Creating kerb appeal on a budget

Planning on putting your home on the market? If you want to get the best possible price there's one important thing you need to do before ringing the estate agent: get the entrance to your home in order.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, so you want the front of your house to impress potential buyers the second they set eyes on it.

Boost your home's value… by £55,000!

Research from Dulux Weathershield, cited by House Beautiful, shows a quarter of Brits would be willing to pay 25% more for a house with kerb appeal. With the average UK home costing £220,094, this means sellers could end up boosting the value of their property by a jaw-dropping £55,024! The great thing is, enhancing your home's exterior needn't cost a lot of money.

Scrub up

Starting from the ground up, if your path and doorstep are looking brown and murky, a pressure washer will bring them back to their original colour. You can hire a lightweight washer for around £20-£30 per day – you may as well scrub up the stones in the back garden while you're at it, too!

Tidy up

If you've got a lot of greenery in your front garden, it needs to look neat. Mow the lawn, dig out weeds forcing their way out between paving stones and freshen up your flower beds. You should also cut back hedges and shrubs, particularly those that are near windows as doing so will allow more light into your home.

Add a lick of paint

In the Dulux study, peeling and cracked paint came second on the list of top five exterior turn-offs, behind mouldy walls. It might just be a case of touching up your wooden window frames, or livening up your tired-looking front door. If you think your home's facade needs a couple of fresh coats, bear in mind this will cost a bit more.

If you're refreshing your front door, Truedor partnered with property expert George Clarke to reveal 2018's most popular colours, as reported in Country Living. Topping the list is the brave and bold mid purple shade, followed by steel blue, light violet, black and classic white.

Tend to the small touches

Spend a minute or two inspecting the front of your property – brass door handle in need of a polish? One of the numbers on your door wonky? Cracked pane in your windows? Smudges across the glass? Spend some time tending to those small jobs that, when fixed and tidied up, could have a big impact on potential buyers.

Some final, finishing touches to crank up your home's kerb appeal include placing some potted plants on your porch, adding a layer of fresh gravel to the path, and clearing away unnecessary items that could distract those buyers from envisioning living in your home!

Hopefully with these top tips, you'll sell up in no time – and when you've found your dream property, make sure you get a competitive insurance quote with Hastings Direct.

Sources

• House Beautiful
• Country Living