Showing posts with label real estate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label real estate. Show all posts

Friday, July 25, 2014

Increase The Resale Value of Your Tulsa Home with Outdoor Upgrades

The key is to make livable space that’s flexible, something not too personal, but something buyers can see themselves using like their Tulsa outdoor environment.


Liveable Space. Everyone could use more space, so if you add areas where people can entertain and enjoy themselves more fully, then you outdoor kitchenshave a good thing. But you may think, “Shouldn’t I just covert my garage into a room?” And true, converting a garage may afford more space, but then you also don’t have a garage, which many homeowners want. Whereas, adding a deck, patio, or outdoor kitchen extends the confines of your home, creating more living space that’s even more practical. For instance, if you have an outdoor kitchen and decide to put your house up for sale in the spring, buyers can envision themselves having their own cookouts. Or if you added a deck or patio to your Tulsa home, prospective homeowners will imagine a variety of different entertaining ideas and nights enjoyed with their family.

Perhaps you’ve been thinking of adding an outdoor kitchen, pool, or outdoor fireplace to your home in Tulsa, besides the obvious, there’s good reason to do so – the added resale value that these upgrades can bring. Even if you’re not thinking of selling your home right away, making it more “sellable” is always a good thing, just in case you want to sell in the future.

How do outdoor living improvements add value to your home? Two general principles come to mind...1. The more liveable space you give to your home, the more the value of your home goes up. 2. The greater your curb appeal, the quicker you’ll sell or greater your value will be.

Sandy Koepke, Interior and garden designer in Southern California, was quoted in the New York Times as saying that there’s many reasons for building an outdoor kitchen. “You’re getting a lot of bang for your buck because you’re basically creating a very usable room for a lot less money than if you were adding on to the house,” she said in the article.


Curb Appeal. Consider this, if you’ve made major renovations inside, buyers may never see them if their first impression of the house scares them away.

“If I were going to spend money on a property, I would really work on making sure the curb appeal was strong” realtor Ron Phipps told HGTV in an article. “You really want to convey a sense of welcome. If all your remodeling is on the inside but the outside of the house is challenging, you’ll never have a chance to even show the inside,” he said.

Don’t underestimate how landscape maintenance can add resale value to your home by increasing its curb appeal. Having a professional landscape design and maintenance plan can greatly increase the curb appeal of your home while taking away the hassle of regular lawn care while you live there.

Regular landscaping and lawn care can update the look of your home and keep it looking beutiful and well-cared for overall.

Also you might consider putting in a walkway to the front door or a path to the side of the house to add interest.

 So if you are wanting to add much resale value to your property while at the same time make your home more enjoyable for your own family, the Tulsa landscaping contractors at Oklahoma Landscape can help you in every way.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Landscaping Helps Boost Tulsa Home's Curb Appeal in Real Estate Market



tulsa real estate and curb appeal
Are you looking for cost-effective ways to make your Tulsa home more appealing to buyers? Landscaping can actually be very effective in adding curb appeal to your Tulsa home. 

Real estate agents commonly advise against making major home improvements purely to try to sell your home, whereas professional Tulsa landscaping and regular lawn maintenance can provide a reasonable means of maintaining curb appeal while emphasizing your home’s true potential. Just as real estate agents may often recommend “home staging” inside the home to help buyers picture themselves living there, professional landscaping helps to bring the home to life with carefully placed trees, plants, and shrubs. 

As you know, a home buyer’s first impression of a house is important to closing the sale. What “greets” potential buyers as they first see your Tulsa property? Even a beautiful house won’t shine as bright with poor landscaping. If the home doesn’t have the lawn care it needs, it can undermine the beauty of the house itself. 

If they see a well-cared-for lawn and landscape though, will they conclude that the home itself is also well-maintained? A well-manicured lawn and landscaping that engages the buyer the minute they see the property can make the home stand out as even more elegant. 

Having a professional lawn maintenance program for your Tulsa home gives you a hassle-free way of keeping your home’s curb appeal at its highest level with regular mowing, edging, trimming, weed control, and other services. Lawn fertilization and weed control can keep your soil healthier, helping your lawn to stay vibrant for buyers. These cost-effective maintenance services can go a long way to adding curb appeal for your home. 

Landscaping should enrich the style of your home, so having a cohesive landscape design plan is important. Tulsa landscape design architects can create a design theme for your landscape to enhance your home, adding dimension and character. 

If you’re not planning to sell your home for a few years, you may want to invest in an outdoor living space like a porch, patio, or deck. These outdoor environments - or more elaborate spaces with outdoor kitchens and outdoor fireplaces - can significantly increase the value of your home and property. Then, you can enjoy entertaining in these outdoor living spaces now and increase the market value of your home for when you decide to sell in the future. 

