By Margaret Semezko
Personal Moving Consultant , Cedar Crest

A successful sale starts with the first impression of your home, and that starts at the curb. As soon as potential buyers drive up, the home starts to sell itself. Make sure your home looks so inviting from the curb that potential buyers can’t wait to get inside to see the rest. Make the most of your curb appeal by following some basic rules:

1. Fresh and clean!
The most immediate difference for many homes will be the added exposure and light your house will receive. This can work positively or negatively for your home. With the leaves off the trees, some of the areas on the outside of your home may not look as appealing as when the trees are in bloom. Take a critical look with a buyer’s eye to see how the paint and trim look.

Early fall is a good time to have a house painted so it looks fresh and updated. Keep in mind barren trees give buyers a clean view of your house, and you need to make sure that they like what they see.

This is also an excellent time to evaluate a few critical areas of your house that may have been overlooked in the summer months: your soffits, fascia boards, and gutters. Make sure your gutters stay free of the falling leaves and the outside of the gutters are clean, not showing streaks and discoloration. Your soffits and fascia boards will be more exposed, so you need to check corners and edges that may not be in the condition you thought they were in.

2. Brighten the landscaping
As far as landscaping is concerned, don’t worry too much about the color of your grass; some things are beyond your control. What you should do instead is focus on highlighting some focal points of your home with colorful flowers, plants, and shrubs that can add vibrant color in the cold and dreary months ahead. A few good examples that will work well in autumn are pansies, mums, burning bush, and annual grasses.