7 Easy & Doable Home Improvement Ideas To Boost Your Home's Curb Appeal

Home sellers go through a lot to sell a nice home. Cleaning, decluttering, and staging are among the painstaking tasks that need to be done when you sell a home. With all of the effort that you put into sprucing up the inside of your home, it’s important to remember to also mind your home’s curb appeal. After all, the exterior of your home is the first thing a prospective buyer will see in person, and it’s often the first thing a buyer will see online too. Buyers searching online will frequently pass on a home that’s not aesthetically pleasing, even if it has potential. Here are a few easy and doable steps that you can take to give your home outstanding curb appeal.

1. Fresh paint

Nothing makes a home shine in terms of curb appeal more than a nice coat of fresh paint. Just as a home needs a new coat of paint indoors every few years, you may be due for a fresh coat of paint outdoors. You can also repaint your doors and trim. For an added bonus, replace the knobs and locks on your doors with shiny new ones.

2. Exterior cleaning

Although this isn’t the most exciting project on this list, driveway and sidewalk cleaning can go a long way toward boosting your home’s curb appeal. You can hire professionals or just purchase a power washer and do it yourself. If your driveway and walkway haven’t been cleaned in the past year, this is a good step.

The exterior siding of your home may also require cleaning. If you do this yourself, be very careful, as a typical power washer or pressure washer can damage the siding. These machines are very powerful, so you should get professional help.

The outside of your home’s windows should also be cleaned periodically. If your home has multiple stories, this may be difficult to do yourself. Before you check cleaning off of your list, take stock of everything on your property. Even the roof might need a little spring cleaning in some cases. Your checklist should include your driveway, walkway, sidewalk, exterior siding, windows, and doors. Other projects may be necessary depending on your particular home.

3. Landscaping and tree trimming

As a homeowner, you’re probably already keeping your grass trimmed and your yard tidy, but if that’s all you’re doing, you may be missing a couple of essentials. Consider the overall aesthetics of your front yard. For instance, do trees or shrubs block windows or obscure the architecture of your home? Trees can be a great addition to your front yard, providing shade, privacy, and a bit of the rugged beauty of nature. However, unruly trees can also detract from your curb appeal. Furthermore, untended trees can pose hazards that could damage your home or cause you to incur other liabilities. Hire a professional to maintain your yard’s trees to keep your home neat, safe, and aesthetically pleasing.

If you want to get more ambitious, adding trees — or at least some nice shrubs or flowers — is a great way to add curb appeal to your home. If you’re looking for ideas specific to Santa Fe, NM, real estate, perhaps consider some nice cacti or succulents. While you’re at it, be sure to remove any dead or unhealthy plants, do some weeding as needed, and make sure any mulch or other substrate is freshly applied.

4. Repaving the driveway

Different homes have different types of driveways, but if you have a paved driveway, consider getting it occasionally repaved, especially before selling your home. Consider also any walkways, patios, or decks that your home has. Is everything clean and freshly paved or refinished? The steps you take to improve curb appeal will vary depending on your home, but these are the kind of things that you should be paying attention to if having great curb appeal is your goal.

5. Hide personal belongings

Just as it is universally recommended that you depersonalize the inside of your home when staging, you will do well to apply the same principle outside. In fact, many of the principles of staging and preparing the inside of your home for sale also apply to the exterior. Children’s toys, lawn equipment, and other personal belongings should be stowed out of the way. If you have any questions, get the final word from your real estate broker. Robyn Tyra and her team are Santa Fe experts who can also advise you on curb appeal.

6. Upgrade your mailbox

Here’s an easy one that you may be able to do yourself. You could order a new mailbox online or buy one from a local home improvement store. While you’re on this step, take a quick look at the address numbers on your home. Are they clearly visible and new-looking? If not, you can easily replace those too. These steps will help to make your home easily identifiable to any prospective buyers who are dropping by.

7. Add a deck or patio

This is a great option for you to get more enjoyment out of your home, but what if you’re just looking to sell your home? Even in that case, this may be a great investment. Real estate industry research shows that homes with recent landscaping renovations, new decks, or patios have seen returns on investment, even over 100%. However, any time that you make a major investment for the purpose of selling your home, you should do so in consultation with your broker, who can help to evaluate the potential impact of any renovation on your particular home.

Get additional insights from a Santa Fe, NM, real estate expert

All of these steps will help to improve your home’s aesthetics and value, but there’s more to be done if you want to get the maximum value out of your home. For more on the steps that you can take to make your home competitive in the market, contact an experienced local realtor. Robyn Tyra is a Santa Fe, NM, real estate broker who has worked with many satisfied buyers and successful sellers. As such, she has a solid grip on what boosts a home’s value and what makes it perform well on the market. You can contact Robyn to discuss the sale of your home or check out her online portfolio to see some of the fantastic properties that she helps to buy and sell. Get in touch with Robyn Tyra to help you with with your home today!