We all know that first impressions count for so much when it comes to selling your home, so making sure that your home has kerb appeal is vital. In fact, it’s the perfect marketing tool from your home, selling the dream of what your house has to offer before a potential purchaser has even stepped inside.

In today’s market, buyers don’t have time to spare – what they see on an explorative drive by, or from the pictures of your home online, will often be enough to determine if they want to view your home in real life.  Having an exceptional exterior is just as important as what’s inside your home, and the necessary attention should be paid to it.  The good news is, making your home beautiful from the outside is actually pretty easy to achieve, no matter your budget or time. 

So what can you do to make sure your kerb appeal is more ‘WOW’ and less “WTF?’? 

1) If you do one thing, freshen up your front door

Front doors colours are big business, almost aspirational – it's like an invitation to enter a brand-new lifestyle.  If you want to sell your home, pick a colour that gives buyers the feel of what the rest of your home will offer them, and then give your front door a lick of paint. Anyone else for a little bit of Farrow & Ball Pigeon?!

Even your door accessories say a lot about the sort of house you are selling. Upgrading your door hardware, or even just giving your doorknob and letterbox a good old-fashioned polish will immediately add a little bit of sparkle to someone’s first glance at their potential new pad. 

2) Keep it simple: clean your windows

It is almost too obvious to say, but cleaning your windows is a must when selling your home. Not only will this tiny hack make the outside of your property look fresh and clean, but it will also allow more light into your home, showing the interior off at its very best too.   

3) Liven up your landscaping

No matter whether you have a front garden, a driveway, or simply a front door that leads onto the street, there’s always merit in assessing the entrance to your home and giving it a bit of a tidy up. If gardening isn’t normally your thing, even just taking a quick recon mission around your local neighbourhood to pick up ideas from some homes in your area should give you an idea about what looks good.

If you do have a front lawn, give the grass a cut, neaten any hedges and think about introducing some colour into the borders. Driveways and paths should be weeded and given a good power clean. Even a few flowerpots or small bay trees either side of a front door just add that little extra detail that makes your home impossible to ignore. A well-kept front aspect is going to show purchasers that you care for your property, giving them peace of mind that the inside will be to similar high standards. 

4) Look at your paintwork

Making sure that your masonry has had a fresh paint will instantly make your house feel like new. Nobody wants to pull up to a house with old weather-beaten walls, so it’s an easy fix to add a fresh coat of paint – just don’t be tempted to go to crazy with colour. We’d suggest that a simple brilliant white will allow buyers to visualise the house as they would like it. Now would also be the time to give your window frames a once-over so they’re looking sharp.

Don’t forget gates and fences too – much like your front door, the colour you choose for these gives a sense of what the rest of the house is like, and helps a purchaser buy in to a lifestyle. An extra tip here is to make sure your fences are in good nick, and gates are properly hung and have had a little spritz of WD40 for a squeak-free swing. 

5) Don’t neglect the roof

Looking skywards is a good idea when you’re trying to boost kerb appeal. One of the main things buyers look for when viewing a property is what condition the roof is in, and whether it’s likely they will have to make any major investments from day one. If a buyer sees a roof that looks like it will need replacing in just a few years, this could be enough to put them off a purchase, or indeed offer at a lower price point. If your roof is looking a bit knackered, this is a decision you will need to consider – shelling out to replace it, and therefore attracting higher offers, or leaving that as a job for the next owner, and accepting you may get slightly less than you’d ideally want offer-wise. 

6) Hide anything unsightly

Storage is just as important outside a property as it is inside. Nobody wants to pull up to a home they’ve fallen in love with online and be greeted by rubbish bins, lawnmowers and abandoned kids toys and bikes. Having a bit of outside storage will tidy up your home’s façade and ensure buyers aren't distracted from the main event. Think about getting a bin store, and you can also get some great value outdoor lockers to hide away bikes, watering cans, and that old swing ball set your kids haven't touched in years. You want a purchaser to imagine themselves in your property, and this applies to the outside too, so stash away as much as you can that could get in the way of that. 

7) A note on security

Our final piece of advice on boosting kerb appeal has to be to consider how secure your house looks from the outside. Good external lighting will not only make a property look attractive at night but is also an important safety feature that can enhance a buyer's opinion of your home. Having a well-lit entrance and a security light is a deterrent for criminals, which can only bring peace of mind to someone viewing your property. If you already have a security system installed that is visible from the outside, this is also going to be a positive for any potential buyers who will know that their house is going to be secure from day one. 

So, there you have it, whether your home is oozing with kerb appeal or is kicked to the kerb is in your capable hands. Kerb appeal can be created by making even the smallest of changes to the outside of your home, or even with a little elbow grease. If you can make your pad look as pretty as a picture from the moment you pull up to the drive, we have no doubt that you’ll have buyers queuing at your white picket fence for a slice of the lifestyle you’re selling.