150+ Curb Appeal Ideas: An Ultimate Guide For A Car-Stopping Curb

Welcome to our ultimate guide about how to increase curb appeal of your house!

Why does curb appeal matter?

Well, the first impression is everything – at least when it comes to selling a house. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says that 63% of home buyers will drop by after seeing a house they liked online. What they will see will definitely affect their decision whether they want to move on further inquiry or not. 

Curb appeal is a calling card of you house! Make sure it looks representable.

Our ultimate guide is choke-full with the ideas that will help you to do that.

The guide is based on the recent Remodeling Impact Report: Outdoor Features by the National Association of Realtors. In this report, the researches took a deep dive why homeowners complete outdoor remodeling projects and what value such projects bring. Among other things, the report also covers how much appeal each outdoor project is likely to have for buyers. 

Thus, the report basically shows how you can increase your house value via enhancing your curb appeal. 

Sounds great, right? Let’s dive in!

How To Use Our Ultimate Guide

Our guide is structured per a particular area of your house exterior.

We start with exploring how you can efficiently organize your curb appeal efforts and then dive into each particular improvement topic. Anything about curb appeal can be DIY-ed so we provide rough estimates how long each task may take you.

Some areas may benefit from professional attention. For these, we provided you a handy link to the NETWORKS platform that connects local contractors with homeowners.

At the end of the guide, you will find the 9 of the top curb appeal mistakes that you may be making without realizing it.

For easy navigation, expand Table Of Content below:

Learn And Collect Info About Your House Exterior

1. Do a curb appeal exercise: Try to image how a buyer will see your yard and house. The next time you drive by your place, make a note of what looks good and what’s not. Take photos of your house exterior and study them – after all, potential buyers will first see your house online on pictures.
2. Do a night curb appeal exercise: Do the same thing as in the step #1 but at dusk. Some of potential buyers will drop by at night to see how your house looks like at that time.
3. Get a second opinion: We as humans often tend to ignore certian things we are used to. It could chipped paint or missing shingles on the roof. Ask your friends or neighbors to take a look at your house outside and tell you what they see wrong.
4. Know your budget: Decide how much money you would like to spend on improving your curb appeal. While the majority of the curb appeal improvements we write about in this guide will result in increasing the value of your house, you still should not go crazy and invest too much money.
5. Know your timeline: When do you plan to put your house on the market? How much time do you have? Make a list of what you would like to do, get the time estimates from our guide and plan accordingly. After all, you do not want to miss the hot season for selling your house!

Now, for creating a beautiful car-stopping curb appeal, follow our guide!

Wash Your House’s Face: Sides, Windows, And More

It is a good idea to wash the dirt, mildew, and general grunge off the outside of your house. 

According to houselogic.com, REALTORS® say washing a house can add $10,000 to $15,000 to the sale prices of some houses. If you decided to give it a go, here are the common washing tasks and the time you need to accomplish them if you do it yourself:

Day

• wash outside of the doors
• wash the garage door
• hose down downspouts

Weekend

• wash windows in and out 
• wash or pressure-wash the house siding
• pressure-wash the deck and patio
• pressure-wash oil-stained parts of the driveway and dirty walkways

Here is how washing can change an appearance of a house (credits to answers.anghieslist.com):

• Do not own a pressure washer? No need to buy one! Just go to your local home improvement store and rent one for a weekend. It will cost you about $40 a day for an electric one. Also, check out follow our tutorial about how to clean a flagstone patio.
• The surface is especially dirty and water does not help? Use a dish soap or trisodium phosphate (TSP) solution to clean it.  You can buy TSP in a home renovation store but a dish soap would work too.

DIY or professionals?

You can do the washing yourself and invite your friends to help you. It is a budget solution but then this whole washing task may take multiple weekends.

You can also hire professionals to do it. It will be faster but will cost you $220 to $380 dollars for a house siding depending on your area.

