The Lawhead Team would like to share the C.A.R.’s latest One Cool Thing on curb appeal. 

Your yard is your home’s first impression to potential buyers. We know beautiful landscaping improves curb appeal, but it also benefits the environment and our health.

• Reduces energy costs – Planting the right lawn, trees, and plants makes your home warmer in winter and cooler in summer
• Improves quality of life – Without grass, outdoor living areas would be hotter and less enjoyable — plus greens cape reduces stress
• Produces oxygen – Just 50 square feet of turf grass produces enough oxygen to meet the daily needs of a family of four
• Reduces runoff – Grassy areas mitigate stormwater runoff while also cleansing water of impurities and dust
• Protects trees – Watering your lawn helps trees obtain water, maintaining the urban ecosystem and keeping neighborhoods buyer-friendly

Source: Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, The Lawn Institute, U.S. National Arboretum, University of California Cooperative Extension

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to make your house appealing to buyers. In order to sell your home quickly and for the amount you are asking, follow these helpful tips to preparing your home to sell:

1. Enhance your home’s curb appeal. Spruce up the look of the yard by performing regular yard maintenance. Mow the yard, edge the lawn and add some colorful flowers and plants.
2. De-clutter your home so a potential buyer can picture themselves living there. We recommend removing personal items like toys, papers, magazines, makeup products, family photos and any knick-knacks.
3. Repaint if you have colorful walls. Make everything look cleaner and fresher with whites and light tans. Lighter colors also make a room look better and brighter.
4. Make sure your home‘s floors are clean. If you have carpet, you will want to get them professionally cleaned. For tile and hardwood, use a floor shiner. If your flooring shows a lot of wear and tear, you might want to consider new flooring for your home in order to make it more appealing to buyers.
5. Turn on every light in the home to brighten it up. Open your blinds or curtains to let light in. If you are showing the home at night, make sure to turn on all lights outside so the home is easy to find and the paths are well lit.

Check out The Lawhead Team’s helpful tips to get your home in its best shape to sell.

A refined and polished home will appeal to more buyers, sell faster and sell for a higher price. Not to mention buyers will feel more comfortable purchasing a home which appears to be well cared for.

Spend as little money as possible when preparing your home to sell. There is a difference between minor repairs and purchasing an entirely new roof. The following are some helpful tips to get your home ready to sell:

1. Keep your curb appeal looking nice. Mow the lawn, trim hedges, and make sure you have healthy looking plants out front.
2. Keep your garage door closed and store RVs and beat up cars elsewhere while your home is on the market to sell.
3. Apply a fresh coat of paint to the front door. Keep in mind, the exterior of your home is the first impression potential buyers will get of your home when you sell your home.
4. Repair and/or replace any loosed siding and caulking on the outside of your home.
5. Perform a thorough deep cleaning of your entire home and remove all clutter. Just this simple step will help your home look bigger and brighter.
6. Remove as much as you can from kitchen counters, closets and attics. This makes these areas much more inviting and even larger looking when you sell your home.
7. Repair any cracks, holes or damage to your walls, wallpaper, paint, or flooring.
8. If your paint inside your rooms, living rooms and kitchen are brightly colored you may want to paint over with a more neutral color so the potential buyers can easily picture themselves living in your home.
9. Hire a professional cleaning service every few weeks while your home is on the market to sell.
10. Repair leaking and dripping faucets and showerheads. You may also want to buy new “for show” towels for the bathroom to be brought out when prospective buyers come to look at your home.

The Lawhead Team would like to share some helpful tips for homeowners to make their home worth more. Keep these in mind if you are selling your home.

1. Improve the entrance of your home. Whether you landscape the outside yourself or hire someone to do it for you, good landscaping will give you the highest return on your money and will transform the exterior look and feel of your home.
2. Brighten up your front door. This is the centerpiece of your home’s curb appeal. Paint it in a striking and tasteful color or you can sand it down and stain it for an antique weathered look. Finish the look with updated lights, potted plants and new door hardware.
3. Make your front walkway pop. Install pavers or accentuate the look by lining it with lights and/or flowering plants.
4. Clear, clean and update your foyer. This is the first impression people will get when they walk into your home. Remove bulky furniture, paint it with a neutral color and upgrade the lighting.
5. Use rich colors to spice up rooms, avoiding the white or beige look. Adding color to furniture with throw pillows or painting the walls in a rich color will help to showcase your home.
6. Avoid a major kitchen or bathroom overhaul if you are ready to sell. Instead you can install new mirrors, faucets, nozzles and cabinet doors. You will be surprised how much of a difference simple changes like that will make.
7. Repaint your kitchen cabinets to refresh your kitchen’s look. You’ll be surprised at how a coat of paint will transform your kitchen or bathroom’s entire look.
8. If your home is in need, new flooring can provide a huge boost in a home’s value without having to spend that much on it. Replace stained carpet with tasteful tile or wood laminate.
9. Create an inviting backyard which encourages entertainment. Make sure your backyard looks like it is ready to entertain family and friends so your potential buyers can picture themselves there.

