Cleaning Projects to Help Your Home’s Curb Appeal

By User:Randall1022 (Own work)
 via Wikimedia Commons

Whether your home is two years old or a classic concrete block ranch from 1950, you can help your house hold its value and scream curb appeal with a few simple fair weather cleaning projects. Keeping a home in shape in a little like good dental hygiene… routine attention prevents major renovation!

With the sun shining, here are the top projects you should schedule before settling into vacation mode. Stay on top of these at least once a year and you’ll not only help your home shine, but you’ll fend off the threat of more costly repairs and replacements in the future:

1. Power wash. Blast off mold, oxidized stains, kicked up mud, and the grim insect life which can build up over the course of a year. This is good not only for your exterior walls, but also driveways, patios, and panel fencing (both sides, please!). If you don’t own a power washer, you can usually rent one affordably. Be careful with power washers, though, as they can also strip paint when dialed up and used improperly. If power washing isn’t your bag personally, hire someone with a track record to handle this wet-and-wild job.

Tips for the Summer Home Seller

Spring kicks off the peak home hunting months of the year, but it isn’t until summer that things really get cooking. While there are pros and cons to buying and selling homes at various times throughout the year, summer can be, on average 25 to 30 percent more active than the annual average.

In summer you have a real mix of buyers and sellers… some serious and some not-so-serious. In the winter months, many buyers searching for homes would only do so if they absolutely had to. In the summer, there are often a larger number of buyers just toying with the idea. (Many of the serious buyers are eager to get settled before school starts in the fall.)

Selling homes in the summer requires its own brand of seasonal marketing and showing. Here are a few tips you’ll want to keep in mind as you invite buyers to consider your home:

Why overpricing hurts sellers in the end

All sellers want their home to sell for the highest possible price. This is one reason it’s why it’s so easy for agents to “buy” listings. If you’re not familiar with the concept, “buying” a listing is when an agent (unscrupulously) tells a client their home is worth far more than the market value in order to win the listing.

Sellers are susceptible to this tactic because they want to believe, however irrationally, that their home is for some reason or another worth more than comparable homes on the market. Sometimes, though, sellers believe high home pricing is either an acceptable risk or even a benefit. Here’s what they say, and why it’s a problem:

1. “I can always come down in price later if I have to.”

Yes, it’s possible that someone will find the house irresistible and pay the inflated price, but the odds are the house will languish on the market until the price comes down. Buyers, though, will see this from a different perspective. They’ll be thinking: What’s wrong with the property? Maybe I can get this house for significantly below market value. Holding out for a high could end up leading to a desperation low.

Are you prepared to be an historic homeowner?

There’s much to admire about owning an historic home. You probably don’t need to be sold

(WT-shared) Jtesla16 at wts wikivoyage
via Wikimedia Commons

on the beauty of a grand old house, and in all likelihood the home is in an established neighborhood or district where prices are projected to appreciate at a better clip than other areas. Plus, if it’s truly classified as an historic home, and not simply an old house, you probably can take advantage of tax breaks other owners might not enjoy.

But before you fall in love with the gleam of summer light cascading through a century-old stained glass window, pause and consider what you’re really in for when you buy an historic home.