Curb appeal ROI

If you read my title carefully, there’s a contradiction in it: An ROI from your front yard? Really?

Most front yards are neglected wastes of space. Folks might think that grassy buffer zones (aka front yards) are somehow “green,” meaning environmentally important. Other than being the color green, grassed front yards are anything but.

You need to weed them, feed them, water them, keep grubs away, cut them with CO2-producing, noisy lawnmowers not to mention pay for them in the first place.

Eva O’Grady and her daughter Angela O’Grady raised another possibility: Can a front yard makeover (whatever that means) improve property value, attract better tenants paying higher rents and staying longer? Can it create a more interactive community and a better neighborhood?

This led us to create a list of curb appeal improvements that a homeowner or indeed a commercial property owner could consider implementing… the idea is to try to boost ROI without breaking the bank either. Heck, that’s what Return on Investment means anyway, right?

What kind of curb appeal animations are we talking about?

Maybe:

-organized street tree planting, fruit trees and frontyard gardens, planter beds

-patios

-lighting scenes

-frontyard gardens

-horizontal transition lines

-more ingress/egress and wow (window on the world)

-street furniture

-street art/sculpture

-mural art

-hardscaping and extra parking areas

-parking mesh grass
-0-step entry

-rainwater recapture rain barrels

-natural (low maintenance) “lawn” and gardens—market garden farm gate “lemonade” stand

-mailbox makeover

-name your house or commercial property

-visible and unique house or building number

-new door hardware

-front porch and front porch furniture with tables with games inlays like chess board or backgammon board

-croquet court/bocce court

-insulated garage door with lites and mandoor—garage office or micro retail or micro-suite or workshop with upfit

-adding French doors to create more ingress/egress from ground floor

-manufactured walkout condition and patio for lower level (basement) space

-privacy screening

-window shutters

-window (flower) boxes

-window coverings at the front on the ‘inside’ of a building makes a difference to the curb appeal—eg, use California shutters  

-decorative fascia trim

-lay sod (instant lawns), trim hedges, edge grass etc

-windows need to be SPOTLESS 

-arbor and fencing

-wind chimes

-new paint

-tiled doorstep

-driveway makeover

-walkway canvas or steel and glass cover

-driveway steel and glass cover

-upgrade railings

-pressure wash everything

-“phonebooth” libraries with seating areas

-street games

-front yard play structure

-sculpture park

-street parties

-street parties

-remove any negative signage, for example, no soliciting, beware of dog etc

-nice front door/entry mat

-upgraded doorbell (like a video doorbell) or knocker (nothing is worse than a broken one for first impressions)

-call your city (311 in Ottawa) for any fixes needed to your street/sidewalk/curb

-offer to cut your neighbors’ lawns 😊

You’ve heard of home staging, correct?

Well how about extending it to the front yard and, while you are at it, the backyard too– with cool animations like storage sheds, mini offices, workshops, backyard games and a million other ideas?

What’ll we call this new service?

How about: Home stager, front yard curb appeal specialist and backyard makeover artist?

Too long?

Yeah, way too long.

Suggestions please?

Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD
Real Estate Investment and Business coach
ROYAL LePAGE Performance Realty broker
Ottawa Senators founder
1-613-762-8884
bruce.firestone@century21.ca
twitter.com/ProfBruce
profbruce.tumblr.com/archive
brucemfirestone.com

-MAKING IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE
-FREEDOM VIA REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT AND PB4L, PERSONAL BUSINESS FOR LIFE
-FEHAJ, FOR EVERY HOME A JOB
-MAKE YOUR HOME WORK FOR YOU, INSTEAD OF YOU WORKING FOR IT
-HIGHER ROI NOT JUST FOR OWNERS AND INVESTORS, BUT FOR TENANTS, GUESTS, VISITORS, NEIGHBORHOODS, COMMUNITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES, AND CITIES TOO

Feature image by Bart Everson – Flickr: 774 Redbud Lane, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25194851