Make your yard pop

As a home-seller, it can be tempting to let your yard go just a little bit as spring approaches.  It’s easy to justify it – you tell yourself that it won’t be your yard much longer, so what’s the use of keeping it up like you did before?  While the logic is understandable, a serious home-seller must banish these thoughts from their mind and replace them with these words: “If my home is on the market, and I want it to sell faster, my yard must be the best on the block”. 

I firmly believe that sellers must adopt this mantra to be able to survive in this market.  In my experience, and I know I’m not the only one, I pay a LOT more attention to the homes that have stellar curb appeal.  The problem is when we think that the curb appeal that we have is enough.  In this market, it’s not enough.  It has to be better if you want the buyer to get out of their car at your house instead of the house across the street. 

Buyers love to drive around and look.  It’s that time of year. Chances are, they have not seen interior photos of any of the homes they drive by, so you have to really stop them in thier tracks.  Make your yard completely weed free.  Edge the lawn to create clean, neat lines.  Go out and get some fertilizer and green up the lawn as much as you can.  Keep your trees and bushes pruned neatly so they gon’t get in the way of any appealing parts of the home.  And just like you would de-clutter inside your home, do the same outside – no toys, hoses, wheelbarrows, or anything else like that lying around in plain view.

You may also need to touch up some paint that looks bad, or repair the concrete that was damaged during the winter.  You don’t need to spend a lot of money to bring out a landscaper (if you can, that’s great) – you just need to take your yard’s existing assets and play them up to perfection. 

I can’t over-emphasize this.  Make your home’s exterior and your yard pop.  Don’t make potential buyers imagine how the yard COULD look – make it look perfect now and you’ll get more people to get out of their cars. 

Tags: curb appeal, landscaping, real estate, home yard maintenance

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Join Bloggers Unite

Blogging, when used properly, can be a powerful thing. Bloggers can create controversy, they can educate, and they can make a difference. I might not have the most inspiring blog in the blogosphere, but I feel that I can still offer something of value to my audience.

With that in mind, bloggers everywhere will have the chance on May 15th to unite to make a difference. The challenge is simple: on that day, bloggers are asked to write a post about some human rights issue that they feel passionate about. The Bloggers Unite site has a few ideas, but you can come up with anything you feel is important. When thousands of bloggers unite for a good cause such as this, there is no doubt that they will be heard.

I know I get some fellow blogger visits at my blog, but some visitors probably haven’t gotten into it yet. For those of you who do not maintain a blog, I encourage you to suggest to me, or any other blogger that you like, any topic that you would like to see covered. If you want to participate yourself, I’d encourage you to start your own blog before May 15th. It’s easy at Wordpress.com, or Blogger.com.
To you already bloggers, you can just participate.

So visit their site and click on sign up or register.

Tags: Bloggers Unite, Human Rights, Blog, responsible blogging

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You can now search for Utah real estate on TheUtahRealEstateBlog

Since this is a real estate blog, I’ve decided to add a ‘Search For Homes’ option in my far right sidebar. I’m by no means doing anything radical, but I realize that most people out there looking for real estate websites like to be able to view homes too. I mean, there’s only so much of my writing that somebody could stand.

So head on over to the right of your screen and click on little mountain icon that says ‘Wasatch Front Home Search’. I have also added some featured listings and other real estate resources for a more complete real estate blog/website experience.

I hope you like the new feature!

Tags: Salt Lake City Utah homes,Utah home search,Wasatch Front MLS, Utah real estate, real estate

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Oil and Art in the Great Salt Lake

Not that it has anything to do with real estate, the debate over oil drilling by the Spiral Jetty is one that has caught my attention.

The Spiral Jetty is that big spiral rock formation on the Great Salt Lake created by Robert Smithson in 1970. It is pictured in the upper left corner of this post. The debate, if you haven’t heard already, has been raging since a Canadian oil company requested a permit to drill for oil just a short distance away from the jetty.

It is a proven fact that there is oil in the lake, but that’s not the issue to the anti-drilling crowd. They argue that an oil platform would disrupt the natural feel of the area around the artwork. The Spiral Jetty is, after all, recognized by art lovers around the world as a masterpiece. To do anything that would disturb the ambiance for art-loving visitors would naturally cause an uproar.

This issue is a difficult one for me. I love art and natural beauty, but I also recognize that the western United States has an enormous amount of oil underground that could be used to reduce dependence on certain foreign nations. Since I’m a Utahn, I have even more of an affinity to the Great Salt Lake and it’s beauty. Ideally we wouldn’t have to drill if we lived in a more energy efficient nation, but the fact is we don’t.

I believe that the oil platform would only be about 16×16 feet and six feet high, so it might not even be that big of an eyesore. For me, the further away from the Jetty that they can drill, and the smaller the platform, the better.

Do you agree or disagree? What do you think?

Tags: Spiral Jetty,Robert Smithson, Great Salt Lake Spiral Jetty, Spiral Jetty oil drilling, Salt Lake City

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