If you decided to go a DIY washing route, here is a video by ToolBoxBuzz with some useful tips about how to wash a house:

Here are more links to check out:

• How to Clean Your Home’s Exterior
• How To Pressure Wash A House To Clean Siding and Gutters
• Washing Your House Exterior Without A Pressure Washer (Siding, Gutters, Windows, Pavement)

Fix The Roof: Clean And Repair

The condition of your roof is one of the first things potential buyers and appraisers check and assess. If the roof does not look clean and well-maintained, it will immediately have a negative effect on the potential price of your house.

Clean and repair your roof to avoid that. 

But should you upgrade your roof? William Durham, a real estate appraiser, Fort Worth, Texas, says:

If you’re driving around and you see a house with a 20-year-old gray asphalt shingle roof, it’s old and boring, especially when compared to some of the aluminum shakes or composition shingles that have color or texture.

If you look at the return on the investment a new roof brings, it might be worth it. According to national Association of Realtors, if a new roof costs $7,600, you’re likely to get $8,000 for that cost upon resale. There as, a return of investment for a new roof can be about 105%.

DIY or professionals?

Roof is one of the few areas of your house where DIY approach is not very welcome, even if it comes to “only” cleaning.

Without having proper professional tools and knowing right techniques, it’s very easy to damage the roof. Also, without getting proper training, it might be easy to slip, fall down, and injure yourself.

For the roof replacement, it depends a lot on what kind of new roof you will be installing. Check it out directly on HomeAdviser.

Do a House Make-up: Paint Your House Exterior

The most commonly offered curb appeal advice from real estate agents and appraisals is to paint the exterior of your house. No wonder! Depending on the area where you live, it can give your house value a boost from $6,000 up to whopping $13,000 according to Realtor Magazine.

Day

• paint the front door
• refresh the paint on the desk rails

Weekend

• paint the garage door
• paint the trims the same color or the contrast to your house

Month

• re-paint the house siding and trims

Here is how pretty a house can look like when the fresh paint.

Can’t paint an entire house? Refresh only the trims.

Or repaint a front door to give your exterior an intriguing pop of color. Here’s a helpful article about how to choose the color of your front door.

You can also paint your garage door in the same color as your front door.

DIY or professionals?

You can definitely to do exterior painting yourself, especially if you go with a small project such as repainting the front door or refreshing the trims. However, if you plan to repaint the whole house, it might be worth considering hiring professionals.

If you decided to go with a DIY painting route, check out the videos below about how to paint the exterior of the house.

In her excellent video, Chelsea from checkinginwithchelsea.com shows us how to re-paint (and renovate) a front door:

Looking for a bigger impact? Here, John Burbidge explains how to pain trims , a front door, and downspouts:

Feeling adventurous and up for a big job? Here is a video by The Idaho Painter about how to paint the whole house:

Here are more links for you to check out:

• How to paint a house exterior from start to finish
• Smart Tips for Painting Your House

Spruce Up Front Door: A Worthy Upgrade And Small Touches

The front door of your house is no doubts the focal point of your house. It’s like its calling card. Keeping it nicely-looking and tastefully decorated will definitely have an impact on the first impression buyers will have of your house.

Consider A Front Door Upgrade

If you are looking for a maximum impact, it seems that it is worth to to invest a bit into upgrading your entry. According to a study conducted by Therma-Tru, by upgrading your front door, you can increase your home’s perceived value by about $18,000. Considering that an average cost of a new door with professional installation goes up to $4,000, you can make 400% return on investment!

In this house makeover, one thing Joanna and Chip from magnolia.com did was replace the front door. Look how welcoming the entrance looks now!

DIY or professionals?

When it comes to hanging an exterior door, you need some pretty high-level DIY skills let alone elaborated tools.

