Budgeting for home renovations before listing your property can have a homeowner focus strictly on the interior of the home to make it look and feel more comfortable for buyers. From adding new kitchen faucets to knocking down a few walls to expand the living room, these changes may be necessary to update the look of the house or to increase its value.

While focusing on the interior of the home is a worthwhile endeavor, sellers should not neglect the outside of their home.

There are many things that you can do to improve the exterior. From performing repairs to updating old outdoor lighting, you can make the house so appealing that buyers will have to stop and stare before setting up an appointment to see the interior of the house. Here are several tips to help you improve your curb appeal so your home can stand out in the neighborhood.

Get a Fresh Set of Eyes

No matter how good the exterior may look right now, there is probably something that you can do to freshen up the appearance but you may just not be seeing it. Sometimes, a homeowner can get so used to how the exterior of the house looks after a few years that the blemishes simply don’t stand out to the eyes or are easily ignored. Yet these blemishes will be the first things that a buyer will see since it will be the first time that they are looking at the house.

Get a family member, friend, co-worker or even the neighbor to give an appraisal of the exterior of the house. Have them pretend to be a home buyer as then they can write down the things that need to be worked on. After this, you should have a fresh perspective on how the exterior of the house really looks like.

Focus on the Repairs First

Don’t start working on adding beautiful flowers to the property before having the workers start ripping off the shingles to the roof. You might destroy the landscaping that you have just added. Prioritize the work by focusing first on the repairs.

Next, you can perform the de-cluttering and maintenance of the yard to remove all the trash and debris that might be left over after fixing the exterior of your Minneapolis area house. Then you can make the outside beautiful with paint, new flowers and a manicured lawn so you limit the amount of damage caused to the new things you placed into the property.

Repairs can involve the roof, gutters, flashing, separate garages, driveways, and front entryways. You should also fix exterior lighting and lawn irrigation systems.

Washing & Painting

Freshening up the outside of your house is similar to when you freshen up in the morning before heading off to work. Power washing the siding and painting all exterior features can breathe new life into your home. When selecting a paint color, don’t get too bold and exotic. While you may like bright Art Deco designs, the next homeowner may not be too keen on purchasing a home that is neon green, burnt sienna or lemon yellow. Stick with the neutral house colors and let the buyer decide if they want a bolder color.

Also, don’t forget to wash off decks, patios, driveways and carports. Be careful with the pressure from power washing equipment. You don’t want to damage wood decks, brick porch columns, or old cement steps that may crumble apart by the force of the water.

Install Landscaping Based on the Seasons

There’s nothing worse than planting bright and colorful flowers only to have them die because of the first fall frost. Don’t ignore the current season when performing landscaping to your Minnesota property.

Fall landscaping will mainly focus on cleaning the dead leaves while keeping the grass mowed until winter arrives. Snow cleanup is your main focus in winter (if you live in an area with snow), while spring will be the best year to add flowers. You want to trim back trees and prune bushes in the early spring when they are dormant so you don’t cause harm and disease. Summers are the time of year when you want your plants and lawn growing their fullest while watering them accordingly.

While selling a home in Eden Prairie, one should remember that they are selling more than just the interior of the home to the new buyer. They are selling the entire property to them, and the exterior of the house is the first thing they will see when pulling up to the driveway. Take the right amount of care and consideration in the curb appeal of the house as you do with the interior to sell the entire package to interested buyers.