6 Landscaping Tricks That Wow Buyers

By Barbara Ballinger | April 2009, www.realtormag.com




Landscape designer Michael Glassman has cooked up a recipe for guaranteed curb appeal.

1. Add splashes of color. With every changing season, a landscape should provide a new display of colors, textures, and fragrances. "It’s best to use one or two and repeat them," Glassman says. Example: white iceberg roses that bloom in spring, summer, and fall as a backdrop; in front, a contrasting punch of purple salvia or lavender that will flower at the same time; and as an accent, a crape myrtle tree that provides changing leaf colors in fall and interesting branches come winter.

2. Size trees and shrubs to scale. These should be planted in the right scale for the house so that they don’t block windows, doors, and other architectural features on the home’s facade. A large two-story house can handle a redwood, Chinese pistache, sycamore, or scarlet oak, but a one-story cottage is better paired with a flowering cherry, crabapple, or eastern redbud. Too many trees cast too much shadow and cause potential buyers to worry about maintenance and costs.

3. Maintain a perfect lawn. A velvety green lawn demonstrates tender loving care, so be sure sellers’ homes don’t have brown spots. Some rocks, pebbles, boulders, drought-tolerant plants, and ornamental grasses will generate more kudos, especially in drought areas.

4. Light up the outside. Good illumination allows buyers to see a home at night and adds drama. Sellers should use low-voltage lamps to highlight branches of specimen trees, a front door, walk, and corners of the house. But less is better. The yard shouldn’t resemble an airport runway.

5. Let them hear the water. The sound of water appeals to buyers, and you shouldn’t just reserve this for your backyard. A small fountain accented with rocks provides a pleasant gurgling sound, blocks street noise, and is affordable.

6. Use decorative architectural elements. A new mailbox, planted window boxes, and a low fence wrapped in potato vines add cachet, particularly during winter months when fewer plants blossom. Colors should complement the landscape and home. Just don’t overdo it: Too much can seem like kitschy lawn ornaments.

Bike Ride to Llano, Texas

On Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, we took a rare day off to enjoy a ride to Llano, TX with Chapter P of the Gold Wing Rode Riders Association.



Gary serves as the Treasurer of the Chapter, which meets the second Thursday of each month at Springcreek Barbeque in Granbury.

Record Snow!

Here's a picture we took of our backyard last weekend. It started snowing non-stop around 3 a.m. Thursday morning. Gary was outside shoveling snow the next day!

Some would have laughed at us bringing a snow shovel from Wisconsin, but we were forward thinking - and it makes a great leaf pan!

According to the National Weather Service, as much as 11 inches of snow fell on North Texas on Thursday.

Five Factors That Decide Your Credit Score

Greater Metro West Association of REALTORS® Resource Guide

Credit scores range between 200 and 800, with scores above 620 considered desirable for obtaining a mortgage. The following affect your score:

1. Your payment history. Did you pay your credit card obligations on time? If they were late, then how late? Bankruptcy filing, liens, and collection activity also impact your history.

2. How much you owe. If you owe a great deal of money on numerous accounts, it can indicate that you are overextended. However, it’s a good thing if you have a good proportion of balances to total credit limits.

3. The length of your credit history. In general, the longer you have had accounts opened, the better. The average customer’s oldest obligation is 14 years old, indicating that he or she has been managing credit for some time, according to Fair Isaac Corp., and only one in 20 consumers have credit histories shorter than two years.

4. How much new credit you have. New credit, either installment payments or new credit cards, are considered more risky, even if you pay them promptly.

5. The types of credit you use. Generally, it’s desirable to have more than one type of credit – installment loans, credit cards, and a mortgage, for example.

Curb Appeal: How's That View?

By Barbara Ballinger
Realtor Magazine



Sellers today are walking their property in buyers’ shoes—and giving their exterior all-around appeal. Here are 10 ways to add exterior flair.

1. Mobile gardens
One way to extend gardening enjoyment is to plant in pots, which can be easily carried or wheeled indoors when weather turns chilly. What goes into the pots can vary from flowers to vegetables, herbs, and ornamental grasses.

