First Impressions Are Important When Selling Your House

You are ready to sell your house. You possibly are ready for an upgrade or maybe have a new job in another city. Whatever the case may be, getting your house ready to sell is at the top of your list. First impressions to a potential buyer are extremely important. What’s the first thing they notice? Your yard. If the yard is trashed and hasn’t been maintained, a buyer may leave and not even want to come in. No matter how nice the inside of your house is, if you have overgrown shrubs and bald spots in the yard, buyers are going to form an opinion about your house before stepping foot inside. Don’t know how to make your yard immaculate? Then keep reading.

You Get One Chance At First Impressions When Selling Your House

In a previous post “Tips On How To Sell Your House Fast ” we touched on the fact that the front of your house and yard make the first impression. Like it or not, your yard is the first thing people notice when they arrive. How does the grass look? Do you have sod with weeds in it? Are there bald spots? How about the shrubs. Are they overgrown and maybe touching the house? Surprisingly enough, Popular Mechanics has this to say about your front yard when selling:

It doesn’t matter how attractive your home is if no one can see it. Trees, branches, and shrubs can obscure your home’s features and make it seem dark and uninviting. Plus, trees that rub against your house can damage your siding, limit the amount of direct sunlight you receive, and offer a bridge to squirrels, mice, and other critters that want to get onto your roof or under your siding.

Rent or buy a chain saw to trim back tree branches, and use a hedge trimmer to tame your bushes. Cut away anything covering a window or touching your house. Well-manicured trees and shrubs complement a healthy, green lawn.

Read The Full Article “10 Ways to Improve Your Home’s Curb Appeal” Here

Even if you aren’t moving, keeping shrubs, overgrown bushes and trees from touching your house is a good idea. The thing that we notice most here in Georgia by overgrown shrubs touching the house is that it is a gateway for bugs to enter your house.

Look At Your Property From A Buyer’s Point Of View

This is pretty easy to do. You can walk across the street and just look at your property and see what needs to be done or what “jumps out” at you. An important thing to do is to park where a potential buyer would and evaluate the property from there, which was pointed out in an article from The Balance:

Curb Appeal Exercise

The next time you drive up to your house, make note of the following:

  1. Your first impression of the house and yard.
  2. The best exterior features of the house or lot.
  3. The worst exterior features of the house or lot.

Park where a potential buyer would and walk towards the house, looking around you as if it were your first visit. Is the approach clean and tidy? What could you do to make it more attractive?

Take photos of the house’s exterior. If you have a digital camera, view the color versions first, then remove the color and look at it in black and white. It’s easier to see problems when color isn’t around to affect our senses.

Make a list of the problem areas you discovered. Tackle clean up and repair chores first, then put some time into projects that make the grounds more attractive.

Read The Full Article “How to Improve Curb Appeal” Here

We like the tip of taking photos and removing the color and looking at them at black and white. That’s a great idea to gain another perspective of your property. It’s also a great idea to make a list of everything that needs to be done even before starting. The list will help you make sure you get things done as well as give you a sense of accomplishment checking things off the list.

Tackling Large Shrubs And Flowering Trees

While everyone that owns a house knows how to mow a lawn ( or at least you should 🙂 ), not everyone knows how to maintain larger shrubs and flowering trees. One flowering tree that is popular in Georgia is a Dogwood. Believe it or not, there are proper times of the year to trim up these trees without damaging them, which was covered in a recent article by Houzz:

Flowering dogwood forms flowers on older growth and should be pruned shortly after flowering has ceased.

Flowering trees. Early blooming trees, such as dogwood, should be pruned in summer, once the flowers have faded. These trees, which bloom in spring into early summer, produce their blooms on growth from the previous year. Trees that bloom in summer develop flowers on new growth that has occurred in the same year, and they can be pruned in late fall through early spring.

Read The Full Article “When Should You Prune Your Trees and Shrubs?” Here

Hopefully you have been keeping up with trimming your flowering trees. If you are selling your house and you need to trim a tree outside it’s recommended time frame, hopefully you won’t damage or injure the tree to bad. You may want to seek the advice of a professional arborist to properly guide you.

Conclusion

Like we stated above, you only get one chance to make a first impression. When selling your house that first impression is made when a buyer first arrives at your property and looks at the front yard. If you can afford it, you may want to hire a professional landscaper to help up your game. If not, you may have to spend an entire weekend or longer making your property more presentable.

If you don’t have the time or money to make your landscaping look immaculate, let us remind you that we buy houses as is. We don’t care if the yard or house itself hasn’t been kept up. We buy houses fast in any condition – you can learn more at MandichPropertyGroup.com

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