The house in these photos was a very nice house, but my seller needed to get top dollar because he had to move before he had much equity. I had to pull out a grand slam. The interior of the home was awesome, but the exterior needed a face lift. He fought me on the red door, but I convinced him. I shopped for all of the items, and was down in the dirt planting, spray painting, and doing a lot more physical labor than I generally do on a house. I even planted the flowers. It was an investment but it paid off. The home sold in a week for more money than anything else in that neighborhood had (or has since) sold for!
In the Before Photo on the Left, The porch railing is blah, the wooden railing at the front is blah, the awning is dingy, the door is plain and blends too much with the house, there's a flag bracket, but no flag; the windows look plain, although not fully shown the flower beds were non -existent, just some shrubs, no color. It was July, we needed some pizazz.
In the AFTER photo on the right, you can see that we painted the door red, I spray painted the hardware, mail slot and house numbers with brass spray paint, I purchased window boxes and planted with bright red geraniums. We painted the bottom hand rail white, and just cleaned up the top one and gave it a fresh coat of paint, we power washed the awning, we put flower pots on the stairs, as well as in a big pot beside the porch, we planted flowers in among the shrubs for a splash of color and we added the flag.
Although the home appears brighter we didn't paint or wash it. The light may be different in the photos, and I definitely think the contrast of the red against the white makes a huge difference to the eye.
Four "after stories" that go with this house: 1. I represented the seller, but I got another listing from the BUYER'S sister! She was so impressed with the way the home was presented when she viewed it with her sister, that she called me to list her home, rather than her sister's Realtor, 2. I got another listing from someone driving by who saw me planting flowers, 3. I kept the window boxes and flag for future staging efforts. 4. I listed the seller's dad's house
See my accompanying post on The Front Door Ten Point Inspection Test for Home Sellers
Copyright 2007 Donna Batdorff Associates, Your Way Realty
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The white railing in the foreground looks unbalanced. Will you be adding a painted railing on the right side, as well? Lookin' good, though! Good luck!