Get an account on Picasa or Photobucket and they make it easy to upload pictures.

Clean and neat with or without amenities will beat out notso clean and neat regardless of amenities.

Ditto what laag said :-)) Prune or remove anything overgrown or unruly, weed, mow and edge (if applicable and put down fresh mulch. Make sure the entrance is clearly delineated and house numbers visible - if realtors or potential buyers can't find the place or how to get into it, it ain't gonna sell! Try a fresh coat of paint on the door to make things zing or refresh the trim. And it never hurts to have a stunningly colorful seasonal container planting at the front entry.

I am a real estate agent and a home stager.

I agree with the fresh coat of paint on your door, that is always a good idea. Don't forget about your garage door as well. Peeling paint on a garage door is a real turn off for buyers!
Make sure to add large pots of colorful flowers.

I think it would help if you search a local real estate company's website for other homes for sale in your area. Look at their exterior pictures and try to adapt your exterior to the homes that look the best.

Good Luck!

I have to laugh about how often the tired old saws of increasing a home's appeal get repeated endlessly both in the newspapers and by real estate agents. How naive is the general public to be seduced by a pot of flowers at the front door, or a new coat of paint on the door, etc, etc? Of course the general opinion that a house should look its best and be well maintained will always hold true, but it ultimately boils down to pricing the property attractively as compared to the comparable homes being sold at the same time, and a floor plan and home condition that give good value. The rest of it is a load of c**p as far as I am concerned. Put yourself in the potential buyer's position and tell me objectively if the color pot and fresh coat of paint on two identical houses is more important than a lower price, a better location or better conditions...

They may be "tired old saws" but they still ring true. A fresh coat of paint, a colorful container planting and a tidy entrance may do nothing to increase the value of your home, but they do indicate the homeowner is interested in attracting potential buyers. And if a potential buyer is turned off by the impression the house makes as they drive down the street - the curb appeal - then they will never stop to see what features it offers on the inside or even inquire as to the price. Naivity doesn't even factor into the equation - after location, location, location, it's appearance, appearance, appearance. In today's housing market, even this small an edge can make a huge difference. That there is substance in this concept is pretty clear by the number of people who make their living by staging and upgrading the exterior appeal of the home and all those countless TV shows on how to create curb appeal and sell your home.

When we were looking to buy a house 10 years ago I was strangely affected by odd little things...like the color of the shutters, the quality of light on the wood floors, the way the lilac bushes moved in the wind. Of course, ultimately buying a house came down to very substantial things such as square footage, location, condition, and so forth...practical, reasonable considerations. However, I was one of those buyers that "looked for a sign" that a particular house could be "my" house.

While putting a pot of flowers on the front step wont make a substantial difference, it might be that one little thing that a potential buyer sees as a sign that this is her home.

Also, neat and welcoming never hurts.

In my real estate experience, the entrance the buyers come in through makes a disproportionately large impression. While their Realtor fiddles with unlocking the door for 30 seconds or so, the buyers generally stand there getting a good long stare at the door. I've had squeamish buyers declare "Ew! A Spider!" at the door and then fail to be positively impressed by what was otherwise a gorgeously kept house.

So my 2 cents is that, curb appeal or no, giving them a big pot of healthy flowers by the door to stare at during that time can make a significant psychological impact. The people looking at your house will not all be the practical type, and marketing to the strictly practical niche makes the market harder for you than it has to be.

If you want to do more than that, you could also rent out large potted plants for a trial period and see if it brings you more traffic.

Best of luck!

I think it would be a good idea for you to find out what your own realtor is thinking about your curb appeal--not so you can just go and do whatever she says, but because at present it's her comments to which you are trying to respond. See if she is primarily on the "clean and neat" road; often "we" don't see things as untidy that an agent will. I had to see my dad's house, and though he had let things go a bit, he also had created a lush, beautiful (to me) landscape; but I could see that it would look a bit wild to someone else, so we did much more pruning back than I would ever have done for the yard had someone in our family been living there and enjoying it--including doing some pruning that might not be in the plant's best interests long term, but looked sell-worthy at the time.

I'm fine with door paint and flower pots, though I have the same peeved reaction as bahia to the endless articles in current paper about how many things we homeowners oughta do so the agent doesn't have to work too hard to sell our homes. It's true in a way, especially with regard to time on the market vs. will sell eventually and especially at right price. I've had agents tell me, oh, you should put down new tile floor in the kitche, or what about some granite, and of course never care a whit that to me the very act of tying to fit in time and decision-hassle of picking out granite or tile for someone else, let alone myself, is worse than a root canal and I'd rather just tear up U.S. paper money in fairly large denominations (meaning compromise with the buyer) .

But agents deal with volume and turnover, much more even than the selling price, and aren't as concerned about how much $$ and work you might be putting into your home right before selling at what might be the same price as if nothing had been done.

