If you aren't familiar with the term, "curb appeal", it is basically what someone like a potential buyer sees when driving by your home. It amazes me the amount of people who put their home on the market to sell and think nothing about the appearance from the street. It doesn't matter how nice the inside of the house is if the outside is unattractive it may never be seen. By putting in a little work you can change the look of your home from drab to stunning and increase the chances of selling it quickly for a higher price.

Unless you are wealthy and own two or more homes you more than likely live in the home you are selling which makes you blind to some of the problems it may have. You have probably been overlooking that water spot or peeling paint for months, not to mention the cracked shutters on the front of the house and you haven't even given the old beat up mailbox a second thought. Try to remove yourself as the owner and drive by your home like a would be buyer would do, notice all of the things that someone might have issues with or even be so turned off that they wouldn't even bother going any further. You may notice the shrubs need to be trimmed, a broken porch light, damaged gutters, and other minor problems that can be easily repaired. If you are the type of person that has trouble visualizing like this you would do well to pay someone to critique your home for you.

If you really want to improve the curb appeal of your home so that you have the best opportunity for the most potential buyers to take a serious look at it then take a look at some of the ideas below.

First off you want people to be able to find your house easily, if your house numbers are obscured or if they are the type that is illuminated then make sure that everything is working properly and that the numbers can be easily seen from the street. If someone has a dozen homes to look at and they have a hard time finding yours they are just going to go one to the next one.

Make sure that the front of your home and the yard are free of any trash and debris and keep the yard cut close so that it always presents a well manicured look, if your yard is in particularly bad shape you may want to hire a professional landscape company to mae it pristine. As mentioned above, if you have shutters that are cracked or need painting either repair them or remove them. If you have a front door that is an eyesore get another and install it.

If your garage is crammed full of stuff like mine is, keep it shut so that potential buyers aren't driving by getting a bad impression. Don't neglect the little things, as I said above something as small as a mailbox can detract from the appearance of your home. If you have a home worth 300k it doesn't really make sense to have a beat up $10 mailbox sitting in front of it now does it?