You need to know what kinds of doors exist there and which one you would like to install. According to diynetwork.com, the doors can be prehung (easier to install) and from slabs (harder to install). There are also a few other factors you need to take into consideration. For example, is your floor level? Does the depth of your door match the depth of the opening?

if you have tools, knowledge, and time, you can definitely hand an exterior door yourself. If not, it might be the right choice to call professionals.

If you decided to go with a DIY door installation route, check out the video below about how to install a prehung door by Lowe’s.

Check out more links about hanging a door yourself:

• INSTALL AN EXTERIOR DOOR
• Exterior Doors: How (Not) To Install Them

Decorate: Small Touches Matter

If you are looking for quick solutions, adding a cheerful doormat is one of the easy ways to elevate your front door curb appeal. And why limiting yourself with only one doormat? Be bold and go with two! Layer them up like Jenna from lanternlanedesigns.com did.

You can also hang a season-appropriate wreath as a simple way to personalize your entry. It should reflect your house interior so opt for the decoration that goes with your personal style. 

If you are doing prepping your porch around Easter, check this image collection post by ANestWithAYard full of bunnies and eggs. And this post presents an awesome collection of Easter wreaths. And if you are in love with Christmas trees, why not make an Easter tree in your backyard?

If you need some inspiration for winter decor, check out Nadya Jones’ blog with winter your porch and front door ideas.

Another good way to choose a door wreath is to match it with plants that grow in flower boxes (if you have any).

To add a unique touch to your front door, hang a stylish door knocker…

…Or hang a cheerful door sign that welcomes your visitors inside. You can buy one or make one yourself. Here’s how Lolly from lollyjane.com hang it next to her new coral door.

Get more ideas about front door decoration:

• Front Door Ideas To Help Boost Your Curb Appeal (PHOTOS)
• SPRING CURB APPEAL: PAINTED FRONT DOORS + PAINT GUIDE
• The Ultimate Guide for Beautiful Front Door Inspiration

Curb Appeal For A House With No Front Door

Lots of homeowners struggle to achieve the desired curb appeal for a house with no front door. A front door is the focal point of any home. It makes your property look more welcoming with hardly any effort. 

But with a bit of creativity, you can make your house look amazing from the street, even if you have no front door!

Try bordering your driveway with pretty flowering shrubs! Kelly Page from bluegraygal.com has planted beautiful Knock Out Roses in her front yard. When grouped together, they create a romantic pathway worth looking at.

Opt for plants that are easy to grow. Knock Out roses are an excellent choice since they are quite resistant and they bloom every five weeks throughout the summer. You can check other low-maintenance options on CountryLiving. 

Or maybe your backyard already has pretty bushes like pokeweed? If so, just be careful with it since pokeweed is poisonous.

Why stop at the driveway when you can extend this idea to your house!

Make the profile of your house pop with a beautiful flowering border. Colorful and fragrant plants will make your home more approachable.

Natasha from simplyschulze.com made a flower bed out of cheap and easy plants, like hostas, azaleas, and liriope. What a great idea!

Put flowers front and center! A beautiful arrangement, as seen below, will instantly improve your curb appeal, whether you have a front door or not. 

You can even make a rustic DIY wheelbarrow planter out of old wood pallets. Place it in the middle of your flower bed as a centerpiece.  If you are not sure how to do it, read our post about flower gardening.

This Steve Ramsey video shows you how to make one: 

If you would really like to capture the essence of a front door, you can try putting up a gated entry. The gate will act as a front door leading to your house. 

This project will cost you time and money, but the end result is worth it.

You can also build a small pergola as a front entry. 

This idea is great for homes with a side door that can’t be seen from the street. You build a pergola parallel to the front side, right at the corner of the house, and connect it to the side door creating a small corridor.  

The pergola will act as an extension of the door. Only now, it is fully visible!

Here’s some more inspiration for a house with no front door: 

• homebnc.com/best-front-yard-landscaping-garden-ideas
• renoguide.com.au/outdoor/50-awesome-pergola-design-ideas

Smiling Porch: Flowers, Fake Flowers, And Furniture

Without doubts, greenery and flowers brings color and appeal to any porch and deck. Plus, it’s an easy and inexpensive way to increase your curb appeal instantly.

