A Landscaping Plan for Curb Appeal

The best landscaping plans usually don’t start in the garden, they start with a great layout. Some careful planning can help you maximize your enjoyment and avoid costly mistakes.

► Map it out. Start by mapping out all your property’s green space. Whether you do it on your own, or opt for some landscape planning software, it’s worth the effort to set out your plan before you buy.

► Sun or shade. Take note of what areas receive sun at different times of day and then designate the areas by three categories: full sun, partial sun and full shade. This will help you choose plants that are likely to thrive in each area.

► Consider sight lines. Are there views you want to obscure, or areas where you’d like more privacy? What plants or screening are needed for these goals? What about the views from your home’s interior? These are the areas that are worthy of extra attention, or a special feature.

► A Question of Balance: Perennials are a good investment, returning year after year. However, they tend to have a relatively short blooming time, so you can balance that effect by adding in some colourful annuals for impact.

An attractive landscaping plan may even help to improve the resale value of your home. And, as your Coldwell Banker real estate professional will advise, if you’re thinking resale, start your landscaping efforts at the front of the house, to increase your curb appeal.

Buying tips for an active market

An active housing market is usually good news for the seller, while buyers often find their choices are limited. When demand is higher than supply, the result may even be ‘bidding wars’. However, your Coldwell Banker sales professional can tell you there are several tips to keep in mind that can help you make a successful buy.

When you’re ready to buy a home, get your finances in order first. Get pre-approved for a mortgage. Your Coldwell Banker representative can help you in this process. Having one less condition on your offer, going into negotiations with your financing pre-approved will make your offer appealing. Especially if your competition isn’t so well prepared!

Another way to make your offer more appealing is to accommodate the seller’s terms as much as possible. For example, if the seller wants a different closing date than you’d prefer, measure its importance against the value of presenting a clean offer, without changes for the seller to object to. Sometimes what may be a minor consideration to you has great importance to the seller. It’s particularly important when you remember that if any aspect of an offer is rejected or revised, then the entire offer is refused. That means everything can come back up for negotiation again, including the price, or other buyers can enter the picture.

If you already own a home, an important way to keep your offer clean, simple and attractive is to eliminate the condition of selling your existing home. You can do this either by selling your existing home before you buy, or you may choose to wait and sell after you buy, assuming it will sell quickly in current market conditions. This latter option may mean incurring the expense of bridge financing, but that may be acceptable to you, if you want to be sure you have your next home lined up before you let go of your current one. Your Coldwell Banker real estate professional can counsel you on the pros and cons of each option, to help you make an informed decision.

Customer Satisfaction is the measurement that matters

When choosing a real estate company, home buyers and sellers can become inundated with various numbers from companies competing for their business, focusing on sales volume or number of transactions. Those claims are all about quantity, but that doesn’t really tell you a lot about the quality of service they provide.

Here in Canada, Coldwell Banker professionals have achieved a 98% customer satisfaction rating from over 75,000 home buyers and sellers. When you choose a Coldwell Banker professional, you get the assurance of a proven track record for quality service based on what over 75,000 satisfied Canadian home buyers and sellers had to say. And isn’t that the measurement that matters most to you?

Since 1906, the Coldwell Banker® organization has been a premier provider of real estate services. Here in Canada, our operation is built upon a legacy of providing full-service support to home buyers and sellers that dates back almost 75 years.

So while it’s reassuring to know that that the Coldwell Banker global system has about 3,000 independently owned residential real estate offices with 88,000 sales associates – the measurement that matters most is 98% satisfaction from over 75,000 Canadian customers.

---

Are you considering making a move? Contact us and let’s talk. With over 27 years of experience, our marketing and negotiating skills will pay off for you.