Ask Our Agent with Compass Real Estate Agent Karin Diana, Founder of The Home Collective
Grab Diana’s free worksheet that lays out the pros and cons to renovating or selling your home — with numbers! Email her Karin.Diana@compass.com.
The snow is starting to melt, spring is around the corner, and you know what that means. The Montclair real estate market is about to heat up again. As the Montclair market gears up for spring, one thing is clear. Buyers are swiping before they’re stepping. And in 2026, screen appeal might just be your home’s most important first impression.
It’s time for Ask Our Agent, sponsored by Karin Diana of Compass Real Estate. In this conversation, Diana breaks down why curb appeal still matters, but why what she calls “screen appeal” may matter even more. Diana explains how buyers experience homes online before they ever step inside, why sellers should start preparing months or even years before listing, and the exterior upgrades that can dramatically boost value.
Curb Appeal Still Counts, But It’s Not First Anymore.
When we think about selling a home, we picture fresh mulch, trimmed hedges, and a freshly painted front door. Classic curb appeal. But Diana reframes it, “In my opinion curb appeal is how a home feels when you see it in person for the first time. It’s the landscaping, the architecture, it’s that emotional reaction when you pull up and think, I like this. And that definitely matters, but it no longer comes first.”
What comes first now is what she calls screen appeal. “It’s often the deciding one. Buyers experience a property through photos, video, floor plans, and social media way before they ever step inside. If a home doesn’t photograph well or show its layout clearly or feel compelling on a screen, many buyers will never even schedule a showing no matter how charming it is in person.”
In other words, your house has to win on a phone before it ever gets a chance to win in real life.
The 30-Second Rule
If you’ve scrolled Zillow lately, you know exactly what we’re talking about. The videos are polished. The photos are cinematic. Everything feels intentional. So what goes into that?
Diana explains that “the house has to draw on the emotionality of a potential buyer on their phone. They are looking at a seller’s property first on their cell phones. And as much as you can give them in the shortest amount of time possible,” is key.
She adds, “Attention span is very short online and we want to be able to produce something within 30 seconds to a minute that is really going to capture somebody and initiate an interest in coming in and taking a look at the property.”
Thirty seconds. That’s the window. That’s the hook.
Why You Should Prep Earlier Than You Think
Still staring at snow piles in your front yard? Diana says the work should actually start long before the for-sale sign goes up.
“Basically sellers should be reaching out and engaging with their agents months, if not a year or years before they are ready to sell their houses. Agents should be used as consultants on how to produce their property when it’s time to sell.”
And timing matters more than people realize. “A house that’s coming on the market in February or March, should really be photographed either the summer before or as late as the fall right before it’s listed in very early spring of the following year. The photography might not pop as much as it could if it was a summer image.”
Translation: green grass sells better than gray slush.
EXTERIOR UPGradeS That Pay Off
Now let’s talk money. Exterior updates are not always cheap, and sellers often hesitate to invest right before listing.
Diana acknowledges that reality. “I think that sellers feel that they paint an exterior or shutters or their front door maybe once or twice in their ownership. But it really should be considered something to do as an update right before you sell your home. And it’s an expense that a lot of sellers don’t really want to incur because it is not a small one. And it’s something that you can become desensitized to is how the paint of your exterior house appears online and in person.”
And yes, paint matters. “Hate to say it, but paint is so crucially important,” she says. For sellers concerned about cost, Diana points to creative options. “There are several ways in which a seller could have access to $10,000 or $20,000 to prepare their home for sale that their agent can really help them find. Whether it’s through the brokerage themselves, Compass offers this concierge service where we can lend a seller money to prepare their home for sale. There are home equity loan options that you can consider in order to spend $20,000 – $25,000 that could yield $50,000 to $75,000 more in a purchase price.”
Beyond paint, small touches go a long way. “Also exterior stagers that will come to the house and plant flowers or bushes,” Diana explains.
In one recent example, she shared, “I just engaged with this lovely woman, that spent a lot of time at this property that I have on Montclair Avenue, just putting in very strategically placed and weather friendly plants all throughout the front and the back of the house just to give it a little bit more life.” Sometimes, it really is about giving a home a little more life.
Want more insight into Montclair’s real estate market? Explore the articles below:
2026 Montclair Real Estate Trends
Winning a Bidding War: The Offer Terms That Matter More Than Price
Your Spring 2026 Montclair Home Buying Guide
“Ask Our Agent”: Biggest Adjustments to Suburban Living?
Staging Your Home to Sell Quickly: What Buyers Notice First
The Hidden Costs to Home Ownership in Montclair
A high-touch agent known for her extensive market expertise and her unmatched devotion to clients, Karin’s success is based almost exclusively on referrals. Specializing in residential real estate in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City, she makes the experience of buying or selling property simple by combining her keen instincts, impeccable client service, and attention to market trends. Throughout the process, Karin offers a common-sense approach with sharp negotiating skills honed over the past three decades. Work with Karin | karin.diana@compass.com
