Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Spring into Mulch-imizing your Curb Appeal ... Dallas and Collin County

HAPPY 1ST DAY of SPRING!!!  

It's time to get our yards back to beautiful, which if you're thinking of SELLING your house is a must to maximize your home's Curb Appeal! One way to do that is to add MULCH to your planters, trees and flower beds. According to Menards Garden Center, the many benefits of MULCH include:




• Completes the look of your yard or flower bed
• Acts as a natural weed control
• Maintains moisture levels in your soil, protecting from over and under watering
• Acts as a barrier to fluctuating temperatures that can cause damage or death to your plants
• Plant-based mulch adds nutrients back into the soil as it decomposes
• Helps cool plant roots 

Speaking of MULCH, did you know the City of Garland's Hinton Regional Landfill and Wood Recycling Facility, offers FREE MULCH to anybody who'd like some?!? You read that right!

The Hinton Landfill has a Recycling Center that does "Wood Recycling" which consists of cut brush and trees that the Residents of the City of Garland & City of Rowlett have picked up from their residence. The Wood Recycling shreds/chips the collected Brush and Trees into MULCH.

So how much MULCH can you get, as much as you want! It's a self-serve area, meaning you need to bring your own tools to collect the MULCH and the container for it, which typically is the bed of a truck.

The MULCH is located at the Recycling Center inside the Hinton Regional Landfill. At the gate, turn right and it's at the end of building sitting in a trailer. 



Now before going all MULCH crazy in your yards, here are a few tips I learned from the Menards Gardening Center ...
  • Remove as much of the old layers of MULCH as possible before you add more.
  • Your MULCH should never be more than three inches thick in a planting bed.
  • You should also apply MULCH in the winter, after the 1st freeze, to keep the ground uniformly cold to keep plants dormant and to keep the soil temperature from fluctuating when we have those random winter warm spells. 

Happy Spring everyone and thank you very MULCH City of Garland Environmental Services!  (Pun intended) 

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Let me know if I can help you or your family/friends with any Real Estate needs. Please know that I am never too busy for you or your referral & I would honor the chance to earn the business!

If there's a neighborhood that you'd like more information on in Rowlett, Heath, Rockwall, Garland, Mesquite, Fate, Royse City, Wylie, Sachse, or Murphy, simply Email me or go to my Website to request a personal Home Search.   If you're thinking about Selling your home and would like to find out how much your home is worth in the current market, simply go to my Website to fill out the form.

Thursday, January 3, 2019

New Home Owners: Apply for Your Homestead Exemption - Save Money on Property Taxes

If you bought a house last year, it's time to make your New Year even better by Saving Money!!! 

That's right, save some money! Between January 1st - April 30th, you can apply for your Homestead Exemption! You might remember hearing about this exemption at your closing. The Homestead Exemption can help you save money on your property taxes by reducing the taxable value of your property! In order to qualify for the Residential Homestead Exemption, you must be occupying the property as your homestead on January 1st of the tax year in which the exemption is granted. 

The process of filing the Homestead Exemption is FREE and very easy - just visit the (see list below) where you can print off a form to fill out. It doesn't take much time at all. Be sure that when you apply for exemptions that the address on your Driver's License or ID Card matches the property on the application or your application/request will be denied.

***Beware ... there are "companies" out there that will solicit you and tell you that they'll file the exemption on your behalf and of course there'll be a charge for it! But remember that YOU can do it for FREE. If you ever have any questions as to the validity of one of these solicitations just give me a call.
In addition to the Homestead Exemption, you might also qualify for: Disabled Individual Exemption, Agricultural Land Exemption, Disabled Veteran Exemption and/or the Over 65 Exemption.

Have a blessed 2019 and don't forget...I'm never too busy for any of your referrals!


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Let me know if I can help you or your family/friends with any Real Estate needs. Please know that I am never too busy for you or your referral & I would honor the chance to earn the business!

If there's a neighborhood that you'd like more information on simply Email me EMAIL me or go to my Website to request a personal Home Search.   If you're thinking about Selling your home and would like to find out how much your home is worth in the current market, simply go to my Website to fill out the form. 

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

New Year's Resolution ... Be a Better Earthly Neighbor

Happy New Year everyone! Well, with the holidays now behind us, it's time to start tackling our "Resolutions".
This year, I'm making a consented effort to do more to lessen my families "Foot Print" on our 1 and only Earth. In my end of year reflection, I realized that what I do to the Earth affect all of you and vice versa, and I can do more to be a better Earthly neighbor. My family's small lifestyle changes can have a big impact on the planet. So with that being said, here's some ways I found on how to be kinder to our Earth that might be helpful to you as well.

I'm committing to the three “R’s”: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
  • Reduce ... I'm going to try to Reduce the items we purchase
  • Reuse ... I'm going to try to Reuse items that we have for as long as we can and even try to "Upcycle" items or Refurbish them into other items
  • Recycle ... I'm going to work to recycle more than I do. The following items are able to be thrown into your Recycle Bin:


In researching the Recycling programs that are around Lake Ray Hubbard, I'm happy & thankful that the Cities of Garland, Rowlett, Rockwall, Wylie, Sachse and Murphy have a recycling programs and "Curb-Side" pick up for recycling. If you're in "aGREENment" (as the City of Rockwall says), click on the following links to find out more about your cities Recycling Program.
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Let me know if I can help you or your family/friends with any Real Estate needs. Please know that I am never too busy for you or your referral & I would honor the chance to earn the business!

If there's a neighborhood that you'd like more information on in Rowlett, Heath, Rockwall, Garland, Mesquite, Fate, Royse City, Wylie, Sachse, or Murphy, simply Email me or go to my Website to request a personal Home Search.   If you're thinking about Selling your home and would like to find out how much your home is worth in the current market, simply go to my Website to fill out the form.