When selling a home, your home’s landscaping could be your best advertisement. If potential home buyers are excited by your home’s curb appeal, you will have a better chance of getting them inside to tour your home and eventually make an offer. Home staging services and real estate agents agree that curb appeal is of utmost importance when selling a home, so be sure to create an effective plan for your property by using the following landscaping ideas to sell your home.
Tackle Simple Landscaping to Sell Your Home
If you have a lawn, clean it up. Of all of the landscaping ideas to sell your home, this is one of the most obvious. If you’ve been mowing regularly to a height of about two inches, you should have a nicely maintained lawn. Mowing too low can cause shallow root growth and make your lawn more susceptible to drought and weeds. Weeds are more prone to grow in areas where the lawn is weak. Patch brown spots in the grass by raking and over-seeding any bald spots in your lawn. It is also important to reduce soil compaction. Use sidewalks to walk to your front entryway rather than walking across your lawn. Repeated patterns of use across your lawn can compact the soil and leave tracks where grass will not grow. A well-established lawn can enhance your home’s curb appeal, and home staging services, real estate agents, and even potential home buyers know that a well-maintained lawn will help sell a home faster than a brown one full of weeds.
Clear and fix driveways, sidewalks and patios. Potential home buyers notice things like dirty paving, moss-covered sidewalks, and cracked concrete. If needed, pressure-wash driveways, patios, and sidewalks before putting your home on the market. If you have large cracks in sidewalks or driveways, consider patching or replacing them. Do whatever you need to do to show potential home buyers that you’re serious about your home’s maintenance.
Keep leaves and other debris picked up. Don’t force a potential home buyer to walk over grass clippings, leaves, branches or pine cones. The more tidy your home’s landscaping, the easier it will be to sell your home.
Let color help you when selling a home. Yellow evokes the emotion of buying, so plant yellow flowers near the entryway.
Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in Winter
Experienced landscape architects and garden designers know that one of the first seasons to design for is winter. This is when your home’s garden is at its most stark and dreary. If your home is on the market in winter and you haven’t planned for this, there are landscaping ideas to sell your home even as the days grow shorter. When it comes to home staging, real estate agents will tell you that staging your home in winter is extremely important.
Keep snow and ice at bay. The top tip from home staging services and real estate agents: If the potential home buyer can’t get in easily, the house won’t sell. As stated above, this means keeping walkways and driveways free of ice and snow.
Take advantage of natural light. As much as possible, show your home during the high-daylight hours. If you show your home after work in the winter, you’ll be completely in the dark and potential home buyers won’t be able to see how your landscaping adds to the curb appeal of your home. If you must show your home at night in the winter months, turn on all the lights so your home glows and invites potential home buyers from the street.
Play up seasonal scents. Set the scene and help the buyers see themselves living happily in your home. Consider placing a basket of cinnamon-scented pine cones by the entryway. Once potential home buyers are inside, offer them apple cider or hot chocolate. At this time of year, appeal to the senses that make potential home buyers feel cozy and warm, like they have found a ôhome.ö
Put lights on timers. You can’t be home all the time and you want your home to look warm and welcoming whenever prospective buyers drive past. Put indoor and outdoor lights on timers. Inspect the outdoor lighting around the door. Is there enough light to make it feel inviting and safe? If not, get the fixtures changed or have new ones added.
Prune deciduous shrubs and trees. In winter, while deciduous trees and shrubs are dormant and without leaves, is the best time to prune. Don’t let overgrown vegetation block the windows or path to the entrance. Cutting back shrubs and tree limbs will let the sun inside and showcase the exterior of your home. Be cautious, though, and don’t overdo it! No potential home buyer wants to see a tree with lopped off branches. If you don’t understand proper pruning, hire a home staging service or experienced arborist to tackle this important landscaping task.
Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in the Fall
Home sales tend to slow down during the fall when kids go back to school and temperatures start to drop. If you’re selling your home in the fall, you need to take extra measures to stage your home and make it stand out above others on the market. If you’re home-staging to sell your house in the fall, consider the following landscaping ideas to sell your home:
Stay on top of raking, raking, and more raking. The landscaping needed to sell your home in the fall involves both color and persistence. Fall color can add the curb appeal needed when it comes to the all-important “first impression.” Deciduous trees, like Katsura or Japanese maple, turning shades of crimson and gold, can add extra appeal to the total look of your home’s exterior. Leaves strewn across your front yard, however, can decrease your home’s visual appeal. You need both fall color and dedicated maintenance to give your home the curb appeal needed to sell your home in the fall.
Celebrate the season. Add a fall wreath to the front door or place a few huge pumpkins or a fall display on your front entryway to welcome potential home buyers.
Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in the Summer
Keep your lawn maintained. Brown patches on lawns ruin the effect of a beautiful garden, so keep grass as green as possible. If you’ve tackled the lawn maintenance tips offered above and you’re still stuck with a brown patch as potential home buyers are about to arrive, strategically place some garden furniture or a birdbath on top of those unsightly lawn blemishes.
Make your landscape feel like an exterior room. Clear patio paving of any debris and use outdoor furniture to make your backyard space feel like an inviting oasis. If you’re having an open house, place an aluminum bucket of ice full of bottled water at the entryway.
Landscaping Ideas to Sell Your Home in Spring
Spring is the best time to sell a home. Inventory almost always rises in the spring, because the largest number of potential home buyers actively searching for a new home occurs during the months of April, May and June.
If your home has been on the market since the holidays, consider taking it off the market for a few weeks and then putting it back on the market. Nobody is going to look at your home in the spring if it’s been on the market for several months. Potential home buyers gravitate toward fresh, new listings.
Here are some landscaping ideas to sell your home in spring:
Mow diagonally and edge your lawn along driveways, sidewalks, and planting beds. Manicured lawns and edging tell potential home buyers you pay attention to small details and care about the maintenance of your home. Mowing diagonally creates an optical illusion and makes your lawn seem larger.
Transplant tulips and daffodils or buy flowers in containers. Yellow stimulate buying urges. After a long winter, potential home buyers are anxious to see the first signs of spring. Yellow tulips and daffodils induce feelings of happiness and contentment. Arrange containers in a grouping of three near the entrance.
Place a welcome mat out for cleaning shoes and an umbrella stand at the entryway. When it comes to weather, spring can be very unpredictable. In some areas, one day it can be 75 degrees and snowing the next. If it’s raining, give potential home buyers a place to stash umbrellas and wipe their feet before entering your home.
Curb appeal can do a lot of your marketing for you. Utilize all of these landscaping ideas to sell your home and you will be showing your home to its fullest potential!
Last week, I discovered a wonderful place for camping, hiking, horse-back riding and fishing almost in my backyard, i.e., within an hour’s drive from my home in Ridgway. It’s Woods Lake, found at the end of Fall Creek road off Highway 145 between Placerville and Telluride. Annabel and I went mid-week, so it was really uncrowded, and the few people we encountered were friendly and happy fellow campers. We didn’t bring our horses this trip, but certainly checked out the adjoining horse campground for future reference. We (well, Annabel) even managed to catch a couple of fish, and I took multitudes of photos of all the beautiful wild flowers. Below is a video of our trip so you can enjoy virtually this wonderful location. We’ll be back!
Baby boomers, baby boomers, baby boomers; we all hear this term over and over again. So who are the baby boomers? Baby boomers are people in the United States who were born between 1946 and 1964. Approximately 78.2 million people fall into this category.
As a group, baby boomers comprise the largest population cohort in the history of the United States. The size of the group gives it vast influence over American politics, popular cultural, and of course, real estate. To evaluate the influence of the baby boomers on the future of real estate, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) conducted a study in 2006. The findings of the research were published in report entitled Baby Boomers and Real Estate: Today and Tomorrow. Below are some highlights from the NAR study.
AGE DISTRIBUTION
According to the NAR report, baby boomers now range in age from 42 to 60 years old. The typical baby boomer is 50 years old, and the oldest of the baby boomers turned 60 in 2006. About 46% of baby boomers are in their 40s, and about 25% are at least 55 years old.
HOUSEHOLD INCOME
As a group, baby boomers are in their peak earning years. In 2005, baby boomers had a household income of $64,700, and about 25% them had a household income of at least $100,000 per year.
