WITHOUT PLANTING ANYTHING IN THE GROUND (because some of you are Master Gardeners, I know, but I am NOT) what is your favorite way to spruce the curb appeal of a drab property? Buildings are painted, not run-down - just drab.

On one cottage we threw up some cheap shutters and a Compass Rose, made such a huge difference. Recently on a garage apartment we put up an extra-large Barn Star.

My husband makes wood trellis, and paints it to match a door, porch floor, steps or in an accent color. No two he builds are the same.

The only rehab we flipped was white. We decided on grey shutters and a country blue door with a country blue trellis.

Wish I had the pic to post, but I don't anymore, the tech is outdated.

Paint the front door a colorful or accented color, I've also done the fascia in an accent color.

Modernize the house numbers and put a new porch light out. I mounted some brushed nickel numbers to a stained and sealed board with a lip so the numbers look like they are resting on the ledge. I picked that up at the home show last year.

Put a couple of big urns on either side of the front door if their is enough room on the porch. Put one of the taller painted metal flowers that are imported from Mexico to top it off. That's popular in Texas at least.

I have one SFH that one of the tenants put a half moon rock garden against the house and then put an old metal wagon wheel, parts of an old harness, and some old horse tack. Looks pretty good so I've just left it. I've seen the same thing with old buckets, wheelbarrows, plowshare, or other old rusty metal oddities.

Larry, I sort of agree on storm doors. Those aluminum and vinyl ones are 'blech.' I watched progress on the rehab of a rental across the street from one of mine. Beautiful house numbers, sharp black paint on the front door, crisp black, then white trim around the new white vinyl windows. House has grey fieldstone facade, so the black and white really popped. Then, last minute they added a new vinyl storm door. Just killed the whole look. Its like they didn't need to have bothered. A full view nicer storm door might have worked. Maybe. But not that typical storm door.

OTOH, I found a really nice looking wooden one ( 3/4 view) at ReStore for one of my houses, though I had to strip paint, as it likely had lead. I got another wooden crossbuck storm door for the side door (visible from street,) for another house for free off of Craigslist. Tested negative for lead. Yay! Looks better than the old vinyl one.

After a break in, I had the back doors replaced at one house Instead of a storm door, put on a metal security door with glass panels. Thing I've learned about those is, they rust very quickly, so probably wouldn't work for WMH. I only buy them in dark bronze color now, as it takes longer for rust to show. But, a white one I had that was rusting painted up nicely with Rustoleum hammered metal finish in bronze. That looks very sharp on the house. A dark Caribbean blue front door behind it. The two colors coordinate well. Key with those is to choose a more simple metal design. The overly ornate ones mostly look dated. I did find online a retailer who custom makes wooden storm doors, wide array of styles, simple to more ornate, even those beautiful arched top doors that we have prevalent in Milwaukee. I may just go to those when next I replace some storm doors.

1. Raise canopy of shrubs

2. top off mulch

3. increase watering schedule to make grass greener

4. Paint door, new door hardware

5. Power wash driveway, sidewalk, house, and shrubs (shrubs look cleaner and powerwash removes dead leaves)

A home made cheap water feature at the front entry way, sort of out of site from the street. It can hang on the wall, several tiers, and have a low voltage pump, easy to wire in.

Edging along he walkway, or lights.

Solar address sign, easy to find in the dark.

Great question! I agree, the shutters make a big difference. I look at apartments as I drive by, and it seems they add to curb appeal by 1) painting entry door a “substantial” color, like black or dark brown etc., maybe matching the shutters 2) have a nice light fixture above the door, or one on each side, with a nice bulb brightness and color temperature. 3) And the pièce de resistance, (as Deb mentioned) a portico above the door with columns supporting it :-)

As I read through other comments, a lot of solid ideas here, like washing the house/driveway.

I go to the toll brothers (or some other housing provider) website and look for houses that they're selling to a similar target market (young/old affluent/middle class, etc.) as mine. I figure they've done the research and have a good idea of what their customer wants. I'm looking at their website now, of houses in NC, and what I see for a $600k house is: no shutters, windows with nice curtains pulled back and visible from the outside, a light fixture on the side of the entry door and a matching fixture above the garage, portico with columns, nice garage door with windows (geeze I like the window idea. Why didn't I do that?), a light siding color (grey, of course) and low shrubs.

All rock landscape bed. Instead of plants, use smallish boulders/large rock. Weeds come in, Round Up the whole landscape bed. No worry of killing the "good" plants.

Depends on the class of housing. We have one MH that came with window boxes for flowers. Since we and the tenants have brown thumbs, we put artificial flowers in them, in styrofoam blocks.

Have no large bare spots where something should be planted and mulch all flower bed areas. Fertilize all grass and seed any dead areas.

Two years ago, I came upon cedar mulch, hardwood mulch, and the colored mulches, red, brown, and black, for $0.75 per bag. I bought 300 bags, just kept dropping them off at the properties.

In doing that, I learned a nifty way to clear soil of grass when I want to put in new perennial beds- simply lay out the bags of mulch and leave them. Grass is gone quickest. Persistent weeds like dandelion or bindweed take longer. Now, I wouldn't do this in a front yard, but my little houses are in older areas of the city, where areas behind garages or along fencelines are frequently just filled with invasive weeds like buckthorn and garlic mustard.

Fresh mulch is the first thing I do.

The second thing I do is look not at what the colors of paint are but the number of colors of paint.

W,

These are all great ideas!

I'm thinking of the cottage homes in your area. Whimsy, bright colors, sea theme names for the homes, fish shaped mailbox, colorful surfboard screwed to the front door...

You (not me in Indiana) can get away with about anything ocean-y.

Un-drab it with wild colored trim.

(you MIGHT be thinking too conservatively, clean and neat - have some fun with it - go a little crazy!)

My staging pro taught me there must be something MEMORABLE about the decorating. Her example was to put a bunch of yellow rubber duckies in the bathtub, on the counter, yellow towels, and a rubber duckie rug. Something for the prospects to laugh about and easily recall MY home as they make a housing decision.

Fun to think about!

PS we'd all love to hear what you come up with!

These ideas are all great!

Brad, it will be different for each place as our places tend to be "unique" - think Odd - I use the word "Quirky" in some of our ads ;)

Gevans, the plastic flowers of today are a game changer! They look REAL, the plastic pots look like ceramic or wood, and you can dress up a doorway or deck very fast with pots, flowers, and foam blocks ;) I have them in my staging kits, but I take them with me once rented. Maybe I should start leaving them...I'll have DH screw the pots to the deck though ;0)