Selling Your Home: 4 Tips to Attract Prospective Buyers

They say that if you live with something long enough, you’ll eventually become accustomed to it. That’s why the longer you’ve lived in your home, the more likely it is you’re overlooking the required repairs or changes needed to improve its curb appeal.

If your house is losing its appeal, when it comes time to sell, you might unintentionally chase away prospective buyers. To help you maintain your home’s value, use these four tips to transform your home from drab to fab.

1. Remember to consider your exterior space

People often forget about their home’s exterior when looking to attract prospective buyers. However, this is the first thing buyers see as they approach your home.

Remember, your home’s overall visual appearance influences the perceived value in the buyer’s eyes. As a result, poor curb appeal could lead to fewer offers or offers under the asking price.

The exterior updates you make must complement the existing features of your home. For example, a cottage-style landscape design is flattering to a farmhouse look, while a minimalist garden is well-suited for modern architecture.

Also, the approach of your home should appear unified and easy to navigate. For instance, an attractive interlocking driveway, complemented by well-thought-out flower beds, along lovely pathways leading to your front porch provides visual clues bringing visitors straight to your welcoming front door.

While staging your interior, you must also set the stage for your curb appeal. For example, you might flank your front entrance with urns bursting with seasonal floral displays or topiaries. Another idea is to place a few pretty lounge chairs on an elegant outdoor area rug on your front porch.

Additionally, hanging curtains and tying them back to offer views of the street, create a welcoming outdoor space where buyers can picture themselves sipping coffee and watching life in their new neighbourhood.

2. Take advantage of hardscaping

Hardscaping is used in landscape architecture to improve your home’s appearance and increase visual appeal, such as the driveway, walkways, garden bed walls, and front porch. Although upfront costs might seem expensive for these installations, they are permanent landscaping features that add value. They can also make or break a prospective buyer’s impression of your home.

For instance, cracked and damaged walkways tell buyers your home is poorly maintained, posing a safety risk. On the other hand, investing in decorative interlocking stone paths shows pride of ownership, telling buyers that your home is loved and well cared for while increasing curb appeal.

Consider the hardscaping projects that will improve your home’s appearance and have the most impact, including:

• An interlocking stone pathway from the sidewalk

• Paths leading from the driveway to your front and side door

• A new interlocking stone front porch

• Interlocking stone flower beds

• Interlocking stone front steps

These upgrades present an opportunity to improve your overall landscaping theme, such as adding new plants and shrubs for interest, planting some annuals for colour, laying down new sod for an even, perfectly manicured lawn, or creating more expansive flower beds to better accent your home front.

Consider what landscaping features you can keep and how to use hardscaping to highlight those features.

3. Incorporate landscape lighting

Landscape lighting highlights the architectural features of your home while improving security and safety. Investing in beautiful outdoor lighting improves curb appeal at night while making it safer when walking along your walkways or climbing your porch steps.

Prospective buyers will have a positive experience viewing the property, regardless of when they arrive. They’ll also have peace of mind, knowing that your well-lit home helps discourage intruders from stepping onto your property.

Landscape lighting features come in various designs, including:

• Door lights

• Spotlights

• Outdoor lamps

• Overhead spotlights

• Pathway lights

• Porch lights

• Step lights

• Edging lights to mark flowerbeds

The versatility of exterior lighting allows you to create the desired effect, and they are easy to manage using an automatic timer. It is a final touch that adds value and draws attention to the beauty of your home for prospective buyers.

4. Update the big-ticket elements

As mentioned, curb appeal can make or break a buyer’s interest in your home. Therefore, consider every element of your home, including:

• New roofing or roof repairs

• Repainting wood details, including trim, front porch, front steps, front door, etc.

• New siding or siding repairs

• Repairing, replacing, or repainting fascia, soffits, and eavestroughs

• Chimney repairs

Exterior damage for big-ticket items can worry buyers about ongoing maintenance and costly replacements. Worse, it can give the impression that your home isn’t structurally sound, raising red flags that it will cost them significant money down the road.

Maintenance is a considerable concern. So, if your home has peeling paint or leaky eavestroughs due to debris, rotting wood, etc., it shouts ill-repair and creates visions of weekends spent tending to an endless list of home fixes.

Book a Consultation Today

As a landscaping company in Milton, Enviro-Loc provides one-on-one consultations to discuss your project, ideas, and vision so we can create a viable plan and offer solutions specific to your needs. Our landscaping contractors in Milton, Mississauga, Burlington, and Oakville are equipped to help prepare your home for prospective buyers.

For more information about our landscaping services or to schedule a free consultation with our landscape design consultants, call Enviro-Loc at 1-807-697-1498 or contact us here.