Does Landscaping Increase Your Homes Value?

After spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on landscaping, how do you know if you'll recoup your investment? Homeowners may wonder if their efforts are worthwhile compared to interior projects. In actuality, landscaping comes back in resale value more than you may think.
According to a publication from Virginia Tech, a home landscape has been valued at around 15 percent of a home's total value. Furthermore, certain landscape aspects add more to the home than others, including:


Design: 42%
Plant size: 36%
Diversity of plants: 22%
The study cited that a $150,000 home could go from $8,300 in worth to almost $19,000 more with the addition of a landscape.
That's a lot for just adding a front yard to your home.
Here is more information about these elements and how to increase the value of your home.

Landscape Design

Photo courtesy of Jardin Passion Landscape Con
How you design the landscape is the first step in creating a beautiful and valuable front yard. If you plant shrubs, flowers and trees without a design in mind, you could run into maintenance issues down the road. This is why you might call in a landscape designer to help. Landscape designers have the knowledge when it comes to creating landscapes to match homes and climate conditions. They know which trees, shrubs and flowers mix versus which ones might be troublesome. The end result will be a manageable, uncluttered and beautiful landscape that you can enjoy for little to no hassle.

Plant Size

Photo courtesy of Applegate Landscape Co.
On a visual level, adding different plant sizes will make your front yard look more appealing. Adding different shapes and colors complements your home and the lawn. On a maintenance level, mixing small and big plants will cut down on clutter in your yard. If you have too many bushy plants, their roots and branches could get mixed together and cause maintenance issues. So plant different trees, shrubs and flowers to make your landscape colorful and varied to add onto your home's appeal and save on trouble.

Diverse Plants

Photo courtesy of M&M Garden Designs
Intertwined with the plant sizes you choose are how diverse they should be. You don't want to plant only shrubs and trees with leaves. Vary it up with fruit trees or shrubs that have flowers to add color to the front yard. You also might choose annual and perennial flowers to sprinkle across your yard. You will need to replace annuals every year, but that gives you the chance to try out different flowers. Perennials, on the other hand, will last for many years and can endure harsh winter conditions.

Conclusion

Whether you hire a landscape designer or decide to tackle the front yard landscape yourself, be sure to include these three elements. Adding them to your front yard will pay back dividends in your home resale value, and it will make your home more attractive to buyers

Don't Miss that Mortgage Payment!!

Consumers who are late on their mortgage payments have no idea how badly their credit scores can be affected, nor how long it takes to repair the damage.
FICO scores, the credit-scoring system used by the Fair Isaac Corporation to help banks and other lenders determine a borrower's creditworthiness, can fluctuate for many reasons. Your debt-to-income ratio, whether or not you make only minimum payments, how many inquiries you have, new credit cards, and other factors each play a part in determining your overall score.


But nothing impacts credit scores like a missed payment. Your payment history accounts for 35 percent of your FICO score. According to the Ask Experian Team, a missed payment will also have the longest lasting impact. The more recent the missed payment occurred, the greater the impact and the more missed payments you have, the longer it will take to restore your scores.

The most recent research on how badly late payments affect credit scores was performed by FICO's analytics executives back in 2011. However, the numbers still work. The researchers simulated various types of mortgage delinquencies and then ran the numbers using three credit bureau profiles. The consumer profiles scored 680, 720, and 780 respectively before they missed the first mortgage payment. If a borrower were 30 days late on a mortgage payment, their revised credit scores dropped between 600-620, 630-650, and 670 to 690.

For the best-scoring consumers, the drop in credit scores is the most punishing. The first consumer's credit takes 9 months to return to the 680 level, but the second consumer's score doesn't repair itself for 2 ½ years. And for the best-scoring consumer? It takes 3 years to restore scores to the 780 range.
In general, the higher the starting score, the longer it takes for the score to fully recover, says the researchers.

Not only does the information stay on your credit report for years, but if the delinquent homebuyer wants to buy another home, their scores may keep them from qualifying for good rates. Borrowers with poor credit may pay higher interest rates, or they could be refused a loan because they may not qualify for mortgage insurance. In addition, the borrowers will pay punishing interest rates for all credit, including car loans and credit cards.

Experian advises delinquent borrowers to make the account current as quickly as possible. Then they should continue to demonstrate a current history of on-time payments. Borrowers should use at least one credit card, paying in full each month to avoid finance charges. These on-time payments will add positive activity to offset negatives from the past.

Over time your credit scores will rebound. The length of time it takes to recover will depend on how serious any other negative issues were.

