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If Your House Doesn’t Feature a Driveway, Should You Build One? Read All About The Pros and Cons Of Selling a House With a Driveway Here

If Your House Doesn’t Feature a Driveway, Should You Build One? Read All About The Pros and Cons Of Selling a House With a Driveway Here published on 2 Comments on If Your House Doesn’t Feature a Driveway, Should You Build One? Read All About The Pros and Cons Of Selling a House With a Driveway Here

It’s no surprise that driveways can increase the value of a house. Exquisite driveways have the ability to make an otherwise ordinary home look like a million bucks. Of course, usually the homes that have gorgeous driveways are a million bucks. Either way, theres no doubt about it that driveways add instant curb appeal to a home. However, a deteriorating driveway does the complete opposite. Buyers tend to deter away from homes that have worn driveways that need a lot of work; whether it is an excess of stains, broken pieces of concrete, and the like. Not necessarily because it would need work, but because it gives a bad curb appeal vibe, and bad curb appeal sets a subconcsious psychological tone for how a buyer will view your home. 1-mclain-flat

If your driveway needs some love, a buyer may wonder what else inside of the house that you aren’t taking care of. If you want to sell your home, you should be prepared to do some work to the driveway. However, if the home is a fixer-upper, chances are the buyer will want to do their own anyway, since they will basically be redoing the whole home, and will want to choose a design, and the materials accordingly. The major key when building, adding, or re-designing a driveway is to be sure it ‘goes with’ the home. You do not want a cheap driveway with a $500,000 home. Likewise, you do not want a $50,000 driveway for a $150,000 house.

Expect to only receive more or less half of what you put into the driveway. A driveway is not neccesarily an investment. It is merely curb appeal, and curb appeal will affect how much they’re willing to pay for the house. When a driveway has a lot of cracks in it, it can definitely bring down the overall value. Adding a new concrete driveway will greatly increase your home’s curb appeal which could potentially make your home sell faster.
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There are many, many different materials and finishes for driveways. If your driveway is decent and just has some minor surface issues such as staining, that’s something you could probably resolve without having to re-do it. If you have decided to bite the bullet on this project, be sure to hire a fully licensed contractor. Really, you should have a licensed contractor for anything, but if you are trying to sell your house, you want a contractor that is going to do a good job. Do get a few bids from several contractors, as it is unwise to go with the first one that you see. Just because a friend said he’s great, doesn’t mean he is. The work that she was satisfied with isn’t necessarily what another would be satisfied with.

 

2 Comments

What if I don’t have the money to install a new driveway? I got a quote, and they are very expensive.

Hi Bobby. Do you have an existing driveway? If you do, perhaps you could just re-stain it, or repair areas of it (depending on the material of the current driveway). I see you’ve said you got one quote. You should try to get several. You might find it to be a little cheaper than you think (or at least cheaper than the quote you received).

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