Selling Your Home? Start With a Pressure Wash

Before the staging, the photos or the open house, wash the outside. It is the cheapest thing on the pre listing list and the first thing a buyer sees.

Buyers decide before they park

Most buyers form an opinion of a house before they get out of the car, and a large share have already decided from the listing photos whether they are coming at all. Both of those judgements are made on the exterior.

A dirty exterior does not read as dirty to a buyer. It reads as neglected. And a buyer who thinks the outside has been neglected starts wondering what else has, which is exactly the frame of mind you do not want them in when they walk through the door.

What it costs versus what it moves

Exterior cleaning is one of the least expensive items on any pre listing list. It is not a renovation, it does not require permits, and it can usually be done in a single visit before photography. Compared with painting, landscaping or replacing a roof, the ratio of effort to visible improvement is hard to beat.

Do it before the photographer, not after

This is the mistake worth avoiding. Listing photos are where most buyers meet the house, and a stained driveway or black streaked roof in a hero shot is doing real damage. Book the cleaning first, then the photos.

The pre listing exterior checklist

• Driveway, walkways and the path to the front door, which is where every visitor walks
• House exterior, particularly the shaded elevations that look oldest
• Roof, because black streaking reads as an ageing roof to a buyer and to an inspector
• Gutters and soffits, which show badly in photographs taken from the street
• Pool deck, lanai and screen enclosure, since outdoor living is a selling point here
• Fence, especially the side facing the street

The roof point is worth dwelling on

Black roof streaks are algae, not damage, but buyers do not know that and frequently read them as a roof near the end of its life. That can turn into a lower offer or a demand for a roofing credit worth many times what cleaning would have cost. A soft washing of the roof removes the objection before it is raised.

Do not overreach

Cleaning makes an exterior look cared for. It will not disguise damaged siding, rotten fascia or a genuinely failing roof, and it should not be used to try. Buyers get inspections. What cleaning does honestly and well is make a sound house look like a sound house.

If we see something during the walkthrough that cleaning will not fix, we will say so.

Frequently asked questions