Anyway, find out what's on your agent's mind--hopefully not advice to plant new trees and shrubs or take on any major re-design.

You'll find that "curb appeal" advice and plans for selling are much different than same for the homeowner's own pleasure, not because design and appeal is so vastly different, but because a homeowner is trying to do some things specific to his own tastes and needs, and can justify costs for his own use and enjoyment as well as can wait for things like plantings to reach maturity, whereas it is much harder to know which if any of those things will click with a prospective buyer, out of all the many things that could potentially improve any home.

I've been told so many different things about what the best way to sell your home is. From my personal experience, I've found that hiring a local cleaning service to prepare your home for potential buyers has been the best way so far! I've gone to http://www.angieslist.com and found reviews for cleaning services in my area that were left by customers. The one that stuck out to me the most was Hot Mops Cleaning Service. They did an amazing job in my home.

I'm kind of glad this old posting was pulled up by a probable spammer, because I missed this thread first time around and it is so refreshing to see this "staging" baloney addressed. I love your comments, Frankie; so true. The extra dollars you might get from a buyer come at the cost of your time and energy when they suck you into the decor/landscaping/staging vortex, but they also increase the agent's commission with no extra work on his or her part.

KarinL

Trying to sell a house with 25 years of deferred maintenance did require some investment. It wasn't so noticeable when the house had an elderly but still vibrant personality inhabiting it; but empty out the house and suddenly all the flaws became glaring. First attempt to sell 'as is' brought few lookers.

Did the required termite treatment and abatement including replacement of damaged siding, framing, and four exterior doors. Obviously exterior paint was required after that; also patched and painted full interior, replaced decrepit shower surround, bathroom mirror and light. Cleaned and stretched carpets, stripped and rewaxed linoleum tile flooring, washed windows and screens, hauled away junk from back and side yards (wood pile, brick pile, car parts, overgrown ivy -- it's appalling what can accumulate over nearly fifty years). The termite tenting killed off the languishing shrubs out front, so plopped in $80 worth of blooming agapanthus, Dipladenia sanderii, a bright yellow phormium, a big Photinia x fraseri, and a couple of sturdy Raphiolepis indica to mitigate the bareness and trimmed a few dead branches off the trees. Voila -- sold in one week at full price. The sale price was boosted by about 5 times the cost of the repairs and enhancements, so it was well worth it. In the final analysis the "landscape" cost was a mere footnote; the structure was the focus and the payoff.

Frankly, I don't think we would have sold my MIL's house as fast as we did had we not had it staged. Not only that, the agent came over every day to water the back lawn because he felt without a green lawn in the middle (my in-laws were slavish proponents of 'perimeteriitis') the small bkyd showed poorly. The front was very neat, though, with a few small flowering plants and bright green lawn.

The three other homes that came onto the market right around the same time as my MIL's house remained unsold for several months after she closed escrow. None were staged, and two were priced well under what hers was, for similar architecture/age/location/size.

It's fine that I can see beyond minor flaws, lousy paintcolor choices, and other such superficial details when evaluating the value of a house. However, most people CANNOT. Whether you like it or not, this is simple fact, ranking right up there with the fact most people are bad investors whose natural instincts make them buy high and sell low, the exact opposite of what they **should** do. Narrowing your buyer base to those who can "see beyond the flaws" is unwise in times of lousy RE sales.

Try this low-cost, extremely practical plan. See the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: 4 weekend plan to improved curb appeal

I know we got our house for less than market value 12 years ago because the front garden was a mess (waist deep in dead japanese stilt grass) and all people could see was how much work there was to do. Interior was fine...but the exterior was a disaster. I wish I'd taken pictures.

If the owner had hired a landscape crew, heck, just some mow-and-blow guys, to come in and clean it up and mulch the beds the house wouldn't have been on the market for nine months before we saw it. We saw the house in the early spring, before the grass growing season started. He probably had one day's work out there...and it would have held for the winter. Talk about penny-wise and pound-foolish...

There's absolutely nothing wrong with making your house competitive. There are so MANY homes for sale - especially in Florida. You're competing against Short Sales, foreclosures and bank-owned properties listed for half to two-thirds of their initial price. In order to compete with them you must spiff yours up and make it look perfect, neat, clean and de-personalized. I work for a real estate broker in Florida. There are no easy tricks, but getting defensive about how your house looks will not get it sold. Make the lawn and shrubbery look their best. There's nothing worse than a poorly maintained Florida yard. Painting the front door is a good idea, as are clean & shiny fixtures, no cobwebs, clean windows, swept sidewalks and porches. Whenever we sold a house, it always looked better than it ever did while we were living there. What you tolerate is probably not something a buyer will tolerate - let alone imagine as his/her dream home.

And as we keep telling our sellers, you could cut the price, but even that isn't helping.

Sherry