Those poorly placed windows are a deal breaker for me.

This is a vintage split level, the very hardest home to make changes to, and this one was poorly detailed on the outside from the get go. I would find a new home to like. Also, for starters pruning of the trees hasn't been done for years and that's going to cost $$$ to do it well.

We've seen that house in here before. I think it was a thread titled What Can We Do To Get Some Suckers To Buy This Hideous House-Help!

Seriously, that upper floor above the garage looks very, very familiar and the discussion was about adding windows to keep it from looking so weird. Like Beverly has done.

It looks (even in Beverly's nice improvement) like a smiling buck-toothed bumpkin because of the weird garage door windows. Uhhh, yup, yup, yup.

ouch

I agree 100% with lefty47. This house really needs a great landscaping plan. Remove the tree up against the house and trim the other trees per Beverly's post. Post in the landscape subforum too for some specific landscape ideas.

The garage door would look better if you changed it out to a modern wood or plexiglass-type door. Embrace modern. Get rid of the address plaque and use large modern house numbers. Change out the front door for something modern. Get rid of the cottage freestanding walkway lamp - go modern. It is the clash of styles that doesn't work IMO.

Here is an example of a 'modern' wood garage door that you could use and then carry the color over to the stucco. It would be beneficial to work with a designer that can show you photoshopped options before you decide to make your changes:

Sweeney Lake House · More Info

An example of a garage door with both wood and plexiglass

Cowart Door - Mahogany Framed Full View Door · More Info

Remove all the landscaping around the light pole; it's blocking the view to the front door. Add a ton of landscaping to the right of the front door and paint the door a color to draw the eye to it.

I think you need a massive front porch across the full width of the right side of the house. In a modern style with a clean-lined pergola like this. The "roof" of the pergola could continue to the left side of the house as a belly band to break up the mass above the garage door.

Agree with the modern garage door suggestion.

Here's an inspiration for front porch, pergola, modern front door combo:

To be honest, our last house was a tri-level. I would not recommend anyone buy a split level plan unless it's a smokin deal in a fantastic location that has few other options.

Our tri-level served us well, but we bought it before we new better. The floor plan is impossible to improve upon. Heating and cooling problems are inherent with these split floor plans.

I suspect that the sellers did what we did... update update update and finally realize a new kitchen doesn't change the fact that the floor plan is a bummer and put it up for sale.

Thanks for all the feeback everyone... we decided to pass on this house.