Curb Appeal - The Simplest Issue Can be the Biggest Problem
By M. Standifer
My neighbor, Sammy, had his house on the market for eight months and had no idea why it had not sold. He did what he thought were are all the right things the interior had been repainted, the hardwoods refinished, minor repairs done, he even had his garage professionally reorganized but still no interest. He did everything his real estate agent told him to do, but no sale. Not even a contract.
Sammy was at his wit s end and the answer was very simple… curb appeal.
Sammy s dog, a golden retriever, spent his entire day in the yard with no attention. So, like any dog, he found ways to entertain himself. Mostly he dug in the yard and as a result, Sammy s yard had huge areas of missing grass. An overall uninviting picture in the midst of the beautiful lawns in the neighborhood.
When a prospective buyer drove up, they saw the horrible shape the yard was in and then they had the kiss the sale goodbye thought — I m going to have to fix that. Don t kid yourself–buyer s don t want to fix anything and you cannot sell a property if you don t get the buyer inside the house.
The fix for this problem was simple–sand. We live in the southern US where warm weather grasses are prevalent bermuda, zoysia, St. Augustine. Some of these grasses are prone to thinning or growing in clumps in the hard soil. All that was needed was fill the patches with sand to give the grass something to attach to in order to grow. Another alternative would have been to get a few pieces of new sod and fill in the gaps. In either case when a potential buyer drove up, they noticed that yard was not perfect but the issue has been addressed. This brought buyers in the door to see all the other work that had been done in the house. Sammy was able to sell the house within a month of adding sand to these patches because his home made a better first impression to potential buyers.
Marsha Standifer has been in the real estate industry for more than 25 years. As a real estate consultant, she assists both buyers and sellers with all aspects of buying and selling real estate.
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