HOME OWNERSHIP
About 78% of baby boomers own a home, which is higher than the national ownership rate of 69%. About 96% of baby boomers believe that home ownership is a good financial investment.
FUTURE REAL ESTATE PURCHASES
About 10%, or 7.8 million of all baby boomers, said they were likely to purchase additional real estate in the next 12 months. Of these potential buyers, two-thirds were planning on buying a primary residence, 26% want to buy land, 19% want rental property, 15% want a vacation home or seasonal home, and 14% want a commercial property.
WHAT FEATURES ATTRACT BOOMERS
When baby boomers were asked about what features are most important to them, 38% wanted a lower cost of living, 38% wanted to be near family, 38% wanted easy access to quality health care, 37% wanted a better climate, and 36% wanted to be near a body of water.
PREFERRED COMMUNITY AMENITIES
When baby boomers were asked about the type of community amenities that interest them most, about 18% wanted to be near cultural offerings, 9% wanted to be closer to their family, 4% wanted to be on a golf course, and 3% wanted easy access to educational facilities.
WHERE DO BOOMERS WANT TO RETIRE
When baby boomers were asked about where they want to retire, 33% of them want to retire in a rural area, 30% in a small town, 25% in a suburban area, and only 12% in an urban community.
BOOMERS AND THEIR REAL ESTATE AGENTS
Baby boomers consistently use the services of a real estate agent. Approximately 60% of home buyers and 79% of home sellers used a real estate agent in their last transaction.
SUMMARY
The baby boomers have had and will continue to have a significant impact on the real estate market. As the boomers near retirement, they continue to value real estate and will continue to invest in properties and land. Real estate agents would be well served to understand what baby boomers want in terms of their real estate investments, and design strategies that target the needs of this enormous population cohort. For more information, read the NAR report entitled, Baby Boomers and Real Estate: Today and Tomorrow
Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/baby-boomers-will-drive-real-estate-growth-87235.html#ixzz0peKzrDs6
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Original Picture Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronescobar/2179228774/














For the Best Shopping in Montrose, Colorado–Murdoch’s!
By Ninah Hunter on March 27th, 2011
Montrose, Colorado is not exactly known for its shopping, as in mall shopping, so it’s a good thing I’m not much of a shopper. We do have of a few big box stores, like WalMart and Home Depot. And in recent years, we’ve seen the addition of a couple of new shopping centers, Oxbow Crossing and River Landing, which has Target, J.C. Penney, Sports Authority and the Natural Grocer. Oxbow Crossing is a mix of specialty stores and restaurants, along with a couple of fitness centers and, particular favorites of mine, The Liquor Store and Cold Stone Creamery ice cream shop. But believe it or not, my most favorite place to shop in Montrose is . . . drum roll . . . Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply!
If you’re new to Montrose, Colorado, or even just visiting, be sure to stop into this store. It has, in fact, a great inventory of ranch equipment and supplies. So, it’s a great place to see real cowboys and ranch hands. But Murdoch’s offers so much more, esp
ecially for the homeowner: patio furniture, garden supplies and yard art, portable fire pits, fencing and supplies, garden equipment and tools. For the handyman, they have a fine array of power tools and hardware. Murdoch’s carries all your horse supplies, including a pretty good assortment of tack. Cats and dogs and other small animals are well represented in the pet section. You can even buy your baby chicks in season at Murdoch’s in Montrose.
Murdoch’s also has a wonderful gift department with beautiful western style jewelry, pottery, paintings and prints, blankets, handbags, greeting cards, and other knick-knacks. Murdoch’s is definitely the place to go to get yourself outfitted in western apparel, whether you’re the real McCoy or just an urban cowboy. And there are plenty of both in Montrose, Colorado. Actually, Murdoch’s to me is a rather good reflection of the wonderfully rural, active, and diverse lifestyle we lead on the Colorado Western Slope. It is also all I need in one-stop shopping. And for those of you for whom it is not, well, there is always Mesa Mall in Grand Junction.
~Ninah
Thinking of visiting or relocating to Montrose, CO? Learn more at NinahHunter.com.