?

You should be getting the idea by now. Have your critical friend go through the entire house from top to bottom, bedroom to bathroom to basement. At the end of the visit, thank them very much for their honesty and appraisal of your house.

This extra pair of eyes is a critical step in getting your house ready to sell. They will have given you an important opinion that would probably be difficult for you to do yourself just because you're too close to the subject matter. Your eyes have grown used to the small dent in the hallway or the frayed rug in the living room. Your nose is quite accustomed to the smell kitty-litter smell, or the smell of stale tobacco that are quite offensive to outsiders.

Make corrections as needed

Once you've identified these issues, take steps to correct them. You might ask the person to come back and retrace their steps to see if they notice any difference, or even better to ask another person to do the same examination.

Don't trust your real estate agent, because they will be biased. You will be their employer over the next several months and they may not wish to offend you by pointing out some obvious flaws, that is, unless you've really got a hard-selling professional who only wants to sell your house for you as quickly as possible. If that's the case, you're in good hands.