One of the easy ways to do so is to add potted blooming plants. For example, you can buy geraniums or pansies in pots from a garden center or buy pots and plant your favorite flowers yourself.

Another easy way to green up your porch and your house facade is to install flower boxes. You can hang them on the front porch railings or below the windows. You can also get standing plant boxes and install them near a wall.

Add them not only to the windows but to the balcony as well…

…Or opt for contrasting colors to create a dramatic effect.

You can DIY flower boxes since it’s quite easy to do. The video by Minneapolis Property Rehabbers shows you how to do that:

The important part of having plants and flower to decorate your house is to take care or them. Don’t forget to water the plants especially if they are placed in a sunny area.

If you don’t have a green thumb and would prefer to have a hands-off approach, you can try artificial flowers and plants.

There might be some prejudice towards fake plants (so tacky!) but hear me out. As more and more environment-conscious millennials are becoming homeowners, artificial landscaping and fake plant home decor in general is getting more and more popular. For example, take a look at these gorgeous outdoor flower arrangements made by Kelly, a blogger behind bluegraygal.com. For me, it’s convincing enough to give fake flowers a big green light!

If your porch does not have any furniture, add some! It will turn the porch into a welcoming resting area that also makes an eye-catching focal point.

Place a brightly colored bench or Adirondack chair and put a side table next to it. You can even make your own chairs like Emily from ourhousenowahome.com did!

Add bright pillows to create a welcoming spot of color.

You can also install a porch swing to add a place to relax outside. 

To add an even more homey feeling (and add some privacy), hang curtains on your porch. 

More inspiration for your porch decor:

• 34 Charming Porch Wall Decor Ideas to Make Your Outdoor Space Shine
• 55+ Luxury Farmhouse Front Porch Decor Ideas
• 25 Spring Porch Decoration Ideas That are Much More Than Just Flowers and Greens!

Outside Life: Expand Your Indoors Outdoors!

Expand your indoors outdoors! It is easy to do if you have a patio or a deck. If you don’t, consider building one!

Add A Patio, Deck, Or Porch

According to the Remodeling Impact: Outdoor Features report by the National Association of Realtors, a new patio and new wood deck took the 4th and 5th places (out of 13) respectfully on the list of the projects that are likely to add value to home for resale. In the same report but on the list of projects that increase an appeal of a house to buyers, the projects took the 6th and 5th places (out of 13) respectfully.

Given that, patio and deck upgrades are worth considering when it comes to your house curb appeal.

Here are a few visual examples on how a front porch and deck can change the look of a house.

DIY or professionals?

Installing a new patio can be as simple as choosing an area and laying out some pavement stones there. Building a new deck or porch yourself might be a bit more difficult and long project. However, if you like woodworking, you may really enjoy doing it.

If you decided to do it yourself, here are a couple of helpful videos to watch.

For example, this video by Lowe’s shows how to design and install a paver patio yourself. If you are wandering how much such a patio could cost, check this article for some estimations and tips on how to plan a patio.

If you want to do a DIY deck project, check this video by Craig Heffernan, in which he explains how to build a deck for beginners. 

Here are more information about installing a patio and deck yourself:

• Building a Deck: 10 Things to Consider
• How to Build a Deck
• How To Install a Flagstone Patio

More Outdoor Space: Go Big or Small

Your outdoor space does not end with just having a patio or deck. You can do so much more with it.  By having an well-equipped or simply neatly organized  outdoor room, you will show prospective home buyers the true entertaining potential of your house. 

If you want to go one step further than just a regular sitting area (and if your space permits), make a full-blown exterior space with outdoor kitchen and dining spot…

…or a cozy sitting area next to the outdoor fireplace.

