Home How important is the look of the front of the house?

[Patchee]

Lucy & Roger - Off the topic but did you adopt your kitties in your avitar from Purrfect Companions?



Now on the topic. To me, the whole overall appearace of a house is important. I live in a neighborhood of "keeping up with the jones" as far as lawn care, flower beds and yes what your house looks like.

 

[April20]

Honestly, I think that style house is fixable. It really depends on how much money you have to invest.

I know it''s not for everyone, but I''m a fan of painting brick when the brick looks dated. That alone can make a huge difference. It the house you''re looking at doesn''t have a porch or entranceway, there might be ways to address that as well. I think the pic of the house you posted could have such a thing added- it would look great as long as it was done right.

Everyone else has already spoke to landscaping so I won''t repeat other than to say it makes such a huge difference!

 

[lucyandroger]

Wow, thank you everyone for your responses! Sorry I disappeared - had a busy day at work.

All your responses are super helpful!! We''re visiting the house again on Saturday and I''ll keep all your suggestions in mind. At the same time, we''re gonna take a look at a few more houses in the neighborhood and see how we feel. I''m going to try to listen to my gut on this one.

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 6/18/2009 1:50:23 PM
Author: Patchee
Lucy & Roger - Off the topic but did you adopt your kitties in your avitar from Purrfect Companions?



Now on the topic. To me, the whole overall appearace of a house is important. I live in a neighborhood of ''keeping up with the jones'' as far as lawn care, flower beds and yes what your house looks like.

Hi Patchee, thanks for your thoughts.

We adopted our kitties from an animal shelter just north of Boston called the Northeast Animal Shelter. They''re turning 2 this month - I can''t believe it!

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 6/18/2009 12:26:26 PM
Author: movie zombie

Date: 6/18/2009 4:24:05 AM
Author: pennquaker09
They always say you know the house is for you when you pull up. If you don''t like the outside, keep looking to you find something that you do like.

so true! its happened that way for me each and every time.

i could not stand coming home to a front that i didn''t like......

unless there is potential in redoing the front to something acceptable for you via landscaping, creative fencing, rock, etc., i''d keep looking.

mz

This is what I was thinking. When I spend a long day at the office, I want to come home and love what I''m working to pay for. But I also want to make a smart decision and my SO doesn''t hate the front as much as I do.

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 6/18/2009 1:01:51 PM
Author: whitby_2773
hi lucyandroger

my husband and i are on our 14th home now. we''ve bought, renovated and resold many times. the house you''re looking at is a GREAT candidate for improving value.

you have in order all the things which CANT be changed - school district, neighborhood, access to transportation, size of lot, and so on and so on. anything else can be changed. ANYTHING.

a home is a long term proposition. if this one has all those things you listed, changing the external appearance is the least of your worries. you can work with a designer, architect, builder, or just pull ideas from your own likes and dislikes; it''s what i call an ''easy fix''. and unless you won the lottery and have failed to mention it, you''re like every other newly wed on the planet who doesnt have the funds to get their ideal home right off the bat. one works up. one saves and plans and saves some more and thinks and compromises and so on and so on....and you get where you want to go. and it''s FUN! if this house has all those things, and you''re only just getting married, this can be a project you work on over the next 5, 10, 15 years or more. just looking at your house off the bat, i can see a number of things which could be done which would really perk up the look of the house and give it much stronger curb appeal.

as for the second story, seriously, is there some reason this can''t wait? you could end up sitting on a gold mine over time. just make sure the other houses in the street are better than yours before you buy; you never want to have the best house in the street. ever. you want your house to be (ultimately) pitched right in the middle of the suburb''s home values. so look for a great house pitched at the low end of the market, and buy that. that''s how you make money in real estate.

hope this helps - just a few thoughts i wanted to throw out there right away cause it looks like you really could be on to something.

good luck!

Thanks so much for this post, Whitby! This house is definitely a smart investment and that''s why I''m so seriously considering it. Most of the homes in the neighborhood are priced $100-150 thousand more than this one. Lots of people are buying these older ramblers and knocking them down to build big brand new homes as well. The depressed housing market really hasn''t hit this area like the rest of the country.

We''re definitely going to follow your advice and get a house that we can work on and invest in but I guess we''re deciding if it is this house that we want to invest in. There are lots of colonials in this area and we''re thinking perhaps we''d prefer to buy one of those and an addition or get an older home that hasn''t had the kitchens or bathrooms updated yet...We''re just terrified of regretting our choice.

