Help Line

5/15/2003

As the weather warms, it's natural to start planning your landscaping and lawn care for the year.

You may not know that landscaping in general can be one of your best property related investments, by the way: those $20 seedlings mature into trees and plants worth hundreds of dollars. Some studies indicate landscaping may return as much as 120 percent of your investment.

Here are some tips for improving on that outdoor investment at the same time you reduce the care and maintenance it requires:

Cut down on the size of your lawn. By widening your landscaping border, for instance, you could cut lawn care time and expense.

Allow some areas to grow wild. Many homeowners actually prefer a natural look for their backyard, and allowing areas to return to their natural state certainly cuts down on yard work. So stop mowing part of your yard, then watch as new plants and from the Toledo Board of Realtors flowers slowly fill the area.

Along the same lines, use native plants and shrubs for any new plantings. Native plants require much less upkeep than do exotic plants that aren't suited to this environment.

In addition, native plants are more attractive to the birds and animals that are native to this area. Moreover, native plants are more disease- and pest resistant. For more tips on low maintenance landscaping and lawn care, call a local nursery.

Throughout Ohio -- not to mention the country -- homes have been selling at a record-breaking pace. All segments of the housing market from a first-time buyer's starter home to an upscale mansion -- have seen brisk activity over the past three-year period.

This is tremendous news for both buyers and sellers. Not only is demand for housing great, but the affordability of housing has never been better. As a result, more people are changing their address than ever before.

In fact, the Census Bureau recently reported on when and how often people change their residence. Among the findings...

Not surprisingly, the majority of moves occur during summer months.

Almost 48% of residential moves taking place between June and September.

June is the most "popular" month to change residence -- with 13.1% of moves occurring during the month.

August is a close second with 12.6% of residential moves.

So what does this mean for buyers and sellers?

Obviously, we're quickly approaching the time of year when more people are considering a change of address. This can be good or bad news, depending on your point of view.

If you're a seller, there will be more potential buyers out here looking at homes like yours. But conversely, there will be more homes on the market, increasing the competition and make it harder for your home to stand out from the crowd. If you're a buyer, you will have more options to compare, as number of homes for sale increases.

However, you will also find more people like you out and about viewing homes.