prepareyourhomeforsale.biz Blog

How To Install Grass Seed

When asking, How to install grass seed? you need to consider what process will be used to install the grass seed. The correct grass seed install will make the difference of a nice thick green lawn or just weeds. The time is now to look into hydroseeding and all of its cost effective benefits for your new seeded lawn. You see, if you live in the Midwest, especially in Wisconsin, you probably have never heard of hydroseed and hydro-seeded lawns and erosion barriers. The hydroseeding process is the process of blending high quality grass seed, mulch, fertilizer and water along with bonding agents. There is a company in the greater Milwaukee area that even adds a water retention agent at no additional cost the builder or home owner. (Badges Properties LLC has a special lawn and erosion control division, which all they do is lawns and erosion control, they are known for using the high quality blend) This is then all mixed well into a green slurry, which creates a very appealing green blanket, in most cases of high quality hydroseeding companies. Stick with hydroseeders listed with the associations of hydroseeding professionals. Just like any trade there are good hydroseeders and then there are better ones. If you can find a hydroseeding professional that all they do is hydroseeded lawns and erosion barriers, this would be the one to go with. This company knows your lawn and is not trying to sell you on shrubs, trees, bushes, lawn cutting services, fertilizing services, you can see how some of these could even be a conflict of interest. So, knowing how to install grass seed is a important thing to know.

The market for contractors in the hydroseeding field in Wisconsin, especially in the greater Milwaukee area is small, but they are there. Again look at the association lists and use the members as it will be worth it, just do a search under hydroseed contractor or hydroseeding lawn professionals, if you are in the Wisconsin or greater Milwaukee area, just add it to the search. Make sure they are members not just listed because of where they bought their grass seed installation machine. Even again look for companies that specialize in new lawns and erosion control via hydroseeding. There are alot of landscape companies who do everything, but very few that actually specialize in hydroseeded lawns. Badges Properties LLC is a company that even has a division that specializes in new lawns and erosion barriers for builders and home owners. There are some builders and commercial developers that don’t know they can now get hydroseeding and hydroseeded erosion barriers installed for much less than even the cost of straw/grass seed applications. They use these expensive straw roll our blankets and straw, which cost much more than if they would have hydroseeded. Now, if the builders don’t know about how much money they could save, what about home owners? Hydroseeding being used to install grass seed is the greatest kept secret in Wisconsin. If the people of that great state and the greater Milwaukee area only knew the true benefits and money saving benefits of a hydroseeded lawn. The money savings is really the best to be had and builders can even get volume discounts depending on how many new lawns they need or erosion barriers installed. The cost going as low as 6-6.5 cents per sq. ft for your new seeded lawn, the straw blankets/grass seed process cost twice as much or more.

I still cannot believe the amount of people who are not aware of hydro-seeding. The process is just the best way possible to get a great new seeded lawn. I have seen people spend vast amounts of money on houses and then allows someone lets a person throw straw and grass seed all over the yard and then call that a new lawn. This is just so hard to think, someone would spend that kind of money on a house and new seeded lawn, only to allow someone to throw unsightly straw and grass seeds every where. The benefits of a lush green hydroseeded lawn is enough reason alone to go with a hydroseeded new lawn, let alone spending far less for your new lawn increasing your cost savings.

This lawn installation season of 08 will show how many people have heard of hydroseeding before its to late. Once you have installed a poor quality lawn it will take years to correct it, even worse, have to plow under and start over! There is more benefits to the environment also. The straw blankets have a plastic netting in the middle of it that never will dissolve, some might be biodegradable, but the large added cost of green friendly straw blankets keeps most from using it. This just does not sound like a good idea to cover our ground surface with plastics that will never dissolve. Hydroseeding a new lawn or erosion barrier is a ground, animal and family friendly. The best way to go green is to hydroseed your new lawn.

People need to find out about hydroseeding and all of its benefits. Find a hydroseeding professional in your area. Even if the above company Badges Properties LLC is not in your area, give them a call they are so friendly and will probably still help you, they are in the online yellow pages under Oak Creek, Milwaukee area business. Ask your builder if they have heard about hydroseeding, if they tell you it is too expensive, just means they have not looked into it lately or found the right hydroseeding company. Remember to use a professional hydroseeder members.

Best of luck with your new seeded lawn and may you find a professional hydroseed contractor in your area.

House Selling Trends

The housing market is riding a roller coaster and its going crazy.  The ride is slowing down, but with the foreclosure market being on the same ride it seems to be just as crazy.  The houses in certain parts of the country are dropping in price and values are just not there anymore.  The problem is what happens when the house is at a retail value which is less then what a person owes on it?  The banking industry across the country is asking itself the same question this year more and more.  They have become a home sales industry instead of a bank.  The banks are finally at the point that they need to just get rid of the house surplus that they have.  Even just 3 years ago the banks had foreclosures but they didn’t really care how long they had them.

The banking agents that were in charge at that time were not a priority position.  The idea was these people can not hurt anything anyway so just let them handle it.  The agents would take forever to respond to any type of offers, many times letting the potential buyers get frustrated and just walk away.  They just didn’t care what really happened.  Now, they have such large amounts of houses they don’t even know which way to turn.  They are now paying more attention to the people who deal with the foreclosures more closely and now trying to guide them and educate them in working with buyers and help to sell houses, instead of the uneducated, don’t care, type of person from just 3 years ago.

Now, the houses on the foreclosure lists have prices that are reflecting that they need to be sold.  There are so many houses and not enough buyers any more.  They need to sell off these houses and they are getting houses into foreclosure inventory twice as fast as they can get rid of them.  The investors of today can find some real buys already, by mid summer the houses will be at even better prices if things keep going the way the are now.   The houses will be at all time lows as far as these types of houses go.  The person with a certain amount of cash in hand will be able to reinvest into discounted properties.  The old saying timing is everything is going to come into play.

This trend is going to affect the whole housing market this year.  The buyers for traditional house buys are expecting a house to be in perfect shape.  The house which is not in perfect shape will have buyers with approved loans walking away from it.  Even if the home owner is giving money back for updates and repairs, it is to little, to late.  The buyers don’t want to take the time and effort to fix up there new house, unlike the buyers of just 3 years ago.  The person who really wants to sell their house needs to understand this.  The home owner who does not get this will be left with staying in their current house,  hopefully not already having purchased or built a new house.

Watch the house selling trends.

Sell Your House II

This is a series of articles which looks at selling your house.  Each article will build from the other to give a start to finish self help series to aid people to sell your house.  The spring 2008 home sales market is starting to open in the sense you must start the process now to have your house ready for the spring market.  This is a very important factor in selling your house this year, is to be prepared for the market.

The first part covered in article 1 “Sell Your House” was to find a agent that you are comfortable with.  I don’t mean a agent which just tells you everything you want hear either.  This type of agent will only hurt your efforts to sell your house.  The time it takes to find a good agent will be well worth it.  Some people just use the word of mouth on finding a agent.  This can be helpful, but what was the market like when these people used that agent.  During the home market bubble days a child with a cardboard sign and pop up table could of sold a house, from their lemonade stand.  So, ask when the person used their agent to buy or sell their house.  This will be a important factor. Once you look around now days you find that only agents that are better at their jobs are the ones who are left in the sales market of today, that is if they are a seasoned agent with more then 10 years experience.

The other thing you must be very careful of is the hybrid/discount home sellers.  These are are like comparing the big well known car dealers to the corner lot with the sales/owner wearing his plaid suits and telling you what deal he has for you.  The thing is these guys are using high tech ways of selling you their services.  These people hide behind TV and computer screens as they sell their services as a faceless animated service.  These services assist you in selling your home and that’s it.  They became very popular in the bubble era also as they did not charge very much for what they were doing and still got a house sold.  Remember, as I stated above a kid with a cardboard sign could have sold a house during this time period.  This is becoming self evident as these discount places have had to resort to lots of TV ads to keep their business going, lucky for them they still have money left over from the good time market and some people believe anything they hear in a TV Ad.

Once you have found a agent who is well rounded, you can sit down and start to talk about your house with them.  The agent should be one who knows about houses and what needs to be done to a house long before the sign hits the front yard.  The agents now days who know what they are doing, are joining up with people who know how to fix and stage a home for sale.  When you want to sell your house you need a well rounded person now days more then anything.  Ask the agent what their game plan is on selling your house.  Theres so much more then just placing signs and ads for open house now days.  The comparable houses that have sold in your area was a large part of selling your house also.   These are things that any agent should know along with setting the correct price for your house.  We will cover these areas more in articles to come.

The agent if he or she is well rounded should be looking at the whole house and if they don’t have the experience to see your house as whole package and what needs to be done you need to ask them to find someone to help.  The whole house needs to be looked at in great detail.  The whole house just so you know is the total yard and house, not just the inside of the house like some house staging people would lead you believe.  The house staging professionals of yesterday started off in the home interior design market and have the feeling that a interior designer is what a house needs to sell.  The inside is just a small part of what needs to be looked at.  To sell your house it needs to be looked at starting right from the front curb. 

