How does your house look naked?

This is the time of the year when your house is (or is about to be) sitting there naked. When the

leaves are off the trees and all of the landscaping plants that looked so beautiful earlier in the year have died, your house is sitting there in all of its naked beauty or ugliness. It’s time for a new curb appeal check and likely some maintenance that you didn’t see that it needed during the summer.

Even just cleaning up the leaves and debris that collects in yards in the fall can help; but, more than likely there is a lot of fall pruning and weeding that needs to be done, if you house is to look appealing in the buff. Visitor’s eyes will also be drawn more than ever to the front door and a door that is shabby and needs to be painted will have more negative impact than ever.

And, how about that driveway and walk? Now that they are out there by themselves, do they send the message that these are people who take good care of the property; or do they scream SLACKERS to the world? You never get another chance to form a first impression and that impression carried over to how the visitors look at the inside of the house. 

In the summertime, most people will be distracted and happy with a nice landscape display. They will love looking at the flowers and decorative bushes and trees that you may have, along with your well-manicured lawn. Good landscaping for your house,like good clothes on people, hides a lot of sins. In the fall and winter, they have no such distractions, so they just look for flaws in your naked house,

What can you do to help?

• ·         Well, for one, make sure that your gutters are cleaned out and not overflowing with leaves and debris. Check your downspouts and downspout extensions, too.
• ·         Power wash off the green algae that may have built up on the north side of your house.
• ·         Power wash your deck, walkways and driveway and fill in any driveway cracks and make sure that it is sealed for the winter.
• ·         Weed flower beds around the house and trim back your bushes. Rake the mulch to make sure that it looks good. If you have any leftover mulch add that to the beds as needed. 
• ·         Paint that front door, if it needs it.Studies have shown that the impression that the front door makes is one of the strongest positives or negatives that visitors take away from a visit.
• ·         Make sure that he front porch lighting looks good (or replace it) and make sure that it works. Dark front porches in the fall and winter are a big turn-off to agents and visitors alike.
• ·         Take a look at the shutters, if you have them. If they are faded and shabby looking, paint or replace them.
• ·         Check out the wood trim, if you have any, and make sure to replace any rotted boards and paint any trim that need it.

If these ideas all seem like you are just applying makeup to the house; well, that’s pretty much the idea. If you were standing there naked in front of someone, wouldn’t you at least want to have your best makeup on? 

Give your house its best chance to make a good first impression as it stands there naked in front of visitors.