Lane Lowry on The Importance of Curb Appeal
First impressions make a difference with everything: meeting new people, eating food at a restaurant, and deciding where to shop. It logically follows that a first impression will influence a significant purchase, such as a home. Curb appeal is a subjective, personal feeling about a physical item. A property with the effort put into its curb appeal will either have a wow factor or entice buyers to inquire further. At the very minimum, it shouldn’t turn people away.
Curb appeal is more than a pretty garden or fence. It’s an innovative marketing tool that sets expectations about your home’s interior just by viewing the outside. Contrary to popular belief, it begins long before people see a property in person. Almost 90% of home buyers start their search for a new home online. According to Statisticbrain.com, eight seconds is the average online person’s attention span, and they only read approximately 28 percent of words on a website. Because of this, pictures are the most critical tool you have at your disposal to generate interest at first glance.
Experts agree that you should provide a gallery of high-resolution, professional, eye-catching pictures that highlight your home’s curb appeal. As you take and organize these photos, put yourself in the shoes of a prospective buyer scrolling through multiple properties in a day. Take pictures from as many useful angles as possible. Pick a well-lit day that shows your home’s exterior in the most flattering way.
When creating an image gallery, there is a balance in finding the right number of photos. The idea is to leave the client curious and wanting more while also taking enough pictures to satisfy a casual browser. The caveat here is to avoid the mistake of taking too few pictures, leading to frustration, or too many similar photos just for the sake of a large gallery, which is irritating and off-putting.
The various curb appeal components include a well-manicured lawn with no debris and an inviting entryway. People are drawn to clean, fresh environments. Repainting is an inexpensive way to give your home a facelift and a bath. Many people use a balanced approach to the front door, with bold paint and identical potted flora flanking each side. When looking at fixtures, make sure that all lights are functional and all of the bulbs are new. The roof and siding are another chance to make or break a first impression, as are any cracks in the driveway or path leading up to the house. If redoing the asphalt is too expensive an option, Invest in a power sprayer to take years off a surface.
Originally published at https://lanelowry.co.
