And that’s because she is!

For the last couple of weeks, I have been running my business with a 3 year old in tow..oops, 3 and 10.5 months.  Olivia and I have been making the rounds, checking out the market and fielding the calls and emails.  Turns out she has strong opinions on real estate and Dora the Explorer .

This little girl is the queen of the snap judgement and finds particular joy in houses that have pink flowering trees.  But what my incredibly astute niece is really critiquing is curb appeal…and she knows it when she sees it.  We all do!  And I have discovered that the eyes of a 3 year old just get right to the point.

Olivia likes:

A nicely manicured lawn, it doesn’t have to be busy…just crisp, fresh and cared for.  Play ready.

Easy to navigate–no trick fences, free running animals (or their stuff) or odd structures.

Some decoration/ornamentation/elaboration - we drove by a nice cape with cedar siding which was a blank slate and she said it looked “sad”.  I say some color adding shutters and a few plantings and seasonal flowers with maybe an Adirondack chair outside would happy that house right up.

No Chaos is the rule…We played “which of these things doesn’t belong” and she got it right every time.  No works in progress vehicles, tools lying around, machinery; all very distracting from the property for sale–allow the house to take center stage.

Whatever the saying, houses are judged by their cover daily and harshly at that.  Good curb appeal is essential to selling a home.  The outside of your house must invite and speak to the inside quality as well.  You only get 1 chance to make a first impression, then hopefully score that showing date! 

PS-I didn’t just put my girl to work; we have had lunch dates, cookie breaks, watched Peter Pan and some crazy cartoon I have yet to figure out the name of, and visited pbskids.org (at 3 she has her websites memorized!)