How I Made $20,000 With Curb Appeal Alone
Most people agree that curb appeal can make or break a home
when trying to make your home stand out from the rest.
Especially, when trying to sell your home, curb appeal can
enhance the exterior of your home so much that someone who might
not have stopped and gone inside will because of how much they
like the outside of the home. When adding merely curb appeal to
a home brings in a selling profit of $20,000, this is really
something to write about. Here's how it happened.
One of the benefits of being an agent or working with a real
estate agent is that we as agents can set up an email flash in
the MLS to send us listings as soon as they go on the market.
Good deals on homes or fixer uppers go quickly these days with
all the handymen and "do it yourselfers" out there. I sell real
estate in the Tampa Bay area full time, but as a hobby my wife
and I like to buy and sell houses that are in minor need of
repair.
This particular home in Pasco County, Florida went on the market
at 2:00 pm and by 4:00 pm we had already viewed the property and
offered a full price offer for it which was immediately
accepted. The reason we offered full price was because we saw
the potential in this home for some reasonable profit and didn't
want to take a chance at losing it. The home was on the market
after just being purchased 8 weeks prior by a contractor who
completely gutted the home and remodeled it. He must have spent
close to $35,000 on new air conditioning, new roofing, new
windows, complete new kitchen, new bathroom, new garage door
opener, fresh paint inside and out, new carpeting and new tile.
The asking price was fair and I am sure he made a substantial
profit too.
So what potential did we see? The exterior was painted all
white, including the front door. There were no colorful shutters
around the windows. The mail box was leaning over and so was the
fence. The grass was full of weeds, the plants and trees
overgrown, and there was no sprinkler system. For such a
beautiful home inside, the curb appeal was atrocious.
So we dug right in. Most of the work we did ourselves and this
is the key to maximizing your profit with any fixer upper. It's
not always possible though, we did have to hire someone to
remove the big overgrown trees and stumps. We installed shutters
and painted them and the front door a high gloss sage green
color to accent the home. With the help of the local home
improvement store and a lot of trial and error, I installed my
first sprinkler system. We fixed the fence and installed a new
mailbox. We killed off the old grass and removed all the old
landscaping. We then laid new sod and planted new plants and
colorful flowers. Since this is a hobby and not a job for us, we
took our time with the project and only worked on it in our
spare time.
Once the home went on the market, it sold in less than seven
days to the first person who looked at it. Our net profit was
roughly $20,000.00. When it's done right, curb appeal can really
pay off.