Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Hot Summer Landscaping Home Staging Tips


You might think it's too hot to work outside in your garden during this summer's unwelcome heat extremes. However, if you're selling a home, you might want to suffer the heat or pay someone to help you. Your landscaping needs to arouse buyers' expectations and entice them into viewing the inside of your home.

Buyers think they care more about the inside of the house than the landscaping, but in reality, most buyers won't even get out of their car if the front landscaping lacks the promise of great details inside. Here are some quick and easy landscaping tips to get you in out of the heat fast and to get buyers interested in your home.

Hot and Cool Summer Colors

Usually, I advise home sellers to plant bright flowers like yellow and red to catch buyer's attention. However, if you live where the sun is making everything extra hot, make your home feel cooler with abundant white flowers. If you have gorgeous flowers in multi-color, don't rip them out. Just add a lot of white to tone down the exuberant warm colors. A few flats of white alyssum go a long way and this hardy plant holds up in extreme heat.

Add green foliage to cool down your landscaping. If you have a lot of boring dirt between plants, these brown areas look and feel parched. Also, hanging luscious ferns add a tropical flair to landscapes.

Hot Summer Back Yard Landscaping Tips

Add umbrellas for extra shade. You might find umbrellas at your local supermarket for better prices than at home improvement warehouses or discount stores. In our area, Albertsons has the best buy on umbrellas. Select umbrellas in cool colors; floral patterns look pretty but often have warm colors. Place your umbrellas in big pots or even in the dirt around your garden.

Set up a table and chairs in the far corner to make your entire yard feel like it works hard to offer plenty of entertaining spaces. Add a white or green table cloth to the table setting and a vase of white flowers. Fabrics like cotton give a texture which feels cooler than metal or wood.

Add water features like a plug-in fountain or simply a children's play pool. Even if you have no small children, the water looks refreshing.

Water before showing. When you know buyers are on the way to preview your home, water. Wet lawns and foliage bring down the air temperature (unless you live in a high- humidity area). A freshly watered lawn looks greener.

Set out iced tea, lemonade, and ice water. Stage a bowl of green apples. Offer your "guests" refreshment. Turn home shoppers into buyers. Get them to connect to your home because it feels like home.

Home Staging Information

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher