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It's seems to me that "curb appeal" in the US took a major blow with the rise of the big chain builders like Ryan, Beazer, Pulte, etc. (tract housing).
These businesses go in and clear cut the land and remove 98% of the trees and come up with 4 or 5 plans that everyone is supposed to be happy with. The architecture cannot stand the test of time (90s homes look awkaward now, with all of the arched windows everywhere). There is no sense of proportion or scale. The homes aren't ideally suited to the lot, and often there are no trees taller than the home to break up the sense of perspective between roofline and sky.
Classic design, which is often a more simple design, will always to my eye have more appeal than what is being spit out and mass produced today.
I am buying my late aunt's house and it has awful, awful curb appeal. She painted it a horrible dark green, the shutters are too long and narrow for the windows and the walkway is a combination of cement that goes to the screened in front porch but not where the door is so it is a cement walkway that goes nowhere. Then she had someone put large cement pavers to make a walkway from the driveway to the part of the screen porch that does have a door.
The dirt in front has been washed away over the years (no gutters) so the bottom of the foundation is showing. All in all, there's not one positive thing I can say about the outside of this house. I like the inside, it suits my purposes and I'm buying for a price so ridiculously low it's hard to believe, so with a little effort I hope to make it look beautiful.
Agree, and what it comes down to is almost subliminal. In my mind, I'm thinking, "these people want to sell this house, they should be doing everything in their power to put their best foot forward".
If they aren't, I'm thinking one of two things
-They couldn't be bothered with any upkeep on this house, so what might I find weeks or months after moving in.
-They can't afford to make it look good, so again....what has been left to go that I might find out about weeks or months after moving in AND they may HAVE to move so I can get the best deal possible.
Subliminal. That's it. I'm putting my house on the market next month. I hope my year old exterior paint, my trimmed landscaping, my new door mat and my flower pots give the right impression. If it were a hot mess out there, I'd hope someone would use their brain and say "we can paint and landscape,etc." but sometimes your heart stops the practical from ever getting to the brain.
I can fix the curb appeal on the house I'm buying but if the house next to me has a curb appeal that is an eyesore, then no thanks.
Amen to this but even with google street view you get hosed. Saw a great house online--street viewed the hood up and down and it looked go so we drove out. Yikes...the house 3 doors down had a huge sign nailed to his garage that said..."warning will shoot on site if you ring this doorbell".
We noped out of there. Then I realized that you can look at the lower right corner and find the date the street view was taken-it was 4 years old. So crazy neighbor is dragging down the whole community by his crazy. This was in Florida space coast- so I shouldn't be surprised.
While we are talking on the subject of what we look for in a house, I know curb appeal is important to many people, but curb appeal can be fixed.
After watching those "find a home" shows for how many years, the one thing I learned is that most people don't know how to see beyond what they actually see.
I totally agree with you....as a buyer. I don't care about curb appeal of the house I'm looking at as I can fix that. As a seller though, curb appeal is important.
The other important thing...curb appeal of the neighbors/neighborhood. I don't expect professional landscaping, but y'know, somewhat neat/tidy would be nice.
I totally agree with you....as a buyer. I don't care about curb appeal of the house I'm looking at as I can fix that. As a seller though, curb appeal is important.
The other important thing...curb appeal of the neighbors/neighborhood. I don't expect professional landscaping, but y'know, somewhat neat/tidy would be nice.
Yeah - buyers and sellers actually are on opposing sides of the house sale/purchase game. Sellers want to be able to fix up and spruce up to bring buyers into their house and to give a good first impression - often the one that sticks. Whereas buyers want two things: to be able to see beyond the skin-deep fixups to the main features of the house, and to be able to visualize how a dog can look once it's fixed up.
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