A picture straight on of the home would help commenters see the whole picture. But I would start with some bushes to the right & left of the stairs. Paint the railings black.

I would save the money until you decide what you are going to do with the stairs. This is a front door, since you mention curb appeal. I would first ask you to post a full frontal photo. The house may need the addition of a front porch, and also, perhaps, a roof over the porch, plus new stairs. We need a better view. Landscaping is important, but it needs to be planned with the facade in mind.
To get a head start on the landscaping, you can go to the largest local nursery and look at their offerings of trees and shrubs to begin preparing a list of zone-specific plants for the home. The full-frontal photo will give you a canvas for those plans.

Power wash the steps to clean them up; they might work without major overhaul. Trim out door and windows in wide brick moulding to give your windows substance. Replace wrought iron with simple wood railing painted white or repaint what you have black. Fill in with low growing non flowering shrubs on either side of door, add flowering tree to corner of house to help frame it.

Simple straight railings can go on porch steps or just paint wrought iron black

Windows are framed out with trim to make them appear wider and give them more weight; no shutters as they are not on trend right ow.

Low growing greenery and a lot of brown mulch.

This house again with wide window trim and no shutters......

Bigger picture. House up on a hill. Haven't figured out the "style". It a contemporary 2 story house built in 1986, finished basement, split entrance, sort of a raised cape?

Much better picture. I am commenting so I can see the great suggestions you will get!

Is this a fix and flip or are you going to move into the property? You would do different changes depending upon the answer to that question.

BTW, I agree that the steps and railings could be much more substantial: wider steps (not open) and wood railings. That whole entry needs thought and you might need an architect to get the right look. I don't think $2k is going to come close. Are you leaning toward a contemporary look like it is now or something else?

Hi Sue! I love the cape look with gray and lots of white.

I would change out the metal railing to white wood but with a bit more contemporary look. Consider louvered shutters and a lantern fixture. A long flower box under upper left window. A planter to left of door on stoop. Your front could actually handle extending the porch toward drive a bit and adding a shade structure but would require more budget.

You definitely need some foundation plantings and (armed with good pictures and some measurements) your local nursery would help come up with a plan for you to execute but I would make decisions on hardscaping/porch changes first so it can compliment the plan.

Thanks for the better picture. Paint the door & sidelight white to match other trim. The door being mostly glass will stand out better. There really isn't enough door trim for another color to really have any impact. Remove the tree on the hill. Plant some type of ground cover on side of hill. And no shutters.

All of these have a different treatment of the front doorway and entry stairs. You could go simple and just expand the stairs from their current width to at least two feet wider (on each side) than the door area so it is more welcoming. Any treatment to the stairs and entry will have to coordinate with the style you are looking to achieve and as you see from the pics, you can go in many different directions.

I'd like to lean towards a mid century look, although it was built in 86. We are living here. My husband has built a few porches, so we were toying with the idea of a trex deck (wider) with wider steps. Also I thought of changing the siding surrounding the door (which needs replacing soon as the glass is about to fall out) with cedar siding stained in a wood tone. I'd love to put a flat roof overhang over the porch, but not sure how that would look and if it conforms to set back regulations.

Call your building department. They will gladly share the setback requirements (front, side and rear). Check your survey for dimensions. It looks doable from your photo, but without the info from the building department, it's impossible to know. Most building departments have a 'consumer rep' (for lack of a better phrase) and they will help you to a certain extent. Especially if you are the homeowner looking to improve the property:)

Found an elevation with a flat roof over the entry with the cedar siding you describe. It's not an exact fit, but gives a good place to start when discussing with an architect. I am a big believer in good architects for changes. Check out architectrunnerguy here on this board. He can do remote drawings too.

You could parge the foundation with some sort of skim coat.

I would take the cement stairs out, build and extend a new porch giving it better proportion for the house. Paint the house a really pretty gray, the porch white and the door either red, or yellow. I would take the tree down in the front and plant that space with some kind of ground cover. I would also plant on the sides of the stairs, something that flowers all summer. Colored hydrangea. Blue would be my first choice.

It looks like a contemporary house to me. The railing looks like the 50's or 60's and the light looks like ??? Your have $2000 to spend so you will have to be conservative. If it were my house I would clean the steps up really well (original concrete color) , replace the odd railing with something very contemporary like the photo included and replace the light with one that was contemporary and larger. These could be stainless or white or a darker tone but black might look harsh. Possibly add some large house numbers on the other side of the door. You might be able to DIY the railing and you should be able to find an inexpensive light at one of the big box or online home stores.I would paint the door a "different" color - lavender, chartreuse. There are lots of photos online and in Houzz that can give you some really outstanding examples, also your local paint store can help.

You should be able to do those things first then work on the landscaping slowly as you have the money. Start with the larger plants and boulders. The plants I used were different junipers, white echinacea, salvia, and grasses. These were just to give you an idea.

I've done a quick image to show you a landscape that might work and added a photo of a similarly sloped landscape bed.

Hope this was a help.

Good luck!

Love ebc3's suggestions and very well could be near your budget.

Another thought for over your door-These are priced very well (75" x 30" for under $70) I have no idea about how good they are-but they look cool! I'm bet there are different styles available.

Shutters on sides of windows and Awning over front door! ..?

If replacing the railings are not an option right now I would paint them. Landscaping to the right and left of the stairs would draw your attention to that instead. Add color which will make a huge impact! Visit your local nurseries to get ideas.