Don’t have room for a patio, porch, or deck? Try to organize a small sitting area in your front yard. Add a couple of lawn chairs with a small table between them. Put a blooming potted plant on the table for a colorful spot.

Here’s how Grace from nestingwithgrace.com transformed her curb appeal from dull to welcoming by adding a sitting area in from of her porch:

More ideas about arranging a great outdoor space:

• 61 Backyard Patio Ideas – Pictures Of Patios
• 26 of The Worlds Best Outside Seating Ideas Designs by Up-Cycling Items in DIY Projects
• Outdoor Kitchen Ideas on a Budget

Hardware Facelift: Mailbox And House Numbers

Think about updating your mailbox along with house numbers to make your house stand out right from the entrance.

If you want to invest a bit, buy a new upscale mailbox. Just make sure that its style fits the overall style of your house exterior.

If you do not want to upgrade your mailbox, think about giving it a facelift with paint. While painting  your mailbox in a color matching the color of your house will make the look of your exterior more cohesive, having it artistically painted will add a unique touch to your curb appeal.

Make a flowerbed around the post and plant some bright flowers and leafy greenery. Add new house numbers that the overall house exterior design.

Or get a mailbox with a built-in planter! Just remember that the soil in small planters get dry pretty quickly so you will need to water it often. Unless you use succulents. 

More ideas about mailbox and house numbers decor:

• Mailbox Garden Ideas: How To Create Curb Appeal With A Mailbox
• 8 Easy Ways to Make Your Mailbox The Cutest One on the Block
• DISPLAYING HOUSE NUMBERS CREATIVELY

Neat Up Walkway And Driveway: Polish, Boost, Or Replace

Well-designed and well-taken care of walkways and driveways make the outside of your home feel warm and inviting.

Day

• remove weeds
• patch holes and cracks
• stain concrete driveway and walkways
• polish concrete pathways

Weekend

• add brick or stone edging

Month

• re-do your pathways completely

First of all, remove weeds from your driveway and walkways.  This will immediately give a much better impression on your curb appeal. In her post, Melissa from empressofdirt.net explains how to do so properly. And look at the result:

Clean up the surface of the paths to get rid of moss and bacteria build-up. It will make a big difference!

Give your pathways a boost with brick edging. 

If you want to achieve a wow effect with relatively small efforts, try to stain your concrete pathways. It should give your straight path a dramatic improvement.

You can choose either a uniform color or a pattern. The pattern style looks the best in a garden with uniform greenery or on a path that goes trough a lawn. Choose the uniform color or light pattern if your garden is full of flowers and other decorative elements to avoid a “all-too-busy” look.

This is how Kristi from ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com redid her patio floor. I love it how the new color of the floor goes with the color of the walls and lights up the whole space. Check her blog for a full tutorial!

If you walkways are not in a good shape, replace it with a new path. Consider going with bricks or stones for a completely new look. Here’s how a new walkway can bring the look of your front yard to a totally new level!

Check out these front walkway ideas on budget for more inspiration.

DIY or professionals?

You can definitely to do walkway edging yourself, especially if your walkways are not too long or if you like digging. However, if you have a lot of walkways to take care of or your pathways are in an especially bad condition, a help of professionals can be more than desired.

If you decided to go with a DIY route of boosting up your walkways, this article by familyhandyman.com show exactly how to do walkway brick edging step by step.

For DIY staining your concrete walkways and driveways, check a video below by The Idaho Painter.

Manicured Yard: Cut, Prune, And Xeriscape

A well-cared green or colorful yard boosts a curb appeal of any home without exception. You can do many improvements to your yard, from small projects that take only a day to big ones that can last a month.

According to the National Association of Realtors, landscape maintenance, overall landscape upgrade, and standard lawn care services are three top projects that are both have the highest appeal to buyers and add the most likely value to home for resale.