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 6/17/2009 8:49:23 PM
Author: DiamanteBlu
I think curb appeal is important - especially with the interior being really nice.

Based on the photo you posted I think the outside has some great potential. Some minor modifications to the structure and a bit of landscaping would result in a very ''appealing'' house.

I don''t know if you watch HGTV but they have a series called Curb Appeal. I have seen many houses going from not-so-good to great. There certainly is a good opportunity to fix up your curb appeal and I don''t think it would break the bank.

ETA Oops, I didn''t answer the question! Curb appeal is very important to me when you actually get to the house. I prefer the house to be hidden from the street.

...maybe we should buy the house and then apply!

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 6/17/2009 7:53:01 PM
Author: neatfreak
I think there is a big difference between having bad curb appeal because it''s just plain ugly vs. having bad curb appeal TO YOU because you don''t like the style ya know?

We are in the process of buying a house that I don''t **love** from the outside. It''s a ranch and I am from New England and like to have more than 1 floor! But alas we are buying in CA and almost everything there in our price range is a ranch. BUT to other people it looks nice from the outside-so I know we won''t have a hard time selling when the time comes.

I only worry about the outside if it''s a real eyesore that will prevent us from selling it in the future. Otherwise-I can deal if the inside is great KWIM? For me-it''s worth the trade off because unless you are buying your dream home usually you have to give in somewhere and I would rather give in on the looks than the guts of the house.

That''s a really great point. We''re definitely going to have to compromise somewhere if we want to be in this neighborhood. I''m wondering if I''d prefer to renovate the guts of the house though.

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 6/17/2009 6:31:16 PM
Author: Mara
as others have said there are things you can do to make it have better curb appeal but if BASICS about it bother you, aka the lines of the house or architecturally or similar then it might be a pain to fix that or redo it. for me curb appeal is VERY important.

we bought an all brick ranch somewhat like that, and at first i was NOT keen on it at all, i am not a brick kind of person. but we put in a really cute crafstman white wood garage door, the shutters are all white, and we have some climbing vines and bougainvaillea along the house now, and it looks SUPER cute now. in fact i think ours is one of the cutest ones on the block now. so look at it with an eye to what you can do to change it and it might grow on you.

one note is that for brick houses like that, green is an extremely flattering color to it, aka green foliage. and white is a good contrast. but also our bricks are a little darker which i like more than light. you could also paint the bricks, i have seen people do that in the neighborhoods around us.

Thanks for the suggestions, Mara. I''m glad to hear that the style can kind of grow on you with some changes. I REALLY like the idea of climbing vines.

 

[lucyandroger]

Date: 6/17/2009 7:49:31 PM
Author: cara
I must be too poor. If we could afford a house with these pluses and minuses, we would be thrilled. Especially for me, great backyard is more important than front yard - I''d rather have an entertaining/private outside area in the backyard than a nice curb appeal frontyard. Looks smaller than it is is much better than the reverse. Front looks bad from outside much better than house looks bad from inside! But in our area, our budget requires compromises so that is my perspective. To me, bad curb appeal mainly means price should reflect the fact that it makes a poor first impression and there might need to be some sprucing up in the post-homebuying budget. But if you have the budget to be choosy, or if the compromises involved are too much *for you* and your preferences, then its a pass. And good luck!

Don''t get me wrong, we are definitely thrilled...it''s just daunting to pick a place to stay for years and years. This house will be eating up a nice chunk of our salaries and we want to make sure neither one of us regrets our choice.

 

[partgypsy]

That house wouldn''t put me off. I would prefer to have a nicer private backyard than a really pretty front with no backyard.

Like Whitby and April20 said, there are some things you can''t change on a house (school district, neighborhood, etc) but mods to the house are doable. Putting more architectural interest in the front of the house such as front porch that''s integrated with the house, with curved brick stairs would look really nice. Painting the brick a lighter color makes a dramatic difference. However if you want to remodel to change the house to be more like a colonial (putting in a second floor or something) you don''t like the "bones" of the house than at that point I would just keep looking and find something that you feel reflects your personality better.

Just a different perspective but I''m not a big believer in the "starter home". I want a house I can imagine I can live in indefinitely (10+ years). That way if circumstances change there is nothing in the house that bugs me so much I feel trapped.

 

[Patchee]

I remeber seeing Lucy and Rogers pics on Pet finder a bit ago... they had different names before? I just adopted a nother off the site.