The following is a contribution from another author.
No doubt, you’ve heard about curb appeal. Curb appeal is, in essence, the exterior appearance of your home. If you’re looking to sell up, the curb appeal can have a major bearing on whether someone would want to buy the property or not. First impressions always count, and while you might think that you’ve got to make the most of the interiors as a priority, people decide whether they want to look inside or not by what they see outside. So it’s not just ensuring that your roof has that one loose slate resealed, and the grass out the front is cut. If you are trying your best to maximize the impact of your house based purely on how it looks, you got to implement some modern and futuristic approaches, but also have one foot in the past…
Getting The Basics Nailed Down
Curb appeal is not just about making your house stand out, but it’s also making sure that your home fits the context of which it is presented. For example, there is no point in you setting up a home that’s the equivalent of Buckingham Palace when all the others in the street don’t exude any sense of class. Potential buyers may look at your home and think that it looks amazing, but, you’ve got to give thought to if your home will be singled out, especially by thieves.
Curb appeal is about highlighting the attributes, by expanding on what is already there. There are some great little ways to do this, namely with color, and texture. But also, before you get to the more complex aspects of design that you would really like your home to show off, getting the basics down first is vital. This means going over every aspect of the exterior and bringing it up to code. Maybe it will require just a lick of paint, or, you might want to get some professionals in to give your exterior that cosmetic makeover that suits the design and style of the property without going overboard. Strength and the appearance of structural integrity is vital because you don’t want to see a house that looks like it’s falling apart, and so, there are various contractors like johnmccarterconstruction.com that work on the exterior of the property as well as the sidings.
It’s amazing what the right paint color will do to a home. And when we are looking at maximizing the appearance of our home, it’s not about giving it an extreme makeover, but highlighting what is already there. You can do this by trimming the hedges, adding flowers, but also laying a path to the front door, which will entice a buyer right up to the entrance.
Should We Go “smart”?
Smart homes are the words on everyone’s lips at the moment, and while you may believe smart technology to be an exclusively interior component of the house, you can use smart technology to improve your experience as well. A very good example is landscape lighting. Lighting is a very effective way of highlighting your property for potential buyers. And while most people will visit the property in the day, if you have people coming by at night, you want them to get the best overall impression of the property. Even if you set up various forms of decor, planted flowers, and did all of the psychological tricks you know to draw someone in, if they cannot see all these little flourishes, then what is the point?
Landscape lighting, as opposed to standard lighting, means you can alter the mood in real time. This is just a great way to highlight the look of your property, but it also provides an extra layer of security. Integrating this into a security system will make the place feel safer. In addition to this, if you have a buyer that’s a party animal, you can alter the settings to something more fun. It’s a great way to paint a picture of your house in real life, in front of your buyer’s very eyes.
Is Smart Technology A Major Selling Point Now?
Tech appeal, in many ways, may prove to be more of a draw than curb appeal in a few years time, but while smart technology is on the ascent, can this explicitly help with your curb appeal? Well, apart from the lighting, on a purely superficial level, the smart home may feel like a few bells and whistles. By all means, you can display what your smart home can do to a buyer, but it depends on the buyer themselves. The age of the buyer will have a bearing on what aspects of curb appeal actually applies to them. This means that you have a responsibility to provide as blank a canvas as physically possible. And while smart technology is a unique selling point for a lot of houses nowadays, having one eye towards the future as far as trends in technology are concerned means that you may want your home to provide some of the more classical ideals. This means going back to the basics, rather than pushing your home into the deepest realms of the future.
By all means, a smart home is a very exciting prospect, especially for younger buyers who exclusively rely on technology, but there has to be a balance. For example, when you are maximizing your curb appeal, you need to remove all traces of your own personality. A blank canvas is the best approach.
Curb appeal is something that’s been around for years, and when you are working at achieving the fundamentals, the temptation is to be as modern or as futuristic as possible. But, this could very well be the architectural equivalent of mutton dressed as lamb. If you’re working to highlight the attributes of your home, it’s a better option to work at improving the fundamentals that are already there. That way, not only are you improving the curb appeal in a natural way, but you aren’t going above and beyond as far as cost is concerned. Cost is always a priority, and curb appeal can be achieved cheaply, just as long as you have a good idea of peppering your home with these modern and futuristic touches, while still being true to the very essence of the property.
