Think about it; look at a house from the street and what do you see? A drive leading up to a garage which is either adjacent to or integrated with the front of the house. Now divide that picture up into a grid and work out how much area is taken up by the garage doors.

The surprising fact is that when looking at your property from the street or a photograph (also usually taken from the street) most prospective buyers are confronted with an image that is 20% or more taken up by garage doors. That’s a whole 1/5th of your sales pitch right there.

But it gets worse. Not only are your garage doors in charge of a sizeable amount of territory on that crucial frontal elevation, they’re also first in the firing line where impressions count. And as we all know, the undisputed king among impressions is the first one. It’s those first vital few seconds that determine whether someone will like you, loathe you, offer you a job, buy from you, the list goes on.

That first brief glance of your house sets an impression that is virtually impossible to shift. Your buyer has already decided whether they’re interested or just going through the motions before they even get to the front door. And just like people, it’s the details we overlook that invariably count the most.

Well qualified, hard working candidates often fail at interviews because they forget to brush their hair or polish their shoes. It’s completely irrational yet completely human and a classic example of first impressions at work. The same goes for getting a good price for your house. If you create a great first impression you can almost get away with anything thereafter; bad first impression and you’ll be in for an uphill battle against irrational prejudices that might as well be set in stone. No one will give two figs for your stylish décor if the first thing they see is weeds growing in the drive leading to peeling paint on the garage doors.

But it doesn’t stop there. Garage doors are not only responsible for getting off on the right foot with potential buyers; they can also help clinch the deal once they’ve taken a look around. It’s well known that most home buyers take in only superficial impressions of a property; what most engages them are intangible things such as “potential”. And potential typically means weighing up how versatile a property might be in terms of maximizing the space available, with garage remodeling these days being uppermost in many buyers’ minds.

Garage remodeling is one of the least expensive, quickest and simplest ways to add space and these days rivals traditional house extensions as a major home improvement strategy. Many would be buyers will factor in the potential that a garage offers beyond simply storing cars and gardening equipment, and in estimating the suitability of your garage they are quite likely to take into consideration those bits they can see - like for example that bit that takes up one entire side of the space, the doors.

So don’t get in your own way - stick good quality, well maintained and preferably wooden garage doors in your buyer's face and create that vital good first impression. If they like what they see then later on you can also put a tick in the box for versatility and potential to expand the living space. Just basic human psychology really.