Outdoor landscape lighting can also increase the curb appeal of a property by adding more security, safety, and elegance. A well-thought-out landscape lighting plan can add significant interest to your home. Buyers can be escorted to your home’s entrance by carefully planned pathway lighting. All of these little details create the warm feel and tone buyers relate to when searching for their next home.
Landscaping and curb appeal definitely go hand-in-hand. Professional Tulsa landscape design can add the finishing touches needed to sell your home because first impressions are often lasting impressions.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Commercial Lawn Care Tulsa - Advantages of Professional Lawn Maintenance for your Business

When you approach the door of a business, college campus, retail park, or hospital, what catches your eye? Does the landscaping have a bearing on what you think of the company?

commercial lawn care tulsaAs a business owner, you understand how essential first impressions are, especially for a company. When clients first approach your Tulsa commercial property, the property’s landscaping can have a vivid effect on the image your company portrays. A neat, well-designed, organized landscape gives the impression that the organization also manifests those qualities and as well as caring for the environment. A beautiful, well-kept lawn instils confidence in customers, employees, future residents, or students. Thus, Tulsa commercial lawn maintenance and landscaping can be a crucial part of a company’s corporate identity, effectively conveying the professional brand image you want your company to have. This, in turn, translate into a significant return on investment.

What are some of the advantages of having a professional Tulsa landscaping company manage your commercial lawn care?

Less Stress

Why spend time worrying about the lawn care needs of your company? Lawn care can be very laborious for a business owner, and supervising multiple landscape contractors and handling lawn maintenance dilemmas can be stressful. With one professional landscaping company taking care of all your lawn care needs, you can save time, money, and focus on more important business matters.

With Tulsa commercial lawn maintenance, you’ll know your landscape will be cared for on a consistent basis. Regular care is needed for lawns to maintain their beauty and health. Your staff may not be able to consistently mow or manage your entire landscape. Hiring a professional company dedicated to maintaining the beauty of your landscape will ensure that it’s attended to regularly.

Landscape Design

A landscaping company can give your lawn the professional appearance you want your company to showcase. Landscaping experts can design a functional and aesthetically-engaging outdoor space for your business, homeowner’s association, campus, retail park, outdoor sports facility, office park, golf club, or apartment property. And these landscape design professionals can keep your landscape looking fresh and new, giving you ideas on how to effectively update your landscape in the most cost-effective way. Tulsa lawn care professionals understand how to get the most from your landscape and bring out its full beauty and potential with innovative landscaping techniques.

Skilled Lawn Care

golf course lawn care tulsaKeeping a landscape healthy and beauty involves more than mowing it regularly. To have a vibrant, healthy lawn, you would need to help the lawn have all the nutrients it needs and be able to detect any potential problems.

Professional Tulsa lawn care experts have the in-depth knowledge and skills needed to promote the long-term health of your landscape, including fertilization and weed control programs, tree and shrub care, lawn aeration, overseeding, and prevent and treat insect disease. Knowing how to effectively treat the overall health of your lawn will help it to thrive, and in the end, save you money by preventing costly problems.

Equipment Savings

Buying enough lawn care equipment to adequately take care of an entire commercial property can be quite expensive. And maintaining that equipment over the years can only add to that expense. Prevent the added worry, stress, and costs of having to buy your own equipment by hiring professional lawn maintenance. Leave the responsibility and expense of having the right lawn care tools, fertilizers, and equipment to the lawn care professionals.

Business owners, property managers, schools, healthcare facilities, and other organizations can all benefit greatly from the positive first impression a well-designed and manicured landscape can have on customers.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Tips to Keeping Your Tulsa Home Safe While Traveling

home security tulsa
Are you going out of town this holiday season? Many Tulsa homeowners may be planning to travel to visit family or friends this time of year, but before you go, there are a few simple things you can do to keep your Tulsa home safe while you’re away.