An open house is a chance to showcase your home to potential home buyers who may have seen your home online and want to take the next step. An open house could potentially seal the deal.

The Lawhead Team would like to share some helpful tips to making sure your home is ready for its Open House.

Check out these tips for hosing an open house:

• Clear clutter. When you have too many appliances on the counters in your kitchen or piles of magazines on every flat surface of your living room or too much furniture in your rooms, it turns buyers off because they’re not able to visualize how they will use the space.
• Hire a cleaning service. Buyers won’t notice if your home is spotlessly clean, but they will notice if it isn’t. A cleaning service tackles all those dusty places you might forget: baseboards, tops of picture frames, ceiling fans. A neat and clean home is more attractive to potential homeowners especially during an open house.
• Remove family photos. Buyers need to see a neutral canvas where they can put down their roots instead of viewing your family tree.
• Neutralize odors. Often, you get used to the smells of your home. Ask your real estate professional or a friend for a nose check. Shampoo your carpets before the open house, and if you have pets, give them baths and make sure litter boxes are clean.
• Make repairs. Buyers are looking for the imperfections in your home, so now’s the time to fix that leaky faucet or slow-running drain, replace broken window panes and replace burned out light bulbs. These are noticeable maintenance projects that must be tackled before the open house.
• Buy new towels. Spruce up your kitchen and bathroom for your guests with fresh and decorative linens for the open house.
• Set the table. Stage your dining room table for a nice meal to encourage buyers to imagine what it would be like to entertain in the house. Your best china and a new neutral tablecloth with matching napkins will help with the visualization.
• Enhance curb appeal. Trim your lawn, weed your beds and prune your shrubs for your open house. These small landscaping tasks make a world of difference when trying to make your home sell.
• Organize cabinets and drawers. Storage space is a vital selling point of any property. More is more when it comes to the nooks and crannies of where to put belongings. Cluttered linen closets, kitchen cabinets and bedroom closets make it appear that your home doesn’t have enough storage. Solve this issue by streamlining and organizing all these spaces for your open house.
• Leave. Buyers will feel more comfortable asking questions of your agent at your open house if you’re not hovering in the background. Your Realtor can highlight the positive features of your home without bias. Occupy yourself away from home for a few hours. And if you have pets, take them with you. Some buyers might not feel comfortable around your four-legged friends or might have allergies.

There are many tips The Lawhead Team has shared about what to do when staging your home to sell…but what about what NOT to do?

It is important not to get overwhelmed by the details when staging your home to sell. The following are some helpful tips from Home & Garden Television on what not to do when staging your home to sell:

• Less is usually more in home staging. Keep decor simple, and definitely dismantle theme rooms.
• Don’t over personalize your decor. If you know your house is going on the market in the next few years, be mindful of design choices when you remodel, or you could decrease your pool of buyers. Don’t choose a counter top with grape details, for example.
• If your house is going on the market, seriously consider every surface in your home, especially walls and floors. Think neutral. When potential buyers view your home, you don’t want them considering how much time and money it will take to paint over a blindingly yellow room or to replace red shag carpet.
• Need inexpensive ways to prepare your home for the market? Clean, clean, clean. Scrub everything. Rent a carpet shampooer if necessary. The small investment and resulting sweet smell is worth every penny! While you’re at it, declutter! Get started packing and fill boxes with knickknacks and more.
• If you do nothing else to prepare your house for the market, tend to your yard. Rake the leaves. Clean up flower gardens. Trim shrubs. Sweep your sidewalks and porches. You don’t want to lose any showings because drive-by shoppers can’t get past the mess at the curb. Read our article about adding curb appeal to your home.
• Even if you have overlooked needed home repairs for years, potential buyers will see every one of them. Fix that cracked window pane. Replace the broken doorknob. Paint the fence and re-stain a dull looking door. A little sweat equity goes a long way in real estate.
• Don’t misuse spaces: Bedrooms should be bedrooms, not closets or catchall rooms. Patios should be staged as relaxing outdoor spaces, not left empty or as toy storage.

Whether you are planning to sell your home or you just want to make the neighbors jealous, adding curb appeal to your home will make you a proud homeowner.