Day

• remove weeds and invasive wines
• apply mulch around trees and bushes
• plant some extra trees
• update the edge of garden beds
• add some outdoor art

Weekend

• feed the lawn with water and fetilizers
• mow and trim the lawn
• cut back trees and bushes
• remove trees if needed ; here are reasons to cut down trees
• create new planter beds and renew old ones

Month

• adopt xeriscaping
• build a berm

It means that on every $1,000 you spend on lawn care, you will be able to recoup extra $1,670.

First, start with nourishing your lawn with water and fertilizers and get rid of weeds. 

In order to save efforts, it might be tempting to use so called “feed-n-weed” solutions that do two jobs at the same time: Kill weeds and feed the grass. However, remember that such solutions contain synthetic herbicides that are harmful for the environment. Read about 6 reasons why you might want to avoid using it here.

After nourishing the lawn, give it a stylish haircut. Sharpen the blade of your lawn mow and cut the grass near the tallest setting of the mower. According to organolawn.com, it will improve your lawn’s beauty and health.

DIY or professionals?

It can be fun to work on your garden in general (after all, it’s one of the reasons why gardening is important for you) and on your lawn in particular. No wonder that the National Association of Realtors mentions in their recent remodeling report that lawn care service has a joy score 9 out of 10. It may also make you more money when you sell your house since a DIY approach is usually much cheaper.

However, if you have a big yard or not much free time, it might be worth to consider professional services.

Check out more ideas about how you can improve your lawn yourself:

• How to Fix Dead Patches in the Lawn
• How to Fix the Most Common Lawn Problems

Improve Your Landscaping

Adding some fresh mulch around your trees, bushes, and other places is an easy and inexpensive way to elevate your property’s curb appeal. 

Dense and robust trees with their shade and roots sucking in nutrients from the soil makes it problematic to grow a healthy lawn under them. This leaves your grass with ugly bald spots that can and should be covered with mulch.

You can choose a brightly colored mulch that fits well with the rest of the color scheme of your exterior or you can choose a dark brown or black mulch that resembles soil. While on it, think of planting some blooming flowers that prosper in shade. 

Mulch is excellent for covering up the parts of your backyard that are full of dirt slush. if you have this problem, check out this post about how to cover up mud in a backyard.

Planting a tree next to your entrance or walkway is one of the most common ways to increase the curb appeal of your house.

If you have enough room, think of adding two trees, one on each side. Before choose the trees, consider how big it will grow. It’s best to choose small and medium sized types of trees.

Blooming flowers always attract attention and make a positive impression. Consider making flowerbeds if you don’t have any. If you do, renew the existing ones by replacing old outgrown plants with new fresh ones. Pull off weed, prune big plants with garden scissors, and refresh the mulch to restore colors that were taken away by sun and harsh weather.

Some types of the annual plants are always in bloom so you should prefer these ones over the seasonal varieties. For new flowerbeds, choose spots that won’t let the plants obscure your house but rather frame it. Vary plants’ colors and sizes to create a lively mix of greenery.

Put a crisp edge on your flowerbeds either by adding to the flowerbeds where it does not exist or by updating the existing one. Thinking of saving a buck and going with plastic edging? Better not. Plastic edging looks cheap and flimsy and may turn off potential buyers.

To enhance your backyard’s beauty, build a berm.

A berm is a landscaping structure that is similar to a raised flowerbed but has curved edges. Thanks to that, it allows you to create interesting shapes that contrast to the sharp straight lines of your house and pathways.

Berms also break up flat and dull backyard and adds an interesting dimension to it. Here are some tips and tricks about how to build a beautiful berm.

More ideas for improving your landscaping:

• 11 Beautiful Lawn Edging Ideas
• Shrubs that Bloom All Year | Year Round Shrubs According to Season
• How to Landscape
• CURB APPEAL AND LANDSCAPING IDEAS FROM FIXER UPPER
• Landscaping with Lavender | 7 Garden Design Ideas
• Growing Lavender In Florida
• Cheap landscaping ideas in pictures

Adopt Xeriscaping

Want to appeal to modern home buyers? Think about getting into xeriscaping.