A good agent is going to know this and start by taking you out to the curb and asking you what you see, or if they don’t a good sales consultant will.  The front curb,  is the starting point.  You may say, who cares about the outside?  You need the inside to be nice right?  The process for a buyer starts at the curb where they stop their car.  The buyer sees your house from the outside first and if they never even slow down, do you really think they will make it inside. You need to get the buyers to slow down and stop to take a look.  Take a pen and paper and write down what you see.  Does your house have any curb appeal?  Would you stop and look at your house the way it looks right now?  What can you do to help improve the look of your house?  Remember, a good agent is looking to do what needs to get done to sell your house.  You need a person who does this kind sprucing up work and knows what is the best for return on investment.  Still, watch out for someone trying to sell you on high end repairs or excess work,  you could just be spending money for no reason.

I have been providing consulting services for years now and believe that this year is going to be one of the years where a house is not going to sell unless it has been prepared to hit the market.  The market requires you to find a person who can prepare your house for you along with the consulting part.  The old house stagers give you a report and tell the names of friends who can do the work you need done. Find a full service company who can come in and give the house a full report and be able to do the work or has the network to get the work done.  You see, giving you a report for 2-4 hundred dollars and then leaving, still leaves you with having to call the needed contractors and get the work all scheduled and done,  you really could have done that on your own,  with maybe a little self help materials.   I have found that because I have been doing many home consulting, repairs and improvements for years I see things different than home owners.  I do forget that I have conditioned myself to look for the details required to sell a home, not live there.  When you see something everyday and walk right by it, you don’t think about it.  For example, a bath room door which does not close correctly or swings open by itself.  You have lived with it for years and years, you don’t think about it, you live with it.  New prospective owners will not feel the same way. 

I have found that many things I think of with regards to fixing houses are not always how, owners look at things. This is why, when you look at your house you will view it as just fine.   It may be just fine for you and was fine for you, now your trying to sell it to someone else, not you.   We will take a look at what you need to do to the exterior of your house in order for you to sell your house.   Many times with the right help and some money well spent you can increase the chances of your house selling and selling much faster.  We will be looking at the front of your has and curb appeal coming up in the next article.

Sell Your House

The spring market is right around the corner. The national sales are down. The foreclosure rates are at a all time high. These are grabbing the front pages of media giants across the country. I have wrote a few articles last year to help people with preparing their houses for sale. I will try to continue the help this year for as long as I can. My articles are showing up on many searches on the big searche engines, I just don’t know how many people I am reaching and helping with this time and effort. I will not refer to my company in this article as to show I am about helping people and not just myself as is very self evident in most things you see on the net now,days. I do try to do a blend of talking about my company and background in a effort to show people that I have basis from where I derive my articles information.

This year is going to be a tough year for selling houses. You need to have your best product ready to sell, in this case your best product is your house. The new wave of buyers are not getting the loans thrown at them any more and the banking industry is shaking in its boots every time they give out a home loan. The new buyers want the money well spent. You need to be ready. The house must have all repairs and concerns addressed long before it hits the market. The buyers over a year ago were walking away from large cash amounts for repairs, because they were looking for a move in condition house, with nothing to do except move in and sit down.

The sales market bubble inflated what people thought their houses were worth and that they could throw a sign out and have 1-3 people fighting over their house. The sales agents out there now days are still trying to tell people that these days are long gone and their houses are not worth as much anymore. No one wants to hear this in any shape or form. This starts to hit home for people when their does not sell and stays on the market for months and months. The home owners that don’t want to believe this fire or wait for their contract to expire with that agent and then hire another company. They find a new agent who is just excited to be talking with them and then the process starts all over again. Sometimes the best agent is the one who is telling you not what you want to hear and gives you the best information to make the best decision on selling your house.

The sales agents out there are dropping like flies as the old market induced many into the house sales games in hopes of finding their new job and money all in the same sweep. Many agents long gone and older ones still shaking their heads are now trying to re-educate their clients. This is no easy job, even for the seasoned professional. I have worked closely with a sale agent veteran of over 12 years in the business and this person is adjusting to making the new market work for his clients. People need to listen to a realistic agent. The agent that tells you what you want to hear is not the one that is going to get your house sold in this new market. The warm fuzzy agent will end up telling you just to hold on and resign as the market is going to change. The market is changing and the home owner is the one that needs to change and again listen to the hard truths in a tough market.

I have many articles which have more detailed information you will need to help prepare your house for the market. They are all free and you can view them and use them over and over again to help you sell your house. I will keep writing, in hopes that I can help one person in their efforts to sell their hous. When I find a good publisher to work with I will attempt to pull all this infromation into a self help book to help people sell their houses and what needs to be done start to finish.