The objective is to not give the appearance that you’re gone. Thus, while you may have a home security system, you can also do little things to make your home less appealing to burglars.
  1. Keep up the lawn care. – Interestingly, having regular Tulsa lawn maintenance and landscaping will help your home look like you never left. We’ve all seen houses where the lawn is not mowed, and we may think that there’s either no one living there or they’re on vacation. Thus, when you’re gone, keeping your lawn mowed, your leaves raked, and your snow shoveled will give the appearance that you’re home while also making your property tidier and much nicer to come home to.
  2. Keep trees and shrubs trimmed. – Burglars love things to hide behind, so an overgrown tree or shrub next to a window creates the perfect hiding spot. Thus, try to keep windows and doors visible by regularly trimming trees, shrubs, and hedges.
  3. Put your lights on timers. – Programming your interior lights to turn on and off using a timer is another good way to make your home look like everything’s normal. Having your home lights come on for a few hours in the evening will keep up the appearance of a normal routine. Motion sensor lights for your outdoor landscape can also help deter thieves.
  4. Stop your mail and newspapers. – Having a pile of mail or periodicals by your door is of course going to make your home look vacant. You can put your mail on hold at the post office for up to 30 days. Have your newspaper put on hold as well. But there may still be other packages that are delivered to your home, so have a neighbor or friend stop by regularly while you’re gone to pick these up.
  5. Hire a house sitter. – The simplest way to give the appearance that your home isn’t vacant is to have a friend or neighbor stay there while you’re on vacation. If you have pets, a pet sitter can also be useful, not only in taking care of your pets while you’re gone, but also by checking on your house.
  6. Tell a trusted neighbor you’ll be gone. – If you don’t have a house or pet sitter staying, let a trusted neighbor or two know when you’ll be gone and ask them to stop by periodically to check on your home and pick up any flyers or items left at your home. You may even leave a copy of your house key with them for emergencies. They may also be able to pull your garbage or recycling receptacles out on trash day to make everything look normal.
  7. Unplug electronics. – Turning off and unplugging electronics and appliances like your home computer, television, coffee pot and even your garage door can save you money, prevent a house fire, and, by turning off your garage door, prevent thieves from breaking in.
  8. Keep valuables away from windows. – Make sure your big screen television or computer isn’t plainly visible from outside your home. You may want to walk around your house to see what is visible from outside.
  9. Make sure everything is locked. – In the hustle and bustle of vacation packing, you may forget to lock all the windows and doors. Make sure every entrance to your home is secure, including sliding glass doors to your patio. You can help secure these further by placing dowel rods or poles in the slats when you leave.  Advertise and activate your home security and surveillance system. Walter T. Shaw, a former master thief, told MSN Money that alarm system warning signs and decals should be placed in the backyard where thieves are most likely to case out and try to break-in your home. These warning signs can prevent thieves from thinking your home is an easy target.
  10. Be careful about what you share. – While today’s world shares everything online, sharing when you will be on vacation may not be the best thing to post on Facebook. Thieves can check up on you on social media platforms and may easily be able to find out when you will be gone just from what you post. Shaw also noted that many people often casually talk about their vacation plans with people they come across at the grocery store or mechanic shop. Be careful about what sensitive information you share online as well as what you share with strangers or people you may not know well.
To have the best vacation this year, make sure your home is secure and still gives the appearance that you’re home even if you’re far away.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Outdoor Fireplaces in Tulsa - Camping with All the Comforts of Home (and no Mess)


Although it’s still hot out, today is the day we traditionally say goodbye to summer. It’s a bitter-sweet goodbye, having enjoyed swimming and other outdoor sports we cherish so much here in Oklahoma. But with fall and winter come another exciting time and another hobby – cozy outdoor fireplaces!

Outdoor Fireplaces have become one of the trendiest new additions to Tulsa homes, providing a practical place to entertain while adding value to your home itself. Tulsa Outdoor Fireplaces become a focal point for your outdoor environment. They add depth and character and an entire additional season to enjoy your outdoor living space.

What better way is there to entertain guests during fall and winter than with a cozy outdoor fireplace? Everyone loves smores. So, an outdoor fireplace becomes a campfire without the messy camping problems and work. After you enjoy your fireplace, you can go right inside and snuggle up in your own bed. Thus, outdoor fireplaces offer the best of both worlds – the outdoors with all the comforts of home.

Outdoor Fireplaces in Tulsa can be built with a variety of hardscape materials including various stones, concrete, and brick. Thus there’s an endless array of designs and colors available to perfectly match your home and outdoor environment style. You will need to have a layer of flame-retardant firebrick around the flames before you add any decorative outer materials.

These focal points extend the boundaries of your home, creating an inviting warmth and glow for your backyard. Fireplaces add dimension to your outdoor environment, defining the outdoor living room, so to speak, especially with a pergola or other outdoor structure.

And what if you decide to sell your home? Having an outdoor fireplace adds great value to your entire home and landscape. This added property value can’t be duplicated with just a store-bought fire pit or chiminea.

These elegant and functional additions to your outdoor living space are more than just a place to get warm. They represent countless evenings spent this fall and winter making unforgettable memories with family and friends. Learn more about Tulsa Outdoor Fireplaces.