Nowadays, home buyers (especially Millennials, according to tntstaging.com) are increasingly leaning towards low maintenance, drought-tolerant yards. 

You can start with shrinking the area of your lawn by replacing it with drought-tolerant landscaping. Use drought-resistant plants, rocks, mulch, and other elements that do not need watering. 

You can also incorporate your xeriscape areas into berms we talked above to create some islands of low-watering garden.

Get more xeriscaping inspiration:

• 32 Stunning Low-Water Landscaping Ideas for Your Garden
• 24 Best Drought Tolerant Plants That Grow In Lack Of Water
• 10 Beautiful Xeriscape Yards
• XERISCAPING YOUR YARD FOR EFFICIENCY AND AESTHETICS
• Xeriscaping Principles: Gardening for Water Conservation

Erect Outdoor Structures: Gazebos, Arbors, Fences

Arbors, gazebos, wood fence gates, and fences can enhance your garden and curb appeal and add the value to your home. You can buy these amenities as easy-to-build kits or prefab sections that you simply put up together. If you decide to stain or paint these items, make sure the color matches colors that are already on your house.

BTW, we also compiled a list of other backyard features that add value to your house. 

To give some form and dimension to your landscape, install a pergola. These structures will compliment your plantings and add a new landscape layer to your yard. Read more in our post about what is the purpose of a pergola to learn how your backyard can benefit from it. Moreover, you can cover it to get a versatile outdoor room.

To enhance your outdoor living room, install a soft-top or hardtop gazebo. The hardtop gazebo can be a wooden one or one made of metal. There are many popular gazebos out there. 

Decorate it with flower pots, curtains, and set up a fire pit. Check our post about whether you can have a gazebo with a fire pit inside to make sure you stay safe.

Make curb appeal charming with a fence. If you have one, clean it, replace broken parts, and tight loose latches. If you do not have a fence, consider installing one. Choose the style that fits the overall design of your house. Go with a wooden picket fence or an iron fence; all depends on the design of your backyard (check out our wood fence ideas for front yard to get inspired.)

Consider installing trellis or an arbor above your entrance to create an inviting path to your house.

DIY or professionals?

While you can definitely install a gazebo or pergola on your own thanks to many easy-to-assemble kits you can buy at dome improvement stores, installing a fence might be a different story.

It all depends on how long the fence is going to be and what condition are the edges of your yard. Also, what kind of materials do you want to use? If you are thinking of an iron fence, clearly, a help of professionals may be needed.

if you decided to do it yourself, consider installing a plastic fence. It requires much less work and is easy to. Watch this video where Ron Hazelton from ronhazelton.com shows how he did that:

Make It Well Lit: Think Night Curb Appeal!

Curb appeal does not end when the sun goes down. Some potential home buyers may drop by your house in the evening or drive by at night to see how your house looks in dusk. Don’t make a mistake of ignoring the evening curb appeal!

According to the remodeling impact report by the National Association of Realtors, landscape lighting takes the 7th spot (out of 13) on both list for the appeal to buyers and for a likely added value to home for resale.

If you already have outdoor lighting, make sure it functions properly and none of the lights is off. If you have solar lights that stopped working, try to fix them first (it might be easier than you think) and if it does not help, replace them.

If you do not have landscape lighting, add some. Consider installing path lights along walkways and driveway and add some string lights to the trees. The easiest lights to use are low voltage LED solar lights since you do not need to bother with connecting them to the electrical grid.

When buying new exterior light fixtures, make sure its design and style fits the overall design on your house.  Exterior lighting is not only attractive for potential home buyers. It’s also beneficial for you since it improves the safety of the backyard.

