As the summer real estate season winds down, you may be feeling nervous if your property hasn’t sold. Not to worry! The Adirondack weather typically stays nice well into fall, and there’s a lot you can do improve your sale chances including sprucing up the front and exterior of your property.
When considering how to prepare the outside of your home to sell, plan to take advantage of the cool fall days to get some work in. Autumn in the Adirondacks is gorgeous and a perfect time to add curb appeal to the exterior of your home. At ADKPP, we’ve helped many Adirondack homeowners successfully sell their properties. Here are some of our tips to use anytime you plan on selling your home!
Tips For How To Prepare the Outside of Your Home To Sell
Perform General Maintenance
When planning on selling your home, performing general maintenance around your home could be the extra touch that helps you sell. This extra effort shows potential buyers that you have cared for the property well. This helps them feel more secure about what they are purchasing.
General maintenance tasks should always be included in plans for how to prepare the outside of your home to sell. This could include mowing, touching up paint, replacing light bulbs and improving the overall cleanliness of the home.
Repair Any Issues
No one wants to inherit a repair to do list. Buyer confidence will increase if you fix the minor issues around your home. Do a careful walk around to identify issues that you are currently living with, and take care of them ASAP.
If you are looking to make top dollar for your property, fixing these issues ahead of time will save you future headaches. Sellers concerned about repair issues could make lower offers or ask for credits for repairs. Check your gutters, siding, roof and drainage to make sure everything is sound and functional.
Add In Some Additional Curb Appeal
From flowers to seasonal decorations, adding some curb appeal to the exterior of your home could be the little touch to catch potential buyer’s eyes. These little touches make your home feel like a welcoming property.
When planning how to prepare the outside of your home to sell, here are 10 projects that could add some additional curb appeal:
Window Boxes
Many of the houses in the Adirondacks are brown. This makes them blend in with the surrounding natural landscape as well as with each other. Installing window boxes could make your property stand out from another listing. Window boxes can add a pop of color to your property with seasonal flowers at a lower cost than some larger projects.
Add or Refresh Your Flower Beds
When planning how to prepare the outside of your home to sell, know that flowers are always an eye catcher on properties. If you have flower beds, now is the time to refresh them with annual flowers. You could also plant perennials that will grow and return every year.
While you are refreshing, you could also add mulch around the plants. Choose red mulch to add a pop of color that will catch the eye and contrast with your grass. Black or brown mulch is a good choice to as a base to make your flowers stand out. If you do not have flower beds, now might be the time to make them.
Paint The Front Door
Painting your front door can change the entire appearance of the home. It is also one of the first things a potential buyer sees. When choosing where to put your time and money in planning how to prepare the outside of your home to sell, the front door can provide good return on investment.
Spending time to make sure your front door is touched up and coordinates with the exterior color could lead to a faster sale as well as a higher closing price. Currently, black is the most popular front door color, according to Homes & Gardens, and potentially adding up to $6,000 to the resale value. Of course, this also comes down to color coordination of the property.
Current color trends for front doors have been focused on darker or earthy colors. These colors include Charcoal Grey, Slate Blue and Olive Green. Switching to a trendy color could also lead to additional value at closing.
Renew Paint on The Exterior
While you are painting the front door, you may want to touch up or repaint the entire home. This can give your property a fresh appearance. Finding the right color could also make your property stand out. Keeping the existing color with a fresh coat could also bring new life to your home since the weather can cause the color to fade over the years.
Touch Up Your Porch or Deck
Depending on the time of year, it could be the time to showcase your porches and decks. Springtime is perfect to clean, paint, stain and weather coat your porch and deck. After you have prepared your porches now is time for the curb appeal add ins. Chairs, tables, umbrellas and other finishing details can make your porch and deck comfortable to spend summer and fall days.
Add Outdoor Lighting
The warmer Adirondack seasons provide the perfect opportunity to enjoy nights outside. Adding some outdoor lighting can show potential buyers paths or night time areas that you currently have set up. This outdoor light can also serve as an extra layer of security for the property.
Clean or Replace Gutters
Definitely don’t overlook gutters when figuring out how to prepare the outside of your home to sell. Fall and winter can be rough on gutters so homeowners should inspect gutters throughout these seasons. Regular gutter cleaning and replacing damaged pieces will be essential to make the gutter last throughout the Adirondack seasons.
Add Seasonal Decoration
Like touching up the paint around your exterior, adding some seasonal decoration may be the little touch that makes your home stand out from another. Just make sure you don’t overdo it. A moderate amount of decoration can add some pops of color while showing that the home is lived in and cared for.
Reseal or Smooth Your Driveway
Years of being driven on as well as freeze/thaw cycles of the Adirondack winters can affect even the most maintained driveways. Now is the time to fix it when making your game plan for how to prepare the outside of your home to sell. From frost heaves breaking through the black top to tire tracks making ruts, taking care of this damage shows another level of maintenance that stands out.
Clean and Pressure Wash Your Exterior
From the heavy pollen in spring/summer to fallen leaves in autumn, keeping the exterior of your home free of dirt & debris will make your property stand out. Some Adirondack homes have vinyl or metal siding that can make cleaning a breeze. Pressure wash your siding, decks and stone/concrete walkways. For the grounds, make sure the yard is mowed, raked, and weed whacked. A clean home is a cared for home.
At Adirondack Premier Properties, we excel at understanding our local Lake Placid area market and helping sellers find the best way to prepare and promote their property for sale. We hope our tips for how to prepare the outside of your home to sell will help you start your sale process with your best foot forward. When you are ready to list, give one of our experienced agents a call!