Do You Have Curb Appeal?

I’ve been putting off writing this one because for the longest time I thought I would get over it. But I haven’t.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that every house exterior that is unkept, means the interior of the house looks like that also.

This assumption is not made only because of the community I live in, because I see unkept houses in the community in Michigan where my sister lives, and in the community where my son lives in Florida.

Anytime I’ve ever listed any of my houses for sale, the house got a good cleaning, a fresh coat of paint, and extra special attention to the exterior of the house including plantings, trimming, etc. And that’s on top of the daily / weekly cleaning I do.

Being raised in the sixties, everybody kept their yards in my community as neat as a pin. I grew up that way and continue that practice to this day.

Not only their yards, but their driveways, roofs, gutters, and windows. There were never twelve inch maple trees growing out of the gutters like I see today. Windows were generally washed in spring and fall.

I spend a lot of time at my son’s house in Miami. I know it’s a totally different housing market than where I live, but that’s only in the cost of the houses. The subdivisions that I go through while driving my grandchildren to their activities are primarily ranch-style houses with three or four bedrooms and two or three bathrooms. The majority start at a million dollars. I think it’s safe to say that about thirty percent of these homes look like they should be condemned. But they’re not and won’t be because when someone buys these houses for north of one million dollars, they tear them down and build a mini-mansion.

But in the meantime, why can’t your house and yard look nice?

Now let’s add cars to the equation. Since there are no basements in Florida, storage at home is desperately needed. What’s a family to do? You park your cars outside and use the two-car garage for storage.

So let’s say there is simply a family of four in the average house and each of these people have a car. That is four cars in your driveway.

It is so unusual to see a house without cars everywhere, including the front lawn, that your yard, kept or unkept, now looks like your million-plus dollar house could be from hillbilly heaven. I can hear the banjos as I’m writing this.

Now for added curb appeal, to go along with four plus cars in your driveway and front lawn, those expensive cars are baking in the hot Florida sun all day whether at home or at work. Like most people, you want to keep your car looking nice, even if the exterior of your house doesn’t. To protect the cars from the hot damaging sun, you call a canopy company to install canopies in your driveway to park your cars under. Another eyesore.

Since my son was raised in the midwest and once owned a landscaping business, he takes great pride in his yard and house. Not because his house is valued at $1.2 million, but because he likes how nice it looks and appreciates the compliments he receives.

I know that some of you will think I’m being petty and that it’s none of my business how people keep their houses. And you’re right. But it is my business when it affects me. I have neighbors on either side of me who do nothing to keep up the appearance of their house and yard.

Their wild violets, dandelions, and creeping Charlie are creeping into my weed-free, well manicured lawn. And there’s nothing I can do about it. Every morning I walk around my yard with my dandelion digger to try and keep up with the infiltration going on. It’s not a big yard because I live in the city.

My age and upbringing have made me this way but I was raised to believe that your home is your most valuable asset and you should take care of it.

The difference in my house versus my sons house, other than his being worth a million dollars more then mine, is that nobody will buy my house to tear it down and put up a mini mansion like they might do someday with his house.

So in the meantime I will keep fertilizing, trimming, weeding, edging, pruning, and planting flowers.

I hope you will too! Pride of ownership!

As an example, I took the attached picture last week. The exterior looks pretty nice but lacks flowers and curb appeal. It’s a 3 bedroom / 2 bath house with a pool. Two blocks from my son’s house. It’s for sale and can be yours for $1.3 million.