HOLY HEAT INDEX BATMAN!

PROTECT YOUR HOME FROM THE SUN

Lawns

Many lawns, including bluegrass, fescues, and ryegrass, naturally go dormant (turn brown and stop growing) during periods of high heat and drought. The easiest thing to do is just let nature take its course. Once temperatures return to normal, and the lawn starts getting adequate moisture, it will green up again.

During long droughts of heat avoid mowing your lawn as well.

Trees and Shrubs

Newly-planted trees and shrubs (less than two years since planting) can be hit particularly hard by heat and drought. To keep them alive and healthy:

• Water in the morning before if possible.  Even better is watering over night which allows trees to absorb more of the water.
• Give them between two and four inches of water per week during very high temperatures (heat index above 100 degrees) and drought.
• To water, a long, slow trickle is best. This will allow the water to soak deep into the soil without running off, ensuring that the water is going to the root zone where it is needed.
• Shrubs can be misted several times per day to increase the ambient moisture -- this will prevent the foliage from drying out too much.

Your Homes Foundation

In areas where you have more clay in the soil a drought can cause movement and damage foundations.  A simple tip during long runs of drought water around your house.  The money you spend in water will be worth it compared to the $6000 - $7000 bill you could have to fix the foundation of your home.

Protecting YOU!

The CDC offers a brochure on personal safety during drought and high heat indices.
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/publications/Drought.htm

✿ Top Trees For Landscaping ✿ Eye Candy for Your Yard ✿

Seasonal Picks

First let me say this is my opinion, and know there are several other nice trees out there.  I am dividing these up by what season they they seem to really add value to your property.  Also I live in Missouri, the trees are typical to this area - but have a wide growth area over a majority of the U.S.

Pink and White Dogwoods

Summer

Dogwood - this is one of my overall favorite trees - it actually hits many season, flowers in the spring, has interesting growth patterns, is a smaller tree, and has nice fall colors. 

Japanese Maples - These can add great color to your lawn, Bloodgoods have nice leaves and is one of the hardiest of the Japanese Maples and typically still smaller then their American brothers is on of the taller Japanese Maples.

Maple in the Fall

Fall

Maples - This is the season where Maples really show off and there are a variety of colors available.  The bonus of a maple is there broad leaves are great shade providers.

Winter

Winter is ruled by the Coniferous group, Pines and spruces, a personal favorite is a nice deep Blue Spruce, and these are not just for Winter, they look nice against a green background as well.  Plus they give you something to decorate at Christmas.

Spring

This dominated by the flowering gang...

Redbuds - Beautiful pink flowers, a unique reddish bark, and the flowers give way to big broad heart shaped leaves.

Crabapples - Come in a variety of colors, usually white, pink, and red. 

Blue Spruce

Magnolia - Magnolia trees are among the showiest flowering landscape trees.

My goal in my yard is to have year round beauty, so I have a few of each of these in my landscape.

FSBO vs. Hiring a Professional

It's Time To Sell My Home - I Can Do That, Right?

Your Home is typically your most prized possession - or at least it is one of the most valuable.

The benefits that most see to a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) is that they may save money not having to pay commission.  The other reason is that they may have had a bad Realtor in the past and it left a bad taste in their mouth - or due to their ineffectiveness the homeowner feels they can do what that person did.  Another reason is that they work or worked in sales and feel they can sell their property.

You can sell your own home, but the odds are against you!  You talented agent is Internet savvy - because over 80% of the homes are first found on the Internet.  This isn't throwing it on website - this is throwing it on tons of websites - including social media sights.  In some cases re-posting multiple times per week to promote your home.  So sure you could do that but it is time consuming!

Next Problem - It's YOUR House!  Think of the last time you had a garage sale, do you remember your clientele.  The wheeling and dealing, no one was willing to pay what you had it tagged for - remember?  When your home does not have professional representation, you are essentially putting it up for sale at a garage sale.  It will be very hard to separate emotion from the process as well.

Are you available for a 2nd Full-Time job?  Many showings happen on short notice, especially for you because odds are good the only way they see your house is when they drive by, and then want to see it right away.  When you have a Realtor they take of the showing schedules and let you keep living your life.

Who sells the most homes in your area - Realtors - there is little motivation for them to show your home because there are too many risks.  They can't research your home, they can't tell from the outside if it fits what their buyers are looking for.  Finally, you wouldn't work for free, neither would they.  If there is an unknown on commission, or the risk of no income they will avoid your home as well.

Exposure - Good Realtors sell your home to the Real Estate community - Agent tours are a strong tool to introduce your home to the agent community that work directly with buyers.  Good agents also communicate via e-mail in promotion of your home to other agents. 

The final issue is the paperwork involved in the actual sales - Offer - Counteroffer - process, experience helps here - the forms are not simple and are many in number.

When selecting an agent - do some homework - you are hiring them to sell one of you most valuable possessions - See how many listings they have - look or ask to see how they market those listings.  You can interview multiple agents as well - pick who you think is going to do the best job for you - and it is not always the one who agrees with you on everything.  You want you agent to be honest with you - from staging to pricing!

Author - Will Klein is a Realtor in St. Charles County, Missouri serving the cities of Cottleville, Weldon Spring, Saint Peters, O'Fallon, Wentzville, Warrenton, New Melle, Winfield, and Lake St. Louis, with homes for sale in most.