When you have your home on the market, the first impression of the exterior of your home will either entice them to look inside your home to see what it has to offer or move on to the next home for sale down the street. Curb appeal is very important if you are looking to sell.

The following are inexpensive ways to improve your home’s curb appeal for potential buyers or envious neighbors:

• Clean off the dirt – Your home has taken a beating over the winter. The front porch likely has a layer of dirt and salt scum, and the windows could probably use a good washing. Rent or borrow a power washer and give the exterior of your home a good cleaning and clean up your curb appeal.
• Plant new flowers and do away with the dead ones – You might not have flowers coming up in your beds yet, but make sure they’re presentable. Trim dormant ornamental grasses and clean out any leaves and sticks that piled up in the winter.
• Trim branches – Trees, branches, and shrubs can obscure your home’s features and make it seem dark and uninviting.  If you haven’t already done so, go out to the street and make sure that no shrubs or low-hanging tree branches block the view of your home. You want potential buyers to get a clear look at the house when they drive by. If there are any obstructions, trim them back now to show off your curb appeal.
• Plant in containers – Add life and color to your yard with container gardening. Buy some colorful pots and fill them with vibrant flowers. You can place pots on your front porch, going down your front steps or even in your flower beds.
• Clean out the gutters – If you have leaves and sticks hanging out of your gutters from winter storms, drag out the ladder and clean them out. Your home must look trim and tidy, and dirty gutters are an eyesore to potential buyers and can weaken your curb appeal.
• Get rid of any sad looking mulch – Mulch gets spread around and blown about during the winter. Adding a thick new layer of mulch can work wonders for your home’s curb appeal.
• Edge the driveway – Installing a border along the driveway gives it a crisp, elegant look. Edging materials such as bricks, pavers, and stone, or a combination of them, bring a boring asphalt slab to life with color, texture, and decorative designs. The edging can be level with the driveway or elevated to prevent people from driving onto your lawn.
• Install lights along the sidewalk – Lights that lead to your entryway welcome guests after dusk while also increasing their safety. Soft exterior lighting also makes your home appear more inviting and friendly, and it can emphasize landscaping and any other features you want to call out to anyone approaching your front door. You can find inexpensive solar lights at your local hardware store to add more curb appeal.
• Paint the front door – A fresh coat of paint can transform your front door and provide a more welcoming entryway into your house. Read our article on re-staining your front door.

If you long to give your home that sought-after “curb appeal,” consider starting with your front entrance. Your front entrance is so important when making that “first impression,” because it’s really the ‘face’ of your home.

The Lawhead Team would like to share some ideas for homeowners to give your home a facelift, starting with your front entrance.

So try following these 10 easy improvements to help give your home a facelift:

1. Repair the Walkway:
Patch cracks and replace loose bricks and pavers. Rent a power washer or purchase a chemical treatment to clean up embedded stains in concrete, stone or asphalt.

2. Illuminate the Path:
Lighting helps ensure guests arrive safely and also acts as a theft deterrent. Clean light fixtures and replace burnt-out bulbs with energy-saving CFL bulbs, replace outdated fixtures and add landscape lighting to brighten walkways and shrubbery while enhancing your front entrance.

3. Use Foliage and Shrubbery:
Strategically-placed plants can conceal any unattractive aspects of your home or surroundings. Place large pots or hanging baskets around the stoop or porch. Bushes or hedges hide air conditioning units or propane tanks, and flower beds and window boxes will stylize a stark facade.

4. Prune and Mulch:
Prune dead branches, trim back overgrown shrubbery or remove obstructive plantings. Spread mulch or bark around trees, shrubs and flowers for a weed-free, well-kept look.

5. Decorate Your Door:
Restore the luster of your door by polishing the hinges and knobs. Paint or stain the door with a color that stands out, yet complements, the trim and siding. Hang a pretty wreath to finish the look. If your front door is weak or unattractive, invest in a replacement door or storm door for security and energy efficiency to enhance your front entrance.

6. Focus on Windows:
Fix broken windows and torn screens and paint sashes, trim and shutters in a neutral color. Add window treatments and keep the glass crystal clear.

7. Accessorize:
Choose a few lawn and garden ornaments. Match a decorative handle, door knocker or kickplate with shiny new house numbers and a mailbox.

8. Feature Furniture:
Spray a fresh coat of paint on furniture and replace the cushions. Fill an empty spot on the porch or stoop with a quaint bench or porch swing.

9. Keep it Clean:
Sweep the sidewalk and stoop, clear away cobwebs, tighten wobbly railings and repaint posts and supports to make the front entrance look clean.

10. The Finishing Touch:
Put out a clean, new welcome mat and make sure the doorbell works because you’re sure to attract more visitors now!