Great Whittier Starter Home

Charming 2 Bedroom 1 3/4 Baths. Home in a great neighborhood. Close to schools and shopping.The den could be turned into 3rd bedroom. Large yard with lots of parking and covered driveway.Dogs at property please be careful. The property has new windows except in the bathrooms and window in living room. The property has a spa but needs to be connected to the electricity.

What if you haven't owned your home for 2 years and you want to Sell it?

If you owned and lived in your home for at least two years before it is sold, the law -- today at least -- is clear: you can exclude from profit up to $250,000 if you are single or $500,000 if you are married and file a joint return.

But what if you have made a profit on your house, but sell it before the magic two years spelled out in the tax law?


In l997, when Congress enacted this favorable legislation, it had absolutely no inkling that the real estate market in the early 2000's would be so hot, and that so many homeowners would make such large profits on their home sales -- even if they did not own their property for the full two years. However, Congress did provide reduced exclusions if prior to holding the property for the full two years, the homeowner had to sell due to a change in employment, health reasons or "unforseen circumstances".
The IRS has established certain "safe harbors". If the taxpayer falls within one of these safety zones, they will automatically be entitled to the appropriate exclusion of gain.

Here are some of the "safe harbors":

Employment: If your new place of employment is at least 50 miles father from the residence sold than was the former place of employment, the homeowner who sells his/her home in order to be closer to the job can take a proportionate exclusion of gain. For example, if the homeowner owned the home for only one year, that homeowner would be entitled to exclude half of either the $250,000 or the $500,000 exclusion, depending on the marital and tax filing status of the taxpayer. According to the regulations, employment is defined as "the commencement of employment with a new employer, the continuation of employment with the same employer, or the commencement or continuation of self-employment."

Health: if a doctor recommends a change of residence for reasons of health, this will be a safe harbor. What determines "health"? According to the IRS, "if the taxpayer's primary reason for the sale is (l) to obtain, provide, or facilitate the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, or treatment of disease, illness, or injury... or (2) to obtain or provide medical or personal care for a qualified individual suffering from a disease, illness or injury." It should be noted that "qualified individuals" includes family members who are in need of medical assistance away from the principal residence.
The IRS made it clear, however, that a sale of the family home merely because it is beneficial to the general health or well-being of the taxpayer will not fall within the safe harbor.

Unforseen Circumstances: Congress passed the buck to the IRS to come up with definitions -- safe harbors -- under this amorphous category. The IRS rose to the challenge, by providing that the following events would be considered "safe harbors", on the condition that these events involve the taxpayer, his/her spouse, co-owner or a member of the taxpayer's household:

1. death;
2. being terminated from employment and thus eligible for unemployment compensation;
3. a change in job status that results in the taxpayer being unable to pay the mortgage and reasonable basic living expenses for the taxpayer's household;
4. divorce or legal separation;
5. multiple births resulting from the same pregnancy;
6. Involuntary conversion of the property -- such as a condemnation by a governmental authority, and
7. destruction of the property because of a man-made disaster, an act or war or terrorism.

Additionally, the IRS kept the safe harbor door open by allowing the IRS Commissioner the right to expand these seven items should the need arise - either generally or in response to a particular situation involving a specific taxpayer.

Taxpayers who believe that they are entitled to claim an exemption because they fall into one of these safe harbors should immediately consult their tax advisors -- and preferably before you sell.

Determining the safe harbor is the easy part; calculating the applicable exclusion may require a graduate degree in mathematics. According to the IRS, "to figure the portion of the gain allocated to the period of non-qualified use, multiply the gain by the following fraction:

Total nonqualified use during the period of ownership (after 2008 for 2013 tax returns) / Total period of ownership

For more information, check out IRS Publication 523, "Selling Your Home", available free from irs.gov/publications.

Creating a Modern Master Bedroom

It's your haven. Your lair. Your hideaway. The one place you can kick back, relax, feel serene and sexy and, ultimately, shut out the world and slumber.
Only it's not much of a haven, it's certainly not a lair, and not only does the room exude the exact opposite of sexiness, it's also far more tired than you are. It's your bedroom, and if it isn't doing it for you, it's time for a contemporary re-do.

"When you picture a contemporary bedroom, you most likely think of pale woods, plenty of white sheets and lots of monochrome," said 1kindesign. "However, being contemporary doesn't mean you have to sacrifice charisma or personality."
Here are four ways to express yourself in a modern master.

Textured eclectic, with a bit of the exotic
It's a look that lets you expresses a worldly style and mix and match textures, patterns, and pops of color against a neutral palette.

Glam and personal
Touches of luxury make it feel high-end, while art and accessories make it feel yours. By staying with mostly neutral hues, you can get more creative with shapes without veering too far into contemporaryville.