Ice Damming II

The Midwest is being hit with a winter rain/ice/snow storm as I write this article.  The problem is not just the ice on the roads, but the ice and snow on the roofs.  When you take a look around the greater Milwaukee area you still see a number of homes with large amounts of ice damming.  This leads to home damage from the exterior to the interior of the houses.  The ice forces water into walls and then gets the interior walls wet causing damage to drywall.   The drywall can become so damaged that it will need to be removed and new sections put in.  The damage drywall that does not get replaced can lead to mold growth in home besides being a hazard by not being a stable interior wall sheathing anymore, the water deteriorates the compound and becomes unstable,  ceiling pieces can possibly fall.  Watch out for ceilings that have water dripping from it.  There could be water build up and this can force the ceiling to fall causing great amounts of damage and possible harm to the occupants of the home.

There is a way that you can help to protect you and your family.  When you see a ceiling that appears to have water and is dropping or bulging,  you need to relieve the water pressure.  The pressure can be lessened by taking a screw driver or pen and making drain holes.  We have advised clients that don’t wish to fix there ice damming damage to beware of falling drywall and water build up in their ceilings until they fix their ice damming problems.  Many don’t wish to fix the drywall damage as they fear it may just occur again.  This makes sense that you don’t want to fix something only to have it damaged again. You must get to the root of the problem.  That is what is causing your ice damming problems to begin with. 

There are many good tips in the first ice damming article on how to get rid of your ice damming problems.  So, please feel free to take a look at that article.  There will be some things you can do yourself or maybe you might want to give Badges Properties a call to help you with any home problems you might have.  Badges Properties can help you out if you live in or around the greater Milwaukee area, they are also home to Badges Properties “Fix It Brothers”, they are here to help you with your problems,  they are not your normal handyman company.  They have a blend of education and state certifications to help their customers.  They advise people and consult people,  they do not sell people on what they don’t need, like many so called handyman/home improvement companies that have a “hammer and a rusted up pickup truck”.   The old saying, you get what you pay for, really applies when hiring a handyman/home improvement contractor.            

We also offer many consumer protection tips on how to find a good handyman/home improvement contractor in your area.  So, feel free to look around and visit some of the articles we have to help you, the best part they are all free.

Remember, Always Safety First.

Find Handyman III

So, you need a handyman? What do you do? Where do you go? If you have seen any of my articles I do try to help the home owner find a handyman in their area, by showing what to look for in a good handyman company. The hardest part is where do you go to look for a handyman? I would have to say local newspapers is one of the largest spots that people go too when looking for a home improvement or handyman service. The handyman and home improvement professional have become the same now days depending on what size company or expertise the company you are dealing with has. There is a company in the greater Milwaukee area in Wisconsin we will use as a example of a very well rounded and highly trained handyman and home improvement company.

Going with the above example Badges Properties can be found in the local newspaper under handyman, you don’t have to look under just home improvements any more to find people for all kinds of work. Just make sure the company you hire is well rounded, if you find a specialty company you will for ever be trying to find someone for each type of work. For example you call a company who does nothing but gutters, because your down spout became detached and needs to be reconnected. They come out and fix the down spout and now you remember you want a leaky pipe in the kitchen fixed also. While you called a specialized gutter company, they are not going to come in a fix your leaky sink pipe, so again you have to find another person to fix that. Now, lets look at a company like Badges Properties, they could reattach the down spout and fix the leaky pipe and your done! This is a really big tip when looking for home repairs, don’t specialize unless you have to. Find a well balanced company that does everything you need them to do. This sounds so simple, but people get caught up in this all the time, spending alot of time and money, when they don’t need to. Just look into the company you want to use.

Badge Properties is home to the “Fix It Brothers” they have a shared background in general repair, full home remodeling and finished basements, home inspection, home rehab, engineering, marketing, hydroseeding”high end new lawn installations at seed/straw prices”, in short this company has the credentials and tools to do it all for you. I know this is a unusual situation that one company would be so well educated and suited for practically anything to do with a home. There are companies out there like Badges Properties in your area, you just have to find them. Badges Properties “Fix It Brothers” are the kind of people you want to have around for all of your homes needs. The nice part about the “Fix It Brothers” is they are not trying to sell you anything, they only want to help you fix your homes problems. Anther tip, don’t let a company tell you what you need unless you are asking for their advice.

Another area the “Fix It Brothers” shine in is “Pre-Sale Rehab of houses. The tough home market has made sellers to be ready when their houses hit the market. The buyers want a house in perfect shape, even over a year ago, buyers were walking away from sellers even offering cash to fix what they wanted! The new buyers of today are just moving on to the next house and don’t want to fix up the homes they buy, they just want to move in and thats it. Badges Properties actually started off providing this service and now has expanded into a full service home repair company. Here again is the same tip as above, find a good home repair service company that can full fill all of your homes needs, not just one and so forth.

Well, theres your helpful tips for finding a handyman, this is part of a on going series of articles which can be found at our tip blogs and you will want to visit www.houseitemsshop.biz for all of your homes product needs. Please feel free to search for many more self help article in our archives.