Kerb Appeal

I suppose I was not that surprised when an estate agent told me that 40% of house hunters decide whether to look any closer at a property for sale from the comfort of their cars as they drive past outside. Indeed, we did just that with the house we are living in now. From the front it didn’t seem to have everything we were looking for and it wasn’t until a few months later, and we were still searching, that we even decided to view the house. So, if you are trying to sell your house, it really is worth making an effort to catch the eye of the prospective buyer, encourage more people to take a look inside and avoid a damaging kerbside rejection!

Begin by planning which jobs to tackle. It may help to divide the front of the home into three separate areas. One area is the drive, gates and the garage; another is the front of the house including the paintwork, the front door and the windows. The third is the front garden, however small.

First Impressions are everything. Whatever your exterior, be it drive or garden path, it sets the tone for your house. If it is clean and neat, the gates in good working order and the paint on the garage door fresh, then visitors will feel welcome. So make it look good, repair any potholes in the drive and clean off any oil stains - Thompson’s ‘oil spot remover’ would be ideal for this. Uneven paving slabs must be levelled and re-pointed if necessary and remove any unsightly weeds growing through the gaps. If the slabs are clean, this will make the drive look even better. If you need top clean the slabs try Jeyes ‘Path and Drive Cleaner’. The garden gates must be in good working order (no horror-movie squeaking hinges) and the paint work or stain should be clean and fresh. Even if they are never closed, make sure they work and when a prospective purchaser is due to arrive, close the gate to show them off. More importantly, the paintwork on the garage door must be in good condition. Garage doors can be imposing and take up a large area of all-important eye line space. Dirty garage doors and peeling paint will put off many buyers. Once you have tidied this area, ask a friend to have a look and suggest other details that they feel could be improved – house-owners find it hard to criticise their own home.

Without doubt, the quality of the paint on both the woodwork and the walls is crucial. If you do not want to repaint, it may simply be a matter of cleaning them. Use Thompson’s ‘Moss & Mould Killer’ to remove the mould and a pressure washer to clean the walls (take care not to allow the pressure washer to damage rendering – they can be very powerful). This will make the house look more cared for. If the house is brick, wash the bricks to remove stains from lichen and mould and replace missing or damaged pointing and crumbling bricks. Naturally, the guttering must be in a good state of repair and there must be no signs of sagging sections, loose down-pipes or leaks. The windows can be thought of as the eyes of a house so, if they are not clean and bright, the house will look tired. UPVC windows can be cleaned with a special uPVC window cleaner. Alternatively, if the uPVC has yellowed, the windows can be painted using International uPVC primer, a base for exterior quality gloss paint.

And so to the front door. As the main outside focal point it must project a welcome feel. Recent research I carried out indicates that green is the most popular front door colour but use your own judgment - some people in the survey hated green! The main thing is to keep things smart and clean. Incidentally, one point that is important but nothing to do with kerb appeal is the door bell. It must work- viewers will not wait for more than a few minutes for you to answer the door.

The final section is the garden. Easily overlooked, this is an important indication of the way you care for your home - it should be neat and tidy: hedges trimmed, grass cut and borders weeded. Any dead or decaying plants should be pruned back or removed. Adding a touch of colour near the front door is an effective way to increase your welcome. So try setting a pot of brightly coloured flowers on either side of the front door.

When this has all been attended to, put your kerb appeal to the test and ask your local estate agent and a friend (one who doesn’t mind saying what she/he really thinks) to give you their feedback on the refreshed appearance of your house.

Good luck with the sale!