More ideas for your night curb appeal:

• 20 Outdoor Lighting Ideas for a Shabby Chic Garden #6 is Lovely
• 7 Great Ideas For Outdoor Lighting
• Creative and Easy DIY Outdoor Lighting Ideas

Expecting A Visit? Do This Right Before!

Right before potential home buyers come to visit your house, give your curb appeal a bit of extra boost:

• open up windows by rolling up blinds, opening curtains and shutters. According to real estate agents, open curtains look prettier  from the street and homes that are brighter on inside sell faster
• keep a uniform look through your windows outside; so go out and take a final look at your house exterior and fix everything you can fix 
• walk through the yard and check for order; locate any misplaced objects, pieces of garbage, and so on and hide them or throw away; use outdoor garbage storage bins to put away items you are still using.

Tips For Winter Curb Appeal

Sometimes it happens that you have to sell your house in winter. While the tips above can be used in the cold period as well, here are more specific tips:

• Brighten Your Curb Appeal with Winter Bloom
• 23 Winter Container Garden Ideas For Your Outside Area
• How To Make A Winter Garden: A Stunning Video With Patio Makeover Tips

Don’t Do it: 9 Curb Appeal Mistakes To Avoid

Here are nine of the top common mistakes to avoid when prepping up your curb appeal (and check our infographic below!)

Unprepared Neighbors

No secret that houses get judged by the company they are found in. If your neighbors are not up-to-date with their lawn care or there is a vacant home next to yours that nobody takes a regular care of, it might be worth to take care of it yourself.

Politely talk to your neighbor about their curb appeal and don’t shy away from offering them your help. It may be worth your time!

Cluttered Driveway

Avoiding keeping your cars parked on your driveway. Keep it in the garage instead.

A car (let alone two) parked in the driveway may tell potential buyers that the house is not big enough to store everything so you had to put extra stuff in the garage. So the garage has no more room for the car or cars. Or the visitors may think that you want to hide some defect on your driveway with the parked car.

It addition, it’s also appears distracting in the online pictures of the house.

overgrown Branches

If nobody can see your house behind untrimmed trees and bushes, it does not matter how pretty it is.

Trim your vegetation to avoid making your house looking dark and uninviting… and mysterious (not in a good sense!)

if you are looking for a tool to trim branches, check our post about best saw for cutting branches.

High-Maintenance Garden

As we already talked above, the landscaping trends are shifting towards consuming less water and aiming for a low maintenance gardening (thanks millennials!) if you are not following the trend, you might be left with an unsold house.

Talk to your real estate agent to see what options you may have to fix this.

Ignore The Other Side

You put all your efforts into your front yard and forget about the backyard… Don’t make this mistake. Potential buyers will drive around your house trying to see what’s behind it. If this area is visible from the street, make sure you extend your curb appeal efforts there as well.

Forget Evening Curb Appeal

Some potential buyers may drop by in the evening to see how your house looks at night. You are risking disappointing them if you do not take care of your night curb appeal.

Dead Greenery

Make sure that your garden does not contain visibly dead plants. it is understandable that depending on the season, your garden won’t always be leafy and bloom-y. However, having dead yellow leaves hanging from your bushes and trees is another big no in curb appeal.

Unusual Exterior Colors

As we mentioned above, radically changing the exterior color of your house right before selling it is not a good idea since it may scare away potential buyers and result in a lower appraisal.  Also, it might not be permitted by your Home Owner Association or local authorities. 

When choosing a house paint color, opt for neutral hues that fit the ones on your neighbors’ walls. Save bright colors for some architectural details such as shutters and front door.

Personal Possessions

One of the biggest no-nos when doing curb appeal is to leave personal decor such as religious signs, lawn ornaments, kids’ toys laying around. Also, try to keep your landscape design cohesive with the design of your neighborhood. Otherwise, you are risking to come off as an eye-sore.

Collect everything before potential buyers start visiting. Make sure your backyard does not differ too much from other yards of your neighborhood in terms of colors, used materials, and so on.

Check Out Our Infographics