When selling your northern beaches home, first impressions matter. Ideally, you need people to be impressed from the moment they pull up out front, so that they fall in love with your property and pull out all stops to make it their own.
An important step when you’re preparing to sell your 2101 home is to improve your kerb appeal.
Wherever you live in and around Elanora Heights, Ingleside, North Narrabeen, Narrabeen, or Warriewood, there are a few simple tricks that can keep your home looking modern and appealing in people’s minds.
1. Hedges, walls or fencing
Australians tend to prefer a clear separation between the front yard and public footpaths and like to use hedges, walls or fencing to distinguish their property from next door neighbours.
Because your fence or hedge is the first thing a potential buyer will see when they approach your property it must be well manicured or in great condition. Brick walls and fences need less maintenance, but hedges help keep with the surrounding national park greenery that 2101 suburbs enjoy. Popular local hedging include the fast growing viburnum or multicoloured lily pilly.
In many cases, all you will need is to power wash, add a fresh coat of paint or conduct some careful trimming to bring these areas up to scratch. If you don’t currently have a fence, hedge or wall consider adding one before you list your home for sale.
The only exception is in more newly built areas like Warriewood. Most houses here don’t have front fencing. Attempting to add a large fence will not fit well with the surrounding properties. A smaller neat and tidy hedge (using box hedging or the more fragrant gardenias) alongside a colourful mailbox can help add a point of difference instead.
2. Driveways and parking
Because of the rolling hills in suburbs like Elanora Heights and North Narrabeen many driveways in postcode 2101 are on hillsides. Consider ways you make your driveway easier to park on. Is it possible to level parts of the hill to create parking bays? Do you have street parking as well?
Make sure your driveway is well maintained. Often tree roots will break through concrete drives, so make sure you monitor trees adjacent to the drive. Popular materials for driveways include gravel or stones (for flatter areas), brick or pavers which come in multiple colours.
Ahead of open homes, make sure your driveway is clean and clear of any clutter. Remove leaves and put dustbins out of site. If you need to, eradicate oil stains in your parking bays or garage by giving them a pressure wash.
3. Front yards, gardens or paving
After the fence and driveway, the next thing potential home buyers will notice is the garden and front yard. The most important thing to do is ensure that your garden beds are weeded, grass is mowed and overall the garden looks easy to maintain.
Pavers should be swept and presurewashed. If any are chipped or cracked, replace them. Spray and remove spider webs or put down bait to remove ant infestations.
You may like to add some colour to the garden beds. Choose plants that are easy to maintain and plant them as close to the first open home as possible so that they remain in good condition throughout the property marketing campaign.
You do not need to aim for an English cottage garden. Australian ‘bush’ gardens are common in postcode 2101 and there’s plenty of native plants like the banksia, waratah, yellow wattle, kangaroo paw, bottlebrush and eucalyptus that can enhance your yard and help your home sale.
4. Letterboxes
Letterboxes should be modern, clean and easily seen because they are the best way to display your house number. There’s lots of options to purchase in local hardware stores, or if you want something a little more fancy you can order one online. A great tip is to use pinterest to seek out unique and fun letterboxes.
An easy to read house number is a simple but essential feature for your home. You don’t want people driving up and down the street trying to figure out which house is the right property.
5. Front doors and doormats
Your front door presents an opportunity to display some personality. Brightly coloured front doors can make your home’s facade really pop. Check out this frontdoor colour guide from Dulux that gives you some front door paint colour inspiration depending on the style of facade your home has.
Adding a welcome mat is also a good idea, especially if holding a home open. That way, people can wipe their feet before traipsing through your house. You could also consider adding a shoe stand and ask your agent to get people to remove their shoes before entering your home.
If you have a front porch verandah, you might consider adding a chair and table, with pot plant, where people can sit, relax and watch the world go by.
6. Front yard and porch lighting
Many home buyers will drive past a home for sale at night to see what the neighbourhood is like after dark and get a sense of the homes location.
With some low cost solar powered lighting you can enhance your kerb appeal and make your home look inviting. In general we recommend sticking with white lights for a more subtle and sophisticated look.
When you are ready to sell your home in Elanora Heights, Warriewood, Narrabeen or other suburbs across the 2101 postcode, contact our team for advise specific to your home and its kerb appeal.