Tag: Landscaping

Cost-Effective Improvements to Help Your Home Sell Better

When it comes to improving your home to sell for more money, there are several improvements that experience has taught us can make a significant impact. Here’s our checklist for you:

1. Enhance curb appeal: First impressions matter, so focus on improving the exterior of your home. Trim the lawn, prune bushes, plant flowers, and add fresh mulch. (I have a vendor to recommend for yard cleanup.) Our handyman can repaint the front door, clean windows, and handle other cosmetic repairs.

2. Declutter and deep clean: Clean and clutter-free homes appear more spacious and are appealing to buyers. We can recommend a professional house cleaner, and we provide a free staging consultation to guide you on the rest. Pay special attention to kitchens and bathrooms.

3. Repaint and touch up: A fresh coat of paint can give your home a renewed look. Stick to neutral colors that have broad appeal. Our handyman can patch any holes and deal with peeling paint. Ensure that all surfaces are clean and well-maintained.

4. Upgrade lighting: Good lighting makes your home brighter and more inviting. Replace incandescent and CFL bulbs with LEDs. Focus on key areas such as the kitchen, living room, and bathrooms. (Batteries + Bulbs has great deals on LEDs.)

5. Improve your home’s energy efficiency: Buyers favor energy-efficient homes. Consider installing weatherstripping, sealing air leaks, and adding insulation if needed. Upgrading to energy-efficient appliances, such as refrigerators and water heaters, can also be appealing. We can guide you on this and recommend honest vendors.

6. Update kitchen and bathrooms: If a major renovation is not feasible, focus on small updates such as replacing cabinet hardware, upgrading faucets, and installing new light fixtures. Consider painting or refinishing cabinets. Flooring is important, too!

7. Enhance storage: Ample storage space is so important! Increase the functionality of closets and cabinets by adding organizers or shelves. Our staging consultant can provide guidance on this topic, too.

8. Improve landscaping: Clean up flower beds, and consider some strategic landscaping improvements such as a patio.

9. Address minor repairs: Our handyman (available only to clients) can fix any visible issues like leaky faucets, broken tiles, or squeaky doors. It’s important to fix what I call “eyesores” — anything that draws negative attention during a showing.

10. Stage strategically: Our stager can help you rearrange furniture to maximize space, remove personal items, and add tasteful decorations.

Hiring Golden Real Estate is a good first step. Like our handyman, our free stager is a benefit that comes with hiring us, but even before hiring us — in other words, during a listing appointment — my broker associates and I are happy to provide our own advice based on our years of experience listing and selling homes. Call us! Our phone number is 303-302-3636 or email info@GoldenRealEstate.com.

Now That Spring Is Here, Homeowners Turn Their Attention to Lawn Care and Landscaping

Last week’s column devoted just one paragraph to landscape improvements that might add value to your home. This week I’ll address the topic at greater length and with less of a focus on improving the resale value of your home.

Rita and I sold our Golden home last year and moved to Avenida Lakewood (now called Solana Lakewood, under new owners), but I retain several ideas and opinions to share about the topic of landscaping and lawn care.

For lawn care, I hired a company to mow my lawn, but prior to that I purchased a corded electric lawn mower. Lowe’s and Ace Hardware have the franchise for EGO battery electric lawn mowers, which I have heard from others are the best. EGO makes many battery-powered yard tools, all of which use the same interchangeable battery. They have edgers, string trimmers, chainsaws, riding and push mowers, snowblowers, leaf blowers, you-name-it. Check out all the EGO products at www.EGOPowerPlus.com. 

Consider for a moment how much quieter your neighborhood would be in the spring, summer and fall if everyone used electric yard tools! Also, it’s well documented that small gas engines are major contributors to air pollution and climate change. According to the EPA, small  gas-powered equipment such as lawn mowers and leaf blowers emit 242 million tons of pollutants annually — as much as cars and homes.

As water bills increase, homeowners are wondering whether perhaps they should replace their Kentucky bluegrass lawns with something that requires less watering. I replaced my lawn with a slower growing sod, but it still required a lot of water. In retrospect I think buffalo grass would have been a better choice. Check with your water utility. The Colorado Water Conservation Board is providing funds to replace lawns, with rebates up to $1/sq.ft. Visit www.EngageCWCB.org.

(Wouldn’t it be smart of CDOT to install buffalo grass on all highway medians and shoulders?)

Xeriscaping is a good solution too, but I can’t imagine dog owners and parents of young children wanting to eliminate grassy backyards for their pets and children.

Hardscaping is another matter. This refers to installing patios, retaining walls and walking paths, as well as occasional boulders. An “outdoor kitchen” is a great enhancement which you’ll enjoy yourself and will ultimately help sell your home. For this you might want to hire a landscaping company. I can recommend one or two if you call me, but I suggest you use Google first and interview multiple companies. Although we considered it, we never hired a landscaping company, so any recommendations I make would not be based on personal experience.

My house, like many Golden homes, was encircled by juniper bushes, but those are a fire hazard and should be nowhere near your home in case of an approaching wildfire. I noticed recently that the new owner of my Golden home had pulled out all the junipers, and she told me that it was for that reason.

Trees are great, but you need to be mindful about which species you plant and where. On the south side of your house, you want to plant deciduous trees, which will shade your home in the summer but allow the sun into your home during the winter. Limit evergreens to the north side of your house, and choose trees that won’t shade your south-facing roof as they mature if you have or plan to install solar panels.

Please share your own landscaping ideas with me, and maybe I’ll feature them in a future column. Thanks, and happy spring!