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.

5 Easy Ways to Get Your Home Ready to Sell

Are you thinking about or planning to SELL your Home? If so, here's a quick list of FIVE things you should do to get your home ready to hit the market AND for Home Buyers to fall in love with your home! 

This list of FIVE things you should do to get your home ready to SELL are the comments that I most often hear from Home Buyers:

• Declutter ... This is a difficult thing to tackle but one that is very beneficial and won't cost any money to do! The key focus on Decluttering is to open up spaces so Home Buyers can see themselves living in your home and can picture their stuff in all the rooms. By removing all or most personal pictures and mementos will help Home Buyers visualize their belongings in your house. In addition, remove bulky and excessive furniture ... go with the mantra, "Less is More". When going through this process, you'll essentially be starting your Packing, which is a positive sign to Home Buyers that you are serious about selling. It is ok to move the extra furniture and packed boxes into the garage, just keep it all organized and to one side of the garage.  

• Flooring ... Carpet has been a big turn off for many buyers in the past 5 years. If your home has Carpet in the living areas (living room, sitting room/den, dining room, study) you might want to consider installing Hardwood Floors. For the bedrooms, Carpet is still desired. For the rooms with carpet, I recommend having the carpet "pulled" to take out any lumps, replace the padding to provide nice cushion if carpet is more than 10 years old, and definitely get it Professionally Cleaned. Remember, you want your home to put it's best foot forward. 

• Paint Walls ... It's a good idea and a very inexpensive one at that, to give your Interior Walls a fresh coat of paint. Neutral walls painted Beige, Light Grays, and Whites will attract Home Buyers. If you don't feel like doing the whole house, do the walls that are in high traffic areas or had lots of things hanging on them or furniture up against them. Please Please Please ... if you have any loud walls, paint them - this is a huge turn off for Home Buyers! *Be sure that if you paint, to not just do touch ups, do the whole wall so it doesn't look, well ... touched up.

• Curb Appeal ... This is very important since it's the 1st thing Home Buyers see when they get to your house. Simple things to do would be to remove all the weeds and dead plants/shurbs, add fresh mulch to your flower and tree beds, trim all bushes, plants seasonal flowers or have potted flowers and if needed, pressure wash the driveway and front walkway.

•  Garage ... Through the years, the garage typically becomes a place for stuff that you're not using and to be honest, stuff you will unlikely use ever again. It's a good idea to get a good binge cleaning done in there (as well as closets throughout your house) and then neatly organize it. Remember, the goal is to get your house Market Ready and you want Home Buyers to see ALL the SPACE your house has for their stuff!

Once you have finished these FIVE things to get your Home Ready to SELL, how about inviting your friends over as pretend Home Buyers.  Have them anonymously write down things that they like and things that might turn them off as a buyer. Remember, your goal is to get your home ready for Buyers to fall in love with it so take their comments with a grain of salt ... on your Margarita (LOL). Then from that list, you know where to focus your attention and money! Also, talk with your Realtor over which additional items would be a good Return of Investment to do.

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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.