I can totally relate to your situation. We bought a retirement home five years ago, just one month before the real estate market started to collapse. We still had our other home and thought we would have no problem selling it. We were anxious to get all the "equity" we had in the first house. Now we can't sell either home. We don't want to get into the "renting" business either, but we have no choice. My suggestions to you is forget any flowers since you live out of state and can't take care of them. I would paint the front door a "brick red", almost like a burgundy. I would not paint the garage doors, take down any shutters or do any more work. If that is grime on the siding, I would get the house pressure washed. Anyone that buys it will know it is a fixer upper. I know from personal experience, as we sunk a lot of money into our first house ...new stove, new countertops, new cabinet hardware, had the entire house painted, had the porch steps ripped out and redone...believe me, any $$$ you spend (except getting rid of the pink door, lol) is going to be a waste of time and money. The market is bad and no amount of expensive repairs, color changes, is going to change that. It's definitely a buyer's market, not a seller's market. Chispa is right on the money! What WILL change it is lowering the price. We chose not to lower our price because the house we moved out of is a better house than the one we moved too. We couldn't get anymore for it than what we pay for the "downsized" house. It's really sad the market is so bad, but if you and your husband don't mind waiting, you may be able to get a little closer to the price you want, but don't count on it. By the way, our first house we tried to sell is on three beautiful acres, close to shopping, close to the interstate...none of that accounts for anything in a bad market. I wish you the best of luck!

I think that solving the main problems is going to boil down to two things: the walk; and the making the entrance visible. The walk should definitely be wider - 5' could be a goal, maybe wider near the stoop - and then it should make a better connection with the drive. I don't think this means to necessarily cut across the lawn with it. Given that the yard is small, you could widen the drive a bit with whatever the walk material is, continue on by widening the city sidewalk with the same material, and then turn the corner with the walk, heading to the entrance ... in effect bordering the yard with a "U"-shape "invitation" that extends from the drive to the entrance. (The portions adjacent drive and city walk would not be the same width as the main walk to the entrance. They would be like decorative borders.) When it comes to the portion of walk that heads toward the entrance, I think it would be beneficial to pull it away from the neighbor's drive and incorporate and "S"-curve into it. That way, room for a SMALL tree could be created between the walk and neighbor's drive. It would also have the benefit of making it look like it belongs to your property without any question. Note how entrances are typically clearly marked by some type of enlarged, often raised, paved area, and a roofed covering that offers shelter from the elements. I think you need to create such a structure over the walk, in the front yard, near to the house. It would be the obvious first "entrance" that people reach when approaching the house. But after they've reached it there would be no question about where they would continue to in order to reach the actual house entrance. The structure could be a very nice arbor, or it could be more architectural in nature (such as with brick columns and an actual roof.) BTW, I don't think there's the first thing wrong with your yellow brick. Maybe you're bored of it and that is the driving force behind staining it. But I think it would be a mistake, or highly inefficient at the least, to attempt to change it to another color. If the brick was flat out ugly I'd be all for it. But it's not. You might end up creating, after spending a lot of money and effort, something that is not near as nice. If you could replace the top panel of the garage door with one that has windows all the way across, that would resolve the boring quality of the existing door. There seem to be two main approaches to planting: smother the house with hedges; and smother the house with a variety of all kinds of plants strewn in a randomish fashion. You might consider "matching" shrubs to windows (like steps would be "matched" to a door) as the main shrubs of the landscape scheme. Perennials and annuals can be fit around them in some artistic scheme, keeping it simple preferably. I would plan on keeping shrubs below the window sill height. I would hunt for a spot for another small tree at the right side of the house. (We can't see that area.)

When you can't see the entrance proper, you need to create another entrance that is obvious and which will lead to the hidden entrance. The garage entrance (since that is where one must go) must be dolled up in some way, making it seem inviting. Architectural embellishment is one possibility. The garbage cans stationed at the right side do not help make the entrance seem inviting. They say that this is "where the help enters" ... not the public! The layout of the white gravel mulch is not helpful either. Since gravel is commonly used as paving material, it seems like it is a path that leads to the darkened central area of the house, behind the yellow flowering tree. If it's not the entrance, it's confusing. A different bed line could make it more clear that that is not the case. Here are a couple of possibilities that suggest a direction. I prefer the second bed line and obscuring the central (darkened) area with plantings, though it would require more renovations of the planting.The blank wall of the house warrants more than a single palm trunk in front of it as a method of adding interest. A fan spray of trunks might be better.

If budget allows I would basically start over with the porch. The width would be much better if it went from outside edge of window to outside edge of window. Also the steps need to be moved so that they line up with the front door. I know it would cost a bit but I would have the tree (or what remains of it) removed. If you want a roof on the porch then I would do a gable roof that matches the slope of the existing roof. After that cleaning up and redoing some of the landscaping would be in order. Paint the front door a bright color that makes it more of a focal point. Lighting, both porch and a coach light in the yard would also be a good idea. If you're interested in seeing some virtual makeovers of your house check out my web site, Creative Visual Concepts. I could show you how different changes would look on your house.