Is your home's kerb appeal letting you down?
Nathan Walker, Sales Director, explains what kerb appeal is and why you should pay attention to yours if you're wanting to sell...
If you’re looking to sell your home, there is something you need to make a great first impression. Something that will entice potential new owners to want to step inside to see if it looks just as fantastic on the inside as it does on the outside (and of course, it should!). Something that will leave buyers feeling as though they’d be proud to show off this property as their own.
In the property market industry, we call this ‘kerb appeal’.
What is kerb appeal?
Kerb appeal is how attractive - or unattractive - your property is to potential buyers from the outside before they even step foot indoors. When homebuyers turn up for a viewing and glance at the front of your property from the outside for the very first time, they are quite literally judging the kerb appeal of the home.
Now, what’s behind the front door is obviously just as important but making the best first impression possible can still go a long way towards helping you win or lose a potential buyer.
How can kerb appeal prevent a sale?
Imagine you were going to view a property yourself - how would you feel about that property if you felt underwhelmed and uninspired as soon as you saw it for the very first time? What if the exterior of the property was drab and uncared for?
It wouldn’t be the best of starts - not unless you were specifically looking for this type of renovation project.
In fact, you’d now be solely relying on what's inside to absolutely blow you away, to the point at which you don’t even care about the outside.
That would take some feat.
Chances are the negativity you felt before even entering the property would play on your mind and you’d probably end up not even considering an offer.
This is why first impressions and kerb appeal can be incredibly important. Not just to ensure buyers look on your home more favourably, but also to potentially add value.
Read: 10 ideas to help sell your home
A fab façade can increase both viewings & sale price
A study commissioned by Dulux Weathershield found that as many as 93% of Brits are more likely to attend a viewing if the façade of the property is well maintained, while almost a third of us would expect to pay around 25% more for a home that’s been freshly painted.
Standing out from the crowd can be difficult in this day and age with most buyers swiping through the property market on their mobile phones at lightning speed. It takes something a little extra special to really grab the attention, and with the exterior of the property typically being the main image that’s first seen on the listing, it can certainly pay off to do all that you can to ensure it’s a level or two above the competition.
Neglecting the kerb appeal of your property could mean you miss out on extra viewings, prolong the time it takes to win a sale and even result in much lower offers than you were hoping for.
What can I do to improve the kerb appeal?
Improving the kerb appeal means improving anything you can see at the front of the property.
This could include freshly painting the entire exterior walls, replacing the front door and windows - or even simply cleaning them! Installing a fresh new driveway, landscaping any front garden space by cutting the grass, trimming back trees and bushes, or laying some colourful plants, fixing any unsightly drainpipes.
As you can see, there are many things that you can do to improve the kerb appeal of your property. We’d advise you to stand outside the front entrance to your home and note down anything you feel could be improved. As potential buyers will first see an image of the exterior, it would also be a good idea to take a photograph yourself and run the rule over what to you see to come up with ideas to spruce it up and help it stand out from the other homes on the listing.
For expert help and advice with selling your home in Cardiff, why not get in touch with our expert sales team here at CPS Homes? We offer a completely free property valuation service and all the local knowledge and market expertise required to secure the best price possible for your property. Contact us today by calling 02920 668585, e-mai enquiries@cpshomes.co.uk or pop into one of our three Cardiff branches.
The information contained within this article was correct at the date of publishing and is not guaranteed to remain correct in the present day.
