I must admit to being a little worried that my last few blogs may have been a little boring given I’ve been discussing renovations (and how to effectively renovate without over-capitalising) but I’ve received many positive comments, texts, e-mails and messages on social media that have alleviated my concerns.

Just like singing shows and cooking shows on TV, it seems that people enjoy property and are intrigued about renovating…and there always seems to be an appetite for this discussion.

Today, let’s turn our attention to the front of your home – in particular, driveways and car accommodation.

Before we discuss these items, I want to recommend that if you’re about to sell, you take the time to wander out onto your footpath and make yourself stand at the front of your home and just observe for at least five minutes…and you might be surprised what you see.

All too often, we see home owners that have meticulously renovated their homes but neglected the front of the home and given this is the first impression people will have, it’s so important to make sure that you set their experience of your home off on the right foot.

Many buyers will drive past your home before they commit to an inspection as they want to check out the position and see what sort of neighbours they’ll have if they purchase so it’s easy to lose a buyer before they even set foot inside if you aren’t considering the appeal of your home from the front.

There’s many owners that arrive home, open the garage with a remote control, park their cars in their garage and enter through the connecting door so they aren’t tuned in to what the front door even looks like as they rarely even see it from the outside.

Firstly, if your mailbox is old and rusty, it’s amazing how much a brand-new mailbox with a custom designed number attached to it can do to wow a buyer…and even if this costs a few hundred dollars, it’s certainly worth considering.

Secondly, make sure you pressure clean and possibly re-paint or re-stain your front door as we often find that front doors are the one item in a home that seem to gather the most dirt and dust.

Next…your driveway – make sure you pressure clean your driveway if there are any stains on it at all and it can be a good idea to re-paint it in a colour that’s complimentary to your home’s exterior and possibly even have it re-stencilled if there’s patches that have lifted.

I wouldn’t necessarily worry about small cosmetic cracks in the concrete as you might have them filled and the buyers will assume that the original cracks were a lot larger than they actually were so you could be creating an illusion that there’s a problem when in fact there isn’t an issue at all.

An acid wash can be a really good option if a high-pressure clean isn’t enough but we strongly urge you to have this professionally done as we’ve seen numerous sellers attempt to perform their own acid wash and end up destroying the entire driveway…and spending a lot more money to have it rectified.

If your driveway is in complete disrepair, it may be advantageous to have it re-done but this depends on a number of factors as you are in danger of over-capitalising if you do this so I’d talk to an experienced agent that can consider factors such as how bad it is now, how much it will cost to re-do, the current value of your home compared to what it would be with a new driveway etc.

It’s no secret that everyone wants a place to store a vehicle undercover and preferably, in an environment where it is locked up and inaccessible to potential burglars.

These days, many homeowners will ‘build in’ their old garage and turn it into additional bedrooms or living spaces…and if so, they often need to extend a new garage or carport at the front of the home if they want to store their vehicles.

More often than not, we believe that this is a good idea as we’ve noticed that homes with no undercover car accommodation sometimes take a lot longer to sell as the buyer pool can be significantly reduced if there’s no-where to house your vehicles.

Make sure any additional structures have Council approvals as it can be quite difficult to obtain these approvals after the fact for various reasons.

You might be surprised to learn how relatively cheap it can be to construct a basic double carport, and this can add significant value to your property.

You might also be surprised how easy it is for the right tradesperson to secure the carport by providing solutions such as horizontal timber planks at the rear and the sides…and install a remote garage door at the front – and whilst this does come at some expense, it usually adds more value than you’d expect to the final selling price.

Remember that there are many instances where local Councils may allow a ‘relaxation’ for carports and many times, you’re able to construct carports right to the boundary of the property if you seek the appropriate approvals so if you think you don’t have room for a carport, they may be alternatives that you haven’t considered.

Next week, I’ll discuss the final elements of this topic including gardens, lawns, fences, retaining walls, gutters and drains.

Until then, Happy Renovating, Happy Listing & Happy Selling.