Don’t Underestimate Curb Appeal! Outdoor Tips You’ll Love

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Don’t Underestimate Curb Appeal! Outdoor Tips You’ll Love

July 31, 2015

By Tarek El Moussa

If you watch Flip or Flop, you know that we recently partnered with our friend Jessie Rodriguez to flip a house together. Together, we spent over $100,000 to fix and flip this 1920s-era house, and since we were so far over budget, I was already nervous. Then Jessie took Christina and me outside to look at the roof, and it was a nightmare. It was functional, but it looked awful. We knew that we had to replace it if we wanted to get a good price on the house and make it a good real estate investment.

That day, standing on the curb, that roof was killing me. There was a beautiful new paint job and the house was gorgeous and functional inside, but it wasn’t going to matter if buyers couldn’t see past the roof. It made me think a lot about curb appeal and how much it can affect your property’s resale value.

You can make every upgrade imaginable to the inside of a house, but if you have peeling paint and a rundown yard, your buyers aren’t even going to stop, let alone step inside for an open house. That roof really brought that home for me, and it made me think of a few of the ways we’ve improved curb appeal to interest buyers and to drive up market values, too.

Start From the Outside In

First of all, here’s a tried-and-true flipper’s trick. If you have a house that looks really rundown, start your rehab from the outside. While your contractors are taking care of any structural issues that’ll keep you from moving forward with the project, mow the lawn and trim the hedges.

If the paint on the house looks good but not great, you may be able to save some money by painting the window frames and other accents and by painting the door a complementary color to give it some life. You can also add a few flowers or shrubs around the walk to lend some color and make it pop.

I especially recommend following this tip if your house was boarded up when you bought it. The sooner you can get it looking great, the sooner the whole neighborhood can forget that it was ever an eyesore in the first place.

Easy Curb Appeal Tips That Don’t Cost a Bundle

When giving the exterior of your house a fresher, more appealing look, you can spend a lot of money and go over budget before you know it. Here are a few go-to improvements that don’t cost a lot and make a huge difference. When you get ready to flip a house, take a look at the outside and see if one or more of these tips will help you out:

Paint the porch
Paint the garage
Power-wash the walls and roof
Power-wash the driveway
Clean the windows
Clean the gutters

If your driveway is in shambles, you’re going to want to address that, too, which can be really expensive. Look into cheaper ways to install a new driveway. We chose gravel for one of our flips, and it worked beautifully.

If you want to fix and flip a house fast and get the most out of your real estate investment, you can’t forget about curb appeal. These tips should get you going without digging too deep into your rehab money. Good luck!

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Tarek El Moussa

Tarek and Christina El Moussa have over a decade of professional real estate experience and have been featured in national print publications, online media outlets, and a popular real estate TV show. Tarek is known for his determination to get the job done and doing it right.