2. Ground cover and ornamental grasses instead of lawn
More home owners are looking for alternatives to high-maintenance, water-guzzling lawns. "Sustainability is the buzzword in yard care," says John Algozzini, director of design and creative services at Kinsella Landscape, in Blue Island, Ill. Practical suggestions from his colleague, landscape architect Erin Canterbury, are bella bluegrass, Legacy and Prestige buffalo grass, creeping lily turf (Liriope spicata), barren strawberry, and low-growing thyme.

3. Vegetable gardens
Choose a sunny spot; include vegetable favorites, a few new types (600 variations of heirloom tomato seeds are listed at www.heirloomtomatoes.bizland.com), some herbs, edible flowers, and a border to keep it all looking neat, and you’ve got a vegetable garden to rival Michelle Obama’s at the White House. To keep animals away, carefully pick plants they’re not interested in or use sprays that send them scurrying yet don’t hurt the edibles, says landscape architect Clara C. Batchelor, principal of CBA Landscape Architects in Somerville, Mass. Deer, for instance, tend to avoid blue and northern sea oat grass and liriope.

4. Adventurous path to the door
Even if it’s a short walk to the front door, it doesn’t have to be boring. Handsome natural materials, such as brick or slate, or one of the new resilient perennials that tolerate foot traffic well can be accented at the beginning, end, or along the way with attractive plants or sculpture to create an aesthetically pleasing journey. Algozzini thinks a rectilinear walk with a few right angles offers more adventure than a curved one; he softens straight lines with plants that feather over edges. Canterbury likes to introduce a curve or two, maybe with a fountain or bench, for a pause.

5. Small topiaries and dwarf trees
Artistic and charming, small topiaries and dwarf trees can be paired or used in a grouping in front of a walkway, door, or architectural feature to lend a more formal mood, says landscape designer Michael Glassman of Sacramento, Calif. The downside: more maintenance and thus greater expense, says Van Zandt. Almost horizontal Mary Potter crabapple trees are among Van Zandt’s favorites because they’re "super showy in spring and loaded with berries."

6. Year-round color, texture, and shape
Enjoyment of trees, shrubs, flowers, and ground cover shouldn’t be limited to spring and summer when flowers bloom and greenery grows lush. The right choices display vivid leaf colors, plump berries, interesting bark, and sculptural branches all year. Van Zandt recommends ornamental grasses since they grow in a range of colors from green, blue, reddish purple, or buff in spring and summer to red, orange, or tan in fall. They also require minimal care. Cut them down in early spring, and they’ll start to grow and flourish, says Batchelor.

7. Mature trees
Trees take time to mature, but home owners who need instant curb appeal are in luck. Many nurseries have recently had excess crop, which allows them to lower their prices for what has traditionally been an expensive garden choice, says Algozzini. A caveat to sellers, he says: Consider how much taller a tree will grow, since you don’t want it blocking sunlight or views of the house from the curb, or of the exterior from inside. When planting trees, leave room between them for future growth and pick those with a final height that fits the yard and home’s scale, adds Canterbury.

8. Mix of hardscape materials
With the unmatched look considered chic in interior decor, it was only a matter of time before the trend flourished outdoors. Why have only brick when you could pair it with limestone? Landscape design pros recommend complementary materials that share a common denominator—perhaps scale, color, or texture—and limiting the number of materials, since too many confuse a display. Algozzini suggests borrowing a choice or two from a home’s exterior.

9. Architectural features
Outdoor architectural components can add a focal point in the way that fireplaces, columns, and arches do inside. Outside possibilities run the gamut: fireplaces, fire pits, birdbaths, fountains, pergolas, and gazebos. How large and how many to include depend on the size of the yard, house, and budget, says Batchelor. But, "better too few than too many, which may distract the eye," she says.

10. Natural ponds
Ponds today are constructed to look more natural than in the past, with freeform shapes, carefully arranged indigenous rock-rimmed borders, unstructured water-loving plants, koi fish, and adjacent stream beds. Many ponds nowadays are also equipped with an autofill feature so home owners don’t have to fill a pond with a hose, possibly stressing fish.