Source: The Real Deal
Keeping lawns freshly cut and outdoor spaces in tip-top shape could result in greater rewards for sellers. A new analysis of Google Street View and data from nearly 90,000 home sales found that, on average, a property with strong curb appeal sells at a 7 percent premium to a comparable home in the same neighborhood with less curb game. In buyer’s markets, that premium shot up as high as 14 percent.
Making sense of the story:
- That 7 percent figure also factors in the state of the home across the street, which accounted for roughly a third of the overall premium.
- Low-appeal properties had blemishes like broken pavement and overgrown grass, while high-appeal properties were characterized by features like well-kept lawns and nice landscaping.
- The researchers then used these scored images to train their deep-learning algorithm to assign curb-appeal values. Lastly, they used the algorithm to grade the photos in the larger data set.
- Comparing sales prices of homes with good curb appeal to those with bad curb appeal (and controlling for factors like neighborhood, time of sale, and house size and features) they arrived at their finding of a premium of 7 percent.