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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Landscaping Makes A Difference At Home


As the weather improves, each of us will begin to do some possible updates and/or improvements to our home. If there was one particular thing done to your home this year that would make a difference, what would it be?

I have given this question some thought. Some of us may do a lot of entertaining, but a lot of people only get to see the exterior of your home. When a home is listed, buyers will typically drive by a home they might be interested in. Buyers sometimes make assumptions on the overall condition of the home based on what they see outside. If the exterior of the home looks neglected and in need of cleaning up, then does the rest of the home?

That leads me to the answer of the question in the beginning of this article. The one particular thing that I would recommend doing to your home this year is sprucing up your landscaping on the exterior of your home. Clean up any trash, old toys, old empty plant pots, etc. Weed around any existing landscaping. Clean up around the exterior, and then plant some new flowers and possibly some new shrubs, but most of all spread out new mulch.

I usually recommend using either black or red mulch since it seems to stand out from the street. Some homeowners also use other types of material around their home such as river rock, lava rock, etc. Whether your home is for sale or not, your home will stand out and look clean when someone drives by. Nobody will know whether you cleaned up the interior of the home and put away the laundry that particular day when driving by, but they will know if you have not done anything to the outside of your home in a while. There are various landscaping companies that can help you with this task if you need it.

This advice can help make a difference whether you plan on selling your home or not. Also, this type of improvement to your home can be done with little expense when compared to larger improvements, but can go a long way in making your home stand out. I hope that this tidbit helps in making a difference at your home.

Todd Nelson is a Realtor with Old Colony Realtors. For more information, call 304-634-7993 or e-mail toddandtaranelson@gmail.com.