Don't forget the outside: Eight easy ways to add curb appeal to your North Jersey home

First impressions matter.

The outside of your home is the first thing people see, so it's important to make sure your property has good curb appeal.

Often, people view the outside of a home as a reflection of the inside of the home, so maintaining your homes exterior appearance can give you a good leg up in the neighborhood, and even drastically increase its value for prospective buyers.

"When a house goes on the market for sale, I always tell sellers that buyers are going to make a decision on whether or not they want your house within the first like 15 seconds. From the time they drive up to the time they walk up to the front door, they're already making a decision," said Nena Colligan, an agent with Keller Williams Village Square Realty in Ridgewood. "So, if the outside is bad, then it's going to have to be pretty awesome to switch their brain to think about how pretty it is on the inside."

Here are simple ways that you can easily boost your homes curb appeal, whether its to prepare it for sale or simply to improve your home's appearance in the neighborhood.

Maintain your front yard

Karl Wahlberg, senior account manager at Borst Landscape and Design, said that maintaining your homes landscape is one of the easiest ways to enhance the exterior appearance of your home.

"If you're looking to sell your home or want your home to always look good, then cut the grass every week, make sure that your walkways are blown off and pick the three-foot weeds out by the front door," he said.

Keeping your curbs clean from debris and ensuring that any pathways and bedlines, if you have them, are nicely edged will also improve the look of your home, Wahlberg said.

He also recommends maintaining other small details, like adding a fresh layer of mulch in a color that matches your home's color, or irrigating and fertilizing your lawn so it appears greener and healthier.

Incorporate plants and flowers

Plants and flowers tend to be a common addition to homes to make them look more appealing, but it's important to choose which ones you incorporate carefully.

Colligan said it's important that shrubs, bushes and other plants are not too big for the front of the home. Not only does it negatively affect the appearance of the home, but she said it's also not good for the property to have overgrown plants touching the home.

"Mature plantings can be really great, unless they're too mature and then they're up against the house and they're kind of leggy looking. At some point, it's time to cut those out and plant new plants," she said. "So, you can ask your nursery which ones to plant depending on how much sun you get in that spot, but get rid of that old leggy stuff. It's not healthy for the house and it really doesn't look good anymore."

Another way to use plants to improve your home's curb appeal is by incorporating annual plants into your front garden to add more color, Wahlberg said.

"You can put in pockets of annual plantings in front of existing plantings to keep your gardens lively from season to season," he said. "It will give you that seasonal color so that it's always looking colorful from spring to fall. Even in the winter, you can use winter greens to enhance any entranceways and just make your house really pop."

Clean your home's siding and windows

Colligan said one of the easiest ways to improve curb appeal is by simply keeping the outside of your home clean. She said that while you might not realize it, it makes a big difference.

"Cleanliness is next to godliness, which is inside and outside," she said. "If a seller doesn't want to hire a power washer, I literally have one that I loan to my clients. Power washing and cleaning the windows is a huge difference for the house. And with the windows, you get the benefits inside and outside."

Paint your front door and your railings

Adding a fresh coat of paint to certain details outside your home is a good way to spice up the exterior of the property, Colligan said.

If you have railings to your front door, she recommends painting a color that goes well with the home. Railings can be repainted by scraping off any old paint, sanding down any areas that may need it, priming the railings and then coating them with paint made for exterior surfaces.

Colligan also said that painting the front door of your home will add a creative and unique touch.

"If you’re not selling your house and you just want to do something new and freshen your look, it’s the easiest thing to do. Just paint the door and do something fun," she said. "When you drive by a house and you see a yellow door or a like a robin’s egg blue front door or whatever that color is, it’s so much fun. So I think for a lot of people that’s something that costs virtually nothing and you can do yourself if you want to."

If you are looking to improve your curb appeal to sell your home, though, Colligan said you should still repaint your front door, but you should choose a more traditional color. She said this could include glossy blacks, deeper red shades or other neutral colors.

Clean or replace your door's kickplate

Many doors have what is known as a kick plate — a sheet of metal attached to the bottom of your door to protect it from wear and tear.

Colligan said to consider adding one to your front door because it will prevent and hide any future damage, and it will hide any existing damage on the door, giving it a cleaner look.

If you already have a kick plate on your front door, she said you should make sure it's clean so it looks shiny. But if the kick plate on your front door is really beat up and damaged, she said you should replace it.

"If you have an old one, they get pitted. Sometimes they should be replaced, maybe every several decades, but they last a long time," Colligan said. "The reason there’s a kick plate is because it gets marked up, so having a nice fresh kick plate can really make the door look new and make everything fresh and bright.

Replace your mailbox and your house numbers

Updating your mailbox and house numbers are other easy ways to improve the look of your home Colligan said.

Some homes have older mailboxes, so you can switch it out for a more updated on that will also better match the appearance of your home, she said. The same can be done for your house numbers.

"I saw a house and they had the coolest house numbers. She said she got it on Etsy and it was just so much fun and fresh looking and modern looking. So you can do a little thing like that, and it only cost her like $30," Colligan said.

Clean and update your outdoor light fixtures

Maintaining your home's outdoor lighting will ensure that your property looks good both day and night. Although a larger project, Wahlberg recommends incorporating landscape lighting in your yard.

Often located in high areas, landscape lights can be used to illuminate areas like lawns, paths and trees to make the home brighter at all hours of the day.

Additionally, Colligan said it's important to maintain lights that are more commonly found on homes, including fixtures that may be found next to front doors and on porches.

"Any kind of metal on the light fixture can get pitted and rusted, so replace the light fixture because they can't all be saved," she said. "They also certainly have to be cleaned, especially when they have glass around them and can get bugs and debris in them."

Paint or replace your garage door

While garage doors are not necessarily supposed to make a statement, Colligan said, they're usually a big part of the front of your home, so they should also be well maintained.

If you're not looking to fully replace your garage door, she said you can opt to give it a fresh coat of paint. But, she said to make sure to choose a neutral color that matches your home.

"If you can replace your garage door, they make such beautiful ones that kind of give the impression of an old carriage house," Colligan said. "Also, garage doors should have windows. So, if you're going to replace it, replace it with something with some sort of window. It'll make it look more homey, as opposed to industrial."

Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for NorthJersey.com and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on Instagram @maddiemcgay, on X @maddiemcgayy, and sign up for her North Jersey Living newsletter. Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at MMcGay@gannett.com.