The Skilled Labor Shortage
Improve Curb Appeal to Maximize Home Sale Profit
Improve your curb appeal before you list your home for sale and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much attention it garners.
You know the saying, don’t judge a book by its cover? Well, that’s exactly how buyers judge a home by its curb appeal.
If your house doesn’t look great on the outside, a lot of buyers will walk—or scroll—right on by to the next house.
Lackluster curb appeal isn’t a death sentence for a home sale, though. There are plenty of big and small ways to boost curb appeal (and your sale price). We’re going to examine the best ways to improve curb appeal in this post, but before we begin, let’s look at what curb appeal is.
What Is Curb Appeal?
According to Merriam-Webster, curb appeal is “the visual attractiveness of a house as seen from the street.” While the main focus of curb appeal is the front of the home, many consider the side, back, and overall “vibe” to be important, as well.
Having curb appeal means that everything in the front of your home looks well-maintained and polished. This includes your property’s landscaping, a tidy front porch, clean and updated siding, and an attractive door. Driveways and walkways with curb appeal are well maintained, with any damages patched. On the other hand, your home lacks curb appeal if there are overgrown shrubs, a dated exterior, or gutters and roofing in disrepair. Anything unsightly detracts from curb appeal.
Why is curb appeal important?
Most buyers decide whether or not they like your home within the first 10 seconds of seeing it. Since the first thing buyers see is the outside of a home, curb appeal can make or break their entire opinion.
Boosting your curb appeal will attract a broader set of buyers. It will help your home to sell faster and maximize profits. Read on to learn how to improve curb appeal.
How to improve curb appeal
Improving curb appeal doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all solution. To boost your curb appeal, you will need to make home improvements based on your home’s age and condition. Before determining which projects to take on, discuss your home’s current state with a licensed real estate agent. They’ll help prioritize projects with the best returns and educate you on the ones to avoid. Talk to your agent about working with Curbio. You can request a same-day estimate for specific projects so you know exactly how much each improvement will cost. Learn more about how our unique turn-key home improvement solutions work.
Update siding to improve curb appeal
Siding isn’t something you’ll always notice on a home—unless it’s terribly outdated or in poor condition. When siding material is outdated, worn down, dirty, or falling apart, it can be a huge detractor for buyers. Let’s look at an example.
The siding on the house below was in such poor condition that the home screams, “buyers beware.” In actuality, the interior of the home was in great condition, but most buyers wouldn’t go far enough to see.
If the siding on your home has seen better days, you should consider updating your siding. Replacing it can be pricey, but when necessary, it’s an improvement that pays off.
If the siding material is in good condition though, replacement isn’t necessarily the best option. For this home in particular, the wood siding itself was in good condition, and it was just the paint that had been worn down. And if you’ve got aluminum siding, a professional power wash works wonders.
See for yourself how amazing the transformation was with just a fresh coat of paint to the siding and a fresh coat of stain on the fence.


Swap out doors
Another way to improve your curb appeal is to change your garage and front doors. Front doors naturally draw attention, so they stand to enhance the curb appeal of any home! You can swap your front door out entirely or simply repaint it with a vibrant color (like red or teal).
With so much front-of-house real estate, garage doors are another focal point of your home. They also take more time and money to replace — but upgrades have incredible returns on investment. You’ll need to determine whether you can improve your existing garage door or if you should replace it entirely in order to improve curb appeal strategically and maximize the value of your home.
Spruce up landscaping to boost curb appeal
There’s more to curb appeal than the look of your house itself. Another key part of curb appeal is landscaping. This includes everything from plants to paths. Before making any changes, it’s important to clean up what you already have. Patch up your lawn, prune your shrubs, power wash concrete paths and driveways to make sure everything looks clean and well-maintained.
In some cases, it makes sense to add landscaping elements to create a more cohesive look and stellar curb appeal. The important thing to remember is that while today’s buyers want outdoor spaces, they also want those spaces to be low maintenance. Too many plants and other elements that take time to maintain can turn buyers off, so work with an agent to determine which landscaping projects will add value and which will just cost you money.
Stage outdoor living spaces
While not the first thing buyers see, your backyard space is also part of its curb appeal, and an increasingly important area of any home. The backyard is somewhere to hang out with family, entertain friends, relax, and unwind. So make your backyard just as inviting as the front of your home. One of the best ways to do this is to create outdoor living spaces with updates and staging.
Adding elements like a fire pit, lighting, and cozy seating will help buyers imagine themselves in the space. Developing your backyard into a living area can help your home feel bigger (and boost your curb appeal).

Address deferred maintenance
Some of your deferred maintenance may have already been touched on above, but it’s important to make sure you take a look at anything that needs repairs. Today’s buyers want move-in ready homes and will avoid listings that seem unlivable or look like money pits.
Before you list, take a look at your gutters, windows, paths, steps, doorways, and roof to make sure there aren’t any red flags that will send buyers running.
Curb appeal isn’t just a buzz word. From simple repairs and clean-up to adding outdoor spaces and replacing a roof, improving curb appeal can help you significantly increase your home sale profits.
While it’s important to tend to a home’s exterior, buyers don’t make decisions on the exterior of a home alone, so don’t stop there. To maximize the profit from your home sale, clean up, repair, and make home improvements that will add value, both inside and out.
Learn about the benefits of pre-listing improvements work and understand which ones add value (rather than just cost money). While it isn’t always common knowledge, your real estate agent and the home improvement experts at Curbio are happy to help. Curbio is transforming pre-listing home improvements and helping homeowners list market-ready homes without the hassle. We’re making pre-listing improvements accessible to every home owner in the country.
Learn more about how Curbio works.