How to Improve Curb Appeal
Curb Appeal Exercise
The next time you come home, stop across the street or far enough down the driveway to get a good view of the house and its surroundings.
- What is your first impression of the house and yard area?
- What are the best exterior features of the house or lot? How can you enhance them?
- What are the worst exterior features of the house or lot? How can you minimize or improve them?
Park where a potential buyer would and walk towards the house, looking around you as if it were your first visit. Is the approach clean and tidy? What could you do to make it more attractive?
Take photos of the home’s exterior. If you have a digital camera, view the color versions first, then remove the color and look at it in black and white, because it’s easier to see problems when color isn’t around to affect our senses.
Make a list of the problem areas you discovered. Tackle clean up and repair chores first, then put some time into projects that make the grounds more attractive.
- Kill mold and mildew on the house, sidewalks, roof, or driveway.
- Stow away unnecessary garden implements and tools.
- Clean windows and gutters.
- Pressure wash dirty siding and dingy decks.
- Edge sidewalks and remove vegetation growing between concrete or bricks.
- Mow the lawn. Get rid of weeds.
- Rake and dispose of leaves, even if your lot is wooded.
- Trim tree limbs that are near or touching the home’s roof.
Don’t Forget the Rear View
Buyers doing a drive by will try their best to see your back yard. If it’s visible from another street or from someone’s driveway, include it in your curb appeal efforts.
Evening Curb Appeal
Do your curb appeal exercise again at dusk, because it isn’t unusual for potential buyers to drive by houses in the evening.
One quick way to improve evening curb appeal is with lighting:
- String low voltage lighting along your driveway, sidewalks, and near important landscaping elements.
- Add a decorative street lamp or an attractive light fixture to a front porch.
- Make sure lighting that’s visible through front doors and windows enhances the home’s appearance.
Landscaping Decisions
There are times that adding elements to your landscaping can improve curb appeal, but there are other times when removing something is even more effective.
For example, we had a listing for a large brick house with large white columns. Tall evergreens, planted in front of each column, had grown taller than the roof. They obscured the columns and windows and made it difficult to see the front of the house.
We suggested that the owner remove them. She trimmed them back, but it didn’t do the trick—they were unattractive and still kept potential buyers from seeing the true character of the house.
I sold the house to a couple who could see past the trees. One of their first tasks after closing was to yank them out of the ground, instantly boosting the home’s curb appeal.
Most buyers cannot visualize changes, and often won’t take a second look at a house if the first look doesn’t appeal to them. Home buyers who can visualize changes, and are prepared to make them, expect you to reduce the price of the house to compensate for the work they plan to do.
A Few Curb Appeal Tips
- If you can budget it, a fresh paint job does wonders for a dingy house. Drive around your town to find color schemes that are appealing.
- Install a more attractive front door, maybe something with leaded glass inserts.
- If you can’t justify the cost of a new door, consider replacing plain doorknob hardware with something more attractive.
- If new hardware is beyond your budget, repaint or stain the door and polish the hardware?
If you brainstorm, you’ll find that there’s a solution to most problems—one that lets you stay within your budget. The trick is to find the areas where improvements are needed, then work on them as best you can.
Huntsville Alabama Neighborhood Spotlight- Old Stone
Welcome home to Old Stone! Located in the city limits of Athens Alabama this wonderful new neighborhood community offers old world style at a great price. A community center with clubhouse, pool, and playground built in the future . There are strict architectural covenants, building material requirements, and landscaping requirements that include a tree planting program and a set minimum amount of plantings.
Old Stone offers 67 building lots in the first phase of the development. Homes will range in price from $250,000 to $350,000. Conveniently located on Mooresville Road between Hwy 72 and I565, Old Stone provides easy access to major roads while still offering a bit of coveted isolation! The community ammenities include the following.
-Sidewalks
-Underground utilities
-Uniform iron mailboxes matching all street signage
-Clubhouse and pool
-Strict architectural covenants and tree planting program
-Athens City Schools
-20 min from Redstone Arsenal
Restrictive covenants will be enforced.
Quality custom built homes by Jimmy Bryan Construction and Winter Homes are available. Choose from a number of great floor plans that we have to offer. They range in size from 1900-3200 sqft
Visit www.oldstoneathens.com
Home Construction Outpaces Home Sales….
Real estate news and notes from the week:
Monday’s report on home sales was good news to local Realtors, who saw a 26 percent jump in home sales between April and May. One month does not a trend make, but any uptick is good news in a national market that continues to languish.
One real estate expert agrees the Huntsville market is faring better than others, but he also offers a cautionary note.
Tom Brander, a principal in Birmingham-based Rudulph/Brander Real Estate Statistical Reports (tombrander.com), collects data from multiple-listing services throughout Alabama, including the Huntsville-area MLS, which includes eight counties in North Alabama and a small part of southern central Tennessee. Rudulph/Brander supplies market data to the banking and building industries.
Brander says he’s surprised by the level of new home construction going on in the market, particularly in Madison County, when inventory levels remain high. According to the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors, 111 new homes were sold in Madison County last month; builders pulled permits for 187 new homes (reported by the Huntsville/Madison County Builders Association), making the construction rate for new homes about 1.7 times that of the sales rate.
