7 landscaping tips

If prospective buyers looked at your house today, what would they see outside? A giant evergreen that looks as if it might swallow the station wagon, perhaps, scraggly old foundation plants or maybe a kitchen-table view of the neighbors’ kids’ trampoline?

If so, you have a truly inexpensive opportunity to boost your home’s curb appeal.

By spending $500 to $3,000 on plants and materials and a few hours of time, you can achieve a well-landscaped look without shelling out for professional help.

Besides the personal enjoyment you’ll get from a prettier yard, landscaping adds more value than almost any other home renovation.

A recent Michigan State University study found that depending on where the house is located, high-quality landscaping adds 5 percent to 11 percent to its price.

If you have no immediate plans to move, all the better: Landscaping is the one home improvement that actually appreciates over time.

So how do you decide which projects to tackle? That depends on how long you think you’ll be around to enjoy the results.

Will this renovation project pay off?

Cruising the web I found this neat tool.  CNNMoney, has teamed with Remodeling Magazine to create a renovation estimate tool.  For example, I am always wondering what it would take to finish out a basement.   The average cost in 2005 was $56, 724.00.  This webpage shows you the average cost of 25 common projects.  More importantly, it shows what you get back. 

 Click here to play: CNNMoney Renovation Wizard

Home Sales on a ‘Staircase to the Basement’

Sales of existing homes fell in June for the fourth straight month as problems in the mortgage industry continued to hurt the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors reported yesterday that sales of previously owned homes dropped 3.8 percent from May to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.75 million units, the slowest pace in more than four years. It was also 11.4 percent less than the number of units sold in June 2006.

New Home Sales Down Substantially

WASHINGTON — Sales of new homes fell in June by the largest amount in five months as the housing industry continued to struggle with its worst downturn in 16 years. The median home price also fell.

The Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes dropped by 6.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 834,000 units. The decline was more than triple what had been expected and was the largest percentage drop since sales fell by 12.7 percent in January. Sales are now 22.3 percent below the level of a year ago.

House-Hunting Homework

Before buying a house in Bethesda last month, Susan Fiorella tapped away on her keyboard. She researched schools. She checked crime statistics. She even solicited opinions about neighborhoods from an e-mail group for urban moms and dads.

“A lot of people don’t need to be as rigorous to develop this kind of comfort level,” said Fiorella, a strategist for a health-care provider and the mother of two young children. “We did exhaustive research; that’s our personality.”