I’m always happy to hear from homeowners who want to have their house “staged” before listing it for sale. As mentioned previously, an investment in home staging usually brings a quicker sale and higher prices for sellers. However, while homeowners see the value in staging the interior of a house, they often question the necessity of making changes to the outside. Yes, beautiful online photos of a “staged” home will entice buyers to want to visit the house, but it is the exterior that will make the very first impression. Bald patches in a lawn or an overgrown lawn, planting beds overrun with weeds, overgrown or dead shrubs, cracks in the sidewalk or driveway, dirty siding or peeling paint, broken or dirty windows and piles of debris all create a very negative impression of the home. Buyers need to feel a positive emotional connection to a house the minute they pull up to the curb. If they do, they will be even more excited about seeing the inside of the house.
Making the exterior of a house welcoming is not super difficult – it just requires some manual labor. As homeowners, you can probably do the work yourself; if not, hire a landscaper to help you. Clean the exterior of the house, the roof, gutters and windows. Trim trees and shrubs and plant colorful flowers in season. Top up mulch or stones in planting beds. Re-seed bare patches in the lawn and mow the grass regularly in the warm months. In the Fall, rake leaves regularly to prevent them decaying and potentially causing a slip hazard. Install adequate lighting along the walkway to the front door. Once these tasks are done, enlist the creativity of a home stager to add the decorative finishing touches. Now that the outside is clean and “staged”, it will be difficult for buyers to stay away.