Brander’s numbers differ slightly: He reports 82 new homes sold in Madison County, making the construction rate about 2.3 times the sales rate.
Here’s where both the local Realtor’s association and Brander agree: The bulk of current sales are for lower-priced, used homes. Indeed, in Madison County alone, more than 85 percent of the homes sold in May were under $300,000, as more first-time buyers take advantage of the tax credit to buy homes in their price range. Higher-priced homes typically are purchased by homeowners who are “moving up” into a larger, more expensive home and have equity in their first home.
“By any measure you’ve got, once you slice out anything under $200,000, you’re well over two year’s worth of inventory based on historical sales, which (the market) is now under,” Brander said. “The used market is killing the new market. New homes are being built much more quickly than they are being sold.”
He notes that current sales levels in the Huntsville market are running under 2004 sales levels, and more than 7,000 homes sit for sale throughout the eight-county region.
“If 100 percent of the BRAC jobs move here, and all of the additional jobs expected, it still won’t absorb all the homes for sale,” he said. He also noted that defense budget cuts reported recently could lead to hundreds of jobs lost in North Alabama. Oscar Gonzales, executive director of the local Realtors association, said he disagrees.
“There’s typically a 12- to 18-month lead time for new construction,” he said. “With what we’re hearing from the chamber (of commerce) and in informal conversations, I’m confident that the new construction will be absorbed. You have to have things in the pipeline.”
Huntsville grows fastest in state
UA says city gained 18,429 since 2000; BRAC to rev it up
MONTGOMERY - Riding the wave of an economy tied to the military and its entrepreneurial offspring, Huntsville far outpaced Alabama’s three other major cities in population growth the past eight years, according to a new report.
The University of Alabama’s State Data Center reported Thursday that Huntsville’s population jumped from 158,216 in 2000 to an estimated 176,645, a gain of 18,429.
Huntsville’s growth is expected to ramp up even further once BRAC is fully implemented and an additional 17,000 people move into the area over the next three years, Mayor Tommy Battle said.
Birmingham and Mobile lost population, while Montgomery had modest growth, according to the estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census.
Although Birmingham remains Alabama’s largest city, it lost 14,022 residents to drop to a population of 241,820. Montgomery gained 1,120 to hold second place at 202,696, while Mobile lost 7,893 residents to drop to 191,022.
Dr. Keivan Deravi, an economist at Auburn University Montgomery, said it’s no surprise that Huntsville is running away from the rest of the state in population.
“If you took Huntsville and looked at it as a state, it would be one of the best states in the U.S.,” he said. “They’ve done a fantastic job with Cummings Research Park, a fantastic job with their airport, a fantastic job with the Space & Rocket Center, and its education system is far better than average.”
And Deravi said Huntsville has created momentum for the future with BRAC, short for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which recommended moving several military commands and nearly 5,000 defense jobs here by 2011. Thousands of contractor jobs are expected to follow.
Battle said Thursday that Huntsville’s economy has also diversified beyond Redstone Arsenal and NASA to include the HudsonAlpha Center for Biotechnology, Toyota’s engine plant and numerous health care offerings that make Huntsville the regional medical center for North Alabama.
We’ve been very fortunate in our growth pattern and our diversification,” he said.
Joe Vallely, Huntsville’s director of economic development, said the study didn’t surprise him because the city has led the state in job creation in 15 of the past 18 years.
Vallely said Huntsville has seen its population grow in years when job growth was down. He speculated that people moved from surrounding counties to be closer to their jobs in Huntsville, or were “probably chasing the best school systems.”
The city of Madison gained 9,385 new residents to increase its population from 29,329 to 38,714.
Annette Watters, manager of UA’s State Data Center, said the estimates from 2000 to July 1, 2008, do not take into account the severe downtown in the economy that began affecting the nation and the state later in 2008.
But she said the statistics show that many Alabamians seem to be returning to smaller towns.
For example, Auburn, which was recently selected by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s 10 Best Places to Live, gained 13,101 residents since 2000 and now has an estimated population of 56,088.
Deravi said people generally view larger cities as places to work, not to live.
“You have that situation here in Montgomery County where Autauga County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state,” he said. “It’s not because there’s something really good in Autauga County, it’s because something’s really not going right in Montgomery.”
Deravi said people are drawn to suburbs or smaller cities because major cities are failing to provide safety and quality education.
“For us to shop in Birmingham, we don’t have to live in Birmingham,” he said. “Huntsville is different because it’s the magnet.”
Over the decade, Watters said, the state has grown 4.8 percent.
“The past is not always a predictor of the future,” she said. “Growth can bring entirely new sets of problems, and not every town aspires to be Huntsville.”
When we say the schools in Athens are good, we may be blowing our own horn… but we’re not whistling Dixie.
It’s hard to judge schools in North Alabama without first educating yourself. Just look at the facts, the average ACT score for the 12th Grade Students at Athens High School is 22.3. For the past five years 99-100% of AHS Seniors have passed the Alabama High School Graduation Exam. Athens City Schools also spend more per student than any school district within 65 miles of Redstone Arsenal and over 80% of our students go on to college. It would be hard to argue that when it comes to a good education in North Alabama, Athens City Schools make the grade and then some.
