Curb Appeal

Landscaping, Lawn, Yard, Pond Maintenance

A well maintained yard looks good and will speed up sales, make a good first impression.

Everyone knows that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. However, property managers know first impressions are important: A property's physical appearance its "cover" - is what initially draws buyers to a property. Curb appeal matters and in today's turbulent economic times, it matters more than ever. But curb appeal is much more than planting a few flowers. Investing in and focusing on curb appeal through sophisticated landscaping is simply smart business.

Despite the economic crunch property managers and owners are feeling today, landscaping needs should not be dismissed. Instead, unique solutions and a renewed understanding of landscaping options can help maintain curb appeal without breaking the bank.

GETTING CREATIVE

When a property appears run-down and neglected on the outside, buyers will not be attracted to the property, and vacancies will remain, regardless of what is inside.

"In challenging economic times, properties that maintain attractive landscapes are stating that they have stability. "Those properties that see their landscaping declining are sending a negative message to prospective buyers, and surrounding neighboors"

PLANT and TREE MAKEOVERS

In the past, many properties utilized four-season color beds, but today we are switching from annuals to perennials to help boost a property's landscaping budget without skimping on aesthetics. Perennials offer plenty of pop at a fraction of the effort.

Other properties are incorporating native plants with color beds or simply replacing seasonal color beds entirely with native plantings.

IT'S GOOD TO BE GREEN

Sustainable landscaping solutions continue to gain popularity both for their economic and environmental benefits. As their popularity and availability grows, native plants, organic soils, fertilizers and xeriscaping have become more affordable and are competitively priced with conventional plantings and materials. An added bonus is that sustainable plants and materials often require significantly less maintenance and water, which translates into savings for property managers.

Sustainable landscaping is used as a selling point. A lot of people started doing it just for good business practice and to be cost effective. But, now it is a selling point because putting 'green' or 'environmentally sustainable' on anything is a good selling point for any product, including buildings.

In today's environmentally conscious society, sustainable solutions can attract buyers.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

Going green via curn appeal and landscaping extends beyond plantings and materials.

Many companies utilize chippers and the like to transform landscaping debris into nutrient-rich mulch.

The conventional way, for instance, used to pull out weeds, trim branches, remove leaves, edge and mow its landscapes and then haul the debris off the property. But recently we have been recycling the debris instead.

By doing the detailing first we can toss it all onto the lawn and then mow a lot of that would-be landscape waste back into the turf, we then capture the nutrients in [the debris] and save the expense and time of pulling that stuff out, and paying someone to haul it to a landfill."

GOOD-BYE GRASS

Turf maintenance often drives up landscaping costs due to the water use, fuel costs for mowers and the labor associated with constant mowing. To mitigate these costs, we are launching turf- conversion programs that cut costs and maintenance by incorporating more sustainable and low-maintenance landscaping solutions, by replacing turf with ground covers that maintain the look but lower the maintenance.

The program has cut turf applications by 20 percent, and has cut maintenance by pruning ground covers only two or three times a year versus mowing turf a minimum of 28 times per year.

Not only do these turf conversions enhance the look of the property, they significantly decrease maintenance.

Trimming about four times a year, picking up the trash and cutting the small area of grass that once took us many hours per week is reduced to a few hours per week.

WATER WORKS

One of the driving trends in landscaping today is water management. While areas like California, Nevada and parts of the Southeast are facing water shortages and increasing water costs, other areas like Texas, much of the Midwest and Northeast are not. Despite these differences, water management is quickly become a rising landscaping concern across the country.

"You have to think about using less water. There is going to be more pressure to improve water efficiencies than ever before.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Current economic conditions have created plenty of uncertainty in all aspects of the business world. However, banks and REO's can still take control of their properties by spending the time and energy needed to understand landscaping needs. Maintaining good relations with landscape contractors and/or in-house landscaping managers can help keep landscape budgets under control.

Landscaping and ground maintenance are part of the operating costs of properties. There should be an understanding of every line item budget within those operating costs. The more information you have, the more control you will have of the process.