Enhance Your Outdoor Appeal
When it comes to selling homes, the first impression is the most important impression! The exterior of a home can give a good indication of the aesthetic and condition of the interior, and improving your curb appeal can add 3-5% to your home value. A poorly maintained exterior can drive away a potential buyer before they even get inside, or close the page before clicking to the next picture. To help you out, we gathered a few Twist Tours tips and tricks to enhance the beauty of your listing’s exterior, and make buyers fall in love at first sight!
Fix the Face
Before even thinking about adding new features, focus on the basics. There is no shrub fancy enough to make someone forget about dirt caked on the siding or a porch with peeling paint. A nice glow-up can be achieved with a power wash and a fresh coat of paint. If you need new roofing or shingles, this is the time to take care of it. This may be a headache of a project, but it will pay off in home value and increase interest from buyers.
Landscape
Landscaping should be well-maintained, trimmed, and blooming with the aim to pull people’s attention to the door. Do people feel like they need shears to get to the front walkway? Overgrown or dead landscaping leaves buyers worried about how well you maintained the inside. And a home without any landscaping efforts leaves them wondering if it’s finished!
Fresh new flowers, mulch, and shrubs can go a long way in the overall aesthetic of the home. Landscaping has the potential to pay a 215% return in home value, so we’d say that’s an investment worth making! This time of the year is prime for outdoor photos: flowers in bloom, green grass, and lush trees (which also add value providing shade from the sun!).
It’s best to plan landscaping months ahead of time, but luckily early summer is when everything is clean. At the least, remove dead foliage, plant something simple in its place, and get rid of lawn decor. We’re all about adding personality to a home, but your plastic flamingos and gargoyles should really sit the selling process out.
Now, we understand that not everyone has a green thumb or the time to redo the whole landscape. For grass that’s run down, or seen too much sun or water, we can digitally enhance the photo to create the perfectly lush lawn with our Greening Up the Grass Editing Service. We also provide a Blue Sky Replacement Editing Service in case your photoshoot falls on a less than perfect day.
Set the Lighting
We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: Proper lightingThe Importance of Lighting in Real Estate Photography is key to getting the right photos for your listing. If your home is dimly lit, you may want to add some simple fixtures to brighten it up and change out any dead light bulbs. We love the look of lanterns for summers by the pool! Another fabulous option is shining spotlights on the front of the home. Pair this with our Twilight Photography Add On and you will be putting your best thumbnail forward. Bold twilight photography makes your online listing much more appealing to potential buyers, and looks pretty darn cool too!
Final Touches:
Once you have a clean house with neat landscaping, fill in some features to either add value to the home, or interest in the photos. Create a nice living space to allow buyers to look forward to their stay-home summer there. If the home is vacant or your outdoor furniture has clearly seen a few too many storms, we can virtually stage the area!
To go a step further, you can add staging that can increase the resale value of the home.
Use your discretion to spend wisely and add universally appealing gestures. For example, a new playground may be cool to families with kids, but it’s not going to pay off for every interested buyer. A firepit is a fabulous choice as well as outdoor kitchens and water features – just some of the ways to make a quarantined summer a breeze.
In a time where potential buyers are solely searching online for homes, your listing needs to stand out amongst the rest. Take some time to spruce up your exterior and it will pay off. Contact us for your real estate photography needs and we will perfect the listing’s digital curb appeal. Let us help you show buyers where the grass is greener! Make sure you check out our blog for more real estate marketing trends and tips!