Hotel-like
You know how you always feel a little "more" when you're in a hotel? More sophisticated, more amorous, more luxurious? Turn your bed into a hotel-like space and you just might feel like that all the time.

Mismatched but complementary
It's the bedroom version of keep it simple, stupid. You don't have to do matchy-matchy as long as you retain elements in common. Here, again, it's the neutral color palette, along with the clean lines and low profile of the furniture.
You can see more examples of bedrooms in a myriad of styles on HGTV.

Tips on Staging Your Home

Anyone who is in the process of selling their home wants to know the “tricks” on how to stage a home prior to selling. Home staging is crucial to the sale. Odors, appearance of pets and clutter can ruin a sale faster than you can say “gone”. Some people choose the route of having a professional home stager come in, but not everyone has the $150 an hour to invest in this type of consulting, and for most homes, it is unnecessary.

In general, when planning home staging, think: clean, impersonal, uncluttered, and open. Buyers do not want distractions that remind them that this is someone else’s house. They want to envision their furniture and their things in the home.

Here are some tips on staging your home before you sell:

• Mulch, weed, cut your lawn, blow leaves out of the yard, and perform other “curb appeal” activities that will give the potential buyers the best possible first impression of your home.
• Remove all items of personal nature. No pictures, no drawings, no embroidery—nothing that reminds people that a particular family lives there.
• Move your pets out if possible, or if not possible put them in one area of the home and keep that area immaculate. Pet odor is one of the leading causes of people leaving a house walk through early.
• Remove clutter, junk, and distractions. Keep in mind the “blank slate” rule. People want to see open spaces because it gives the brain an open invitation to imagine their own items in that room. Empty houses sell better than houses with people in them for this reason. Take 80-90% of the items out of every room, and put them in the garage or storage facility.
• Paint rooms neutral colors. Painting shouldn't be that expensive, and is one of the single most used “tricks” by home stagers to sell a house quickly. The smell of fresh paint and the clean appearance is attractive to home buyers.
• Clean your home from top to bottom and if you have the extra money have the home professionally cleaned, from carpet to cabinets. 
• Whenever possible, have cookies baking or other nice food-based smells. People go back and forth on what “floral” scents they like, but most humans respond to the smells of baked goods.

There is no secret trick to how to stage your home when you are selling your house,just common sense approaches to creating an inviting experience for the potential home buyer. Remember: Clean, uncluttered, impersonal, and open.

Staging Your Garage helps sell your Home

If you were going on an important job interview, you'd dress to impress. That's exactly what you want to do with your home, too–dress or, rather, stage to impress and sell!

Selling your home requires a keen eye to make it appeal to a wide audience. That means you need to take time to make sure that your home is dressed up and ready to be shown off.

I've written a lot about curb appeal and fixing up your home so that it's ready to be listed for sale, but sometimes the garage is overlooked.


It's sort of an after-thought but it really shouldn't be. These days the garage can be a pivotal point for buyers. Garages are doubling as gyms, added storage space, home offices, and hobby areas as well as a place to park cars.

I've seen some home listings where sellers simply use the garage to store all their stuff that they plan to take with them or get rid of. While that might be convenient for the current homeowners, it's not very enticing for potential new buyers. They want to see what the garage really looks like and how it might suit their needs. Hard to do when it's jammed with boxes!

If buyers can barely walk into the garage, they'll likely skip it entirely and may feel a bit cheated. Or they may try to maneuver around all your stuff and could knock a few things over or, worse, get injured. No one needs that to happen.

Consider packing your boxes and either storing them in a storage space or at a friend's. Getting as much stuff out of the house as possible is very important. Don't underestimate the power of a clean, tidy, spacious garage.

Square footage counts and many people have plans to use that extra garage space for things you might not have thought of. A good-looking garage will attract buyers.

Do what you can to improve your garage but start with the basics. If your garage door is in shoddy shape, replace the hardware. Nothing worse than a buyer taking a look at your garage just as a spring breaks on the automatic garage door!
Then take a look around and see what things you can get off the floor and into shelves or cabinets in your garage. The less you have on the floor, the more spacious the garage will feel. If the new buyers have big cars, ample space for cars as well as storage space for household items will be very important.

If you find that your garage door system isn't working and you're planning to replace it, think about installing the latest technology. Smart homes are very appealing because they help simplify ordinary tasks. Today, with the proper technology installed, garage doors can be controlled with compatible apps that link to Android and iOS mobile devices and allow homeowners to check their garage door, and even open or close it once they've left their home. Another good feature is a battery backup system that will keep your garage functioning even during a power shortage.

A garage may not be the star attraction like the kitchen or master bedroom and bathroom, but it definitely has its own appeal especially when it's staged to sell.