There are a variety of benefits to living in an HOA-managed community:
- It’s an added layer of support
- Rules and regulations
- Community Pride
- Help with Maintenance
One of the most significant and well-known benefits to Homeowner Associations is their responsibility to maintain property values and aesthetics throughout the community. To do that, an HOA must consider the neighborhood’s curb appeal.
Additionally, as style and aesthetics change, the HOA must stay up-to-date with the coveted aesthetics. For example, right now, communities are moving towards a more modern and “clean” aesthetic, so an HOA should (if possible) add modern elements to increase home values.
What's Curb Appeal & Why Is It Important for a Cohesive Aesthetic?
When working with a real estate agent or living in an HOA-managed community, you’ll hear the word “curb appeal” used frequently to describe the houses.
Curb appeal is a term used to describe the general attractiveness of a house from the sidewalk to a prospective buyer.
A community with good curb appeal is excellent for attracting new people to your neighborhood, selling houses, and keeping your property value high.
While an HOA manages many pieces of a community, board members should not forget about the community’s curb appeal. It shows your community and potential buyers that the association adequately manages fees to ensure the community and amenities are taken care of.
Small Ways to Improve Curb Appeal
Creating curb appeal can sound like an intimidating task, but it’s actually quite easy.
There are a few ways to improve curb appeal:
- Ensuring your neighborhood is clean and tidy
- Creating neighborhood appeal
- Communication between the HOA and the Homeowners
- Outline curb appeal needs in HOA policies
- Stay on top of trends
Ensuring Your Neighborhood is Clean and Tidy
Organize a neighborhood-wide clean-up event! Events help build community, and having the event centered around cleaning can keep homeowners invested in curb appeal.
Don’t forget to have food and host fun activities – like getting a food truck or having games for the kids!
You can also use this as an opportunity to share guidelines related to landscaping, front yard decorations, and the impact of clutter on the community (and its home value!)
Creating Neighborhood Appeal
An HOA can build community and incentivize homeowners to focus on curb appeal by focusing on neighborhood appeal. For example, hiring a landscaping company to ensure that the community spaces are clean could encourage homeowners to focus on their homes and landscaping.
The goal is to build community through neighborhood appeal, so if you show your community that the HOA cares about the community’s well-being, hopefully, that energy will rub off on them to focus on their curb appeal!
Communication Between the HOA and the Homeowners
Communication is key! Make sure you stay connected with your residents with an email or letter. Also, send a quarterly newsletter to your residents.
Within those newsletters, you can talk about your community, upcoming events, and remind them of the community’s policies. For example, if it’s the start of Spring, you can send a newsletter reminding the community to mow their lawns and attach a list of reputable landscapers that work with the community.
Homeowners don’t purposefully break HOA policies. It’s more common that they weren’t aware of them.
Outline Curb Appeal Needs in HOA Policies
Look back at your HOA policies. For example, do you discuss curb appeal? What architectural guidelines do you have in place?
As you review your guidelines, look for any inconsistencies. You want your guidelines to be helpful, direct, and consistent throughout.
By creating or enforcing HOA policies that manage architectural control, you’re also creating consistency within your community which helps with curb appeal and property value!
Stay On Top of Trends
Lastly, stay on top of trends. As more modern styles grow in popularity, you want your community to reflect that. If you don’t, your community could look outdated, and it will lower the value for potential homebuyers.
This doesn’t have to be a significant investment. It could be updating the colors, changing mailboxes, or adding small touches within your neighborhood that connect with the current home trend.
Modernize Your Community’s Curb Appeal with Modesto Planters
One inexpensive way to enhance curb appeal is by using Modesto Planters. They’re trendy but still long-lasting in durability, design, and aesthetics.
Modesto Planters are round planters with a sloped top and grooved texture. They’re a contemporary design that will make a statement in your community.
Modesto planters range from $40 to $120 depending on where you buy them and the materials used. The benefits of using Modesto planters are that they enhance the community’s charm, add more greenery, and modernize homes cost-effectively.
If you’re looking to modernize your community and its curb appeal with Modesto planters and don’t know where to start – we’ve broken it down into four steps.
- Get Inspired
- Pick a Color
- Be Consistent
- Pick your Plants
Get Inspired
While Modesto planters are there to modernize your neighborhood, there are different ways to utilize them. Take time to figure out how you want to use them in your community.
It’s important to figure out a design before moving forward. This long-term change impacts the entire community, so be intentional with your decision.
Pick a Color
The Modesto Planters come in plenty of neutral tones like black, white, and grey. But, pick colors complimenting your community to ensure you get the most extended use of them.
Be Consistent
While the planters have a unique and distinct look, they come in different textures, colors, and sizes. Therefore, you can use a consistent color palette and texture throughout your community for a cohesive look regardless of your chosen planter size.
Pick Your Plants
There are so many different types of plants you can choose from to add color and depth to your community.
We recommend that you’re purposeful with the plants you choose. There are so many beautiful plants, but not all of them will thrive in a planter, in your environment, and are low maintenance.
Creating a cohesive and modern community with Modesto planters is effortless due to their sleek design and neutral colors. Still, it’s even easier when you intentionally choose which plants to use.
There are so many beautiful low-effort plants that can elevate a community without creating additional work. A few low-maintenance perennial plants are:
- Golden Sword’ yucca
- ‘Green Mountain’ boxwood
- Japanese Pieris
- ‘Emerald’ arborvitae
- Golden creeping Jenny (looking for some color)
Curb appeal helps with homeowner satisfaction and keeping property value up. However, as modern spaces become increasingly prevalent and necessary, there are things that HOA’s can do to spruce up their community in a cost-effective way.
