Don't Judge a House by Its Curb Appeal or Its Appliances

After recently watching things like Flip That House on the TLC channel and various shows on the HGTV channel I am starting to see a reoccurring topic of curb appeal. As a current apartment dweller myself, but hopeful of one day being a home owner, I am intrigued at the importance of such a thing and yet hesitant to believe that good curb appeal equals a good home.

To clarify what curb appeal is I looked it up and basically curb appeal is the first impression of attractiveness that a house has from the street. Clearly the things that are observed is the yard around the house, driveway, porch, paint job and the size and design of the home. However, clearly you can not judge a book by its cover and this applies to houses as well. One has to wonder if house manufacturers and house flippers are focusing more on the curb appeal of the house and not on the actual construction of the structure or the right building materials being used.

Although a house with a huge garage can certainly look appealing it is in question as to whether or not a huge garage actually adds what their assessed value is. Again it is on the level of that it looks ascetically pleasing. Also something that I have seen that is added to homes to increase the value at which the seller can sell it for is high end appliances. High end is suppose to describe something that is the best but it often also describes the item that is the most expensive, but not always the best. For this reason it is also in question whether or not care was taken into consideration when the interior construction of such rooms as the laundry room and kitchen, when they were designed.

Although a house with granite counter tops and matching stainless steel appliances is certainly good looking as well as one that has a multiple car garage, it isn't worth the investment if the house was constructed poorly and the interiors are things like chip board and vinyl trim held together with glue. Worst of all, these sort of houses appear to be popping up more and more because they sell quickly for their first impression looks. It may be some time before I myself am house hunting but I certainly will make a point to look beyond the curb appeal and high end appliances.