Three simple ways to boost your home’s curb appeal
As we approach spring (feels like it’s already here, actually!), you might be thinking of sprucing up your home’s exterior. Whether you’re planning to sell or just looking to add a little beauty, we’ve put our heads together to offer some ideas.
Note: this article was featured in our January 2022 email newsletter.
Paint your front door
Brighter colors for front doors are becoming more popular these days, and yellow is one of the trending colors. Our recent warm days make it workable to leave the door open to dry for several hours. Or you might just take it off the hinges, lay it across some saw horses or other supports, and do the project in the front yard. Here’s a link to some good advice on how to tackle this project.
Upgrade your front porch/yard seating
Nothing says “neighborly” quite like having a cozy place to sit out front and say hello to folks passing by. Many of us have porches that are too small to add seating – in fact, urban planners decry the demise of the front porch as one of the reasons we’ve become less neighborly over the years! If building a new front porch sounds like too much of a project, consider these ideas:
- Find a place to remove some grass, replace with nice gravel, flagstones, or decomposed granite, and create an informal front-yard patio. Even better if it’s under a shade tree!
- Build a small deck somewhere in front of the house and add some seating, potted plants, and an outdoor coffee table. What a great place to have your morning coffee!
- If you want to keep it simple, just find a level place in your front lawn to add a nice bench – something durable that can handle a little sprinkler water.
Plant some flowers!
OK, this is our favorite one, and there are so many possibilities to consider. This is a photo of our house, from the street in front. We kinda take this flower gardening thing to an extreme, we know! But you don’t have to go this big to have a great impact. Just go to a good, local nursery, find some helpful staff, and pick some great flowers or shrubs to brighten up your front yard. If you’d like some inspiration from our garden, take a look at Steve’s Instagram: @steve.grows.stuff
Some new market stats
Once again, we’re sharing some informative graphs from Ryan Lundquist at Sacramento Appraisal Blog. 2021 was a crazy year, and it shows in how the median price grew and how tight the available supply is (the graph with monthly inventory means that the number of homes available is currently only enough to satisfy half a month (two WEEKS!) of typical recent buyer demand. It seems like that’s a record low, and it means that homes are being scooped up quickly. Also, winter always sees fewer listings come on the market, so it should get a little better as spring ramps up.
Look at that! The median home price last year went up by $90,000 in the greater Sacramento region. Oh. My. Gosh.
Ryan Lundquist says this 18-month period of supply being less than one month has never happened before. Wow.
We know from our work with buyers that this market can be discouraging. But we’ve also succeeded in getting our buyers into some really great homes this past year, and all we can say is that persistence pays off. And it helps to have an agent who is relentless in searching for your perfect home, does their research on what a competitive offer should be for that particular neighborhood, and who communicates well with sellers’ agents. If you’re ready to look, give us a try – we’d love to help.