HOUSE SALE PREPARATION
Kerb Appeal
First impressions
Your potential buyer will have a good feeling about your home before they set foot in it
Making a difference
The very first impression of a house is the most important. Looking through estate agent’s windows, or Rightmove, the first photo is usually of the front of the house (unless there’s a real showstopper inside). It’s very important to get everything right with your home’s external appearance.
It is quite fashionable to have grey windows on some modern properties. The owners of this bungalow painted the windows grey in an attempt to bring a modern touch to the property. Perhaps if the walls were rendered or clad in neutral colours, this may have been a worthwhile upgrade, but with the existing brickwork the building looked dull and unappealing.
Work carried out to increase the kerb appeal:
- Fit new shutters
- Paint the windows white
- Paint the façade white
- Build a new doorstep
- Clean the gutters and facia
- Weed the driveway
- Fit new window above the front door
- Add new house number with the name of the road
The shutters were the main expense due to the bay windows (£2,400). However, this also dramatically increased the appeal of the two front bedrooms. The doorstep was about £50, the paint, house number and other items were around £50. Labour was £250. The estimated increase in value to the property was between £8,000 – £10,000
