The color photo next to the MLS made the zero-lot-line home look so appealing. Red-brick exterior, large and attractive windows, a two-car garage. I decided to hop in the car and drive by to check it out myself. I'm glad I did. Twenty minutes later, I sat in my parked car across the street from the dream house I'd seen earlier that morning. Funny, it didn't seem so great anymore. I knew that the interior had two bedrooms, new carpeting and new tile, new appliances and some of the other trappings that make homes attractive to buyers.

But I couldn't get past the outside: wilted landscaping, patchy grass and a sad-looking, lonely tree sitting out front. The front door, which for some reason never made it into that MLS pictorial, was a putrid shade of magenta. No, thanks. I sighed, put the car in drive and moved on. Strike out.

It's never a bad time to think about ways to improve your home's image on the outside. But if you're planning on placing your house on the market any time soon, you simply can't afford not to brush up its exterior. In the rush to fill out paperwork, search for a new home, obtain necessary financing, etc., too many homeowners fail to consider how the outside of a house determines in a matter of seconds whether prospective homebuyers out for a drive are going to stop the car and pull out a flyer (if there's one present) or call their Realtors and tell them they've found a home they want to view.

You should certainly conduct your own personal inspection and inventory of your home's exterior before you place it on the market, but the effectiveness of this exercise is questionable. You're too close to the subject at hand, for one thing. And, whether consciously or unconsciously, you're voiding any flaws for which you'd have to cough up a lot of cash to repair. The reality is that some of those flaws probably aren't going to pass muster with a buyer's home inspector, so it may be simply a question of whether you pay now or later to repair them. So don't rely on your own assessment to determine just what needs fixing and improvement. Have your Realtor size up the outside of your home. This is no time for your Realtor to be nice; ask him or her to be brutally honest. Your Realtor's assessment and your willingness to complete those recommended enhancements and repairs will ultimately determine how long your home sits on the market -- a matter of days, or it could languish for months.

The following points outline just some of the areas your Realtor is likely to touch upon during an informal inspection of your home's exterior:

Published: June 15, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

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