This is Rodney with landscaping with

Zebra scapes. We're here today to talk about improving your

property and the value of your real estate and what you have.

So many times people come, they call us and says, My house been

on the market. I can't sell it, or I'm putting my house on the

market. I mean, I'm sure you guys had that go through you

like, I'm gonna list it. What do I need to do? You're in the

house, touching things up and the outside you look at that.

You want to watch your money. You don't want to throw. I mean,

it's no different than talking with your banker, your financial

advisor on investments. What can I get from what I'm putting in?

What's the value? And then it's like, well, I don't want on the

nice to get this thing sold? There's many questions that

should be asked. It's just wise. It's just business to for

investments and for real estate and to understand, how do I get

the most value out of my house? Let's talk about adding value at

a low cost. I mean, just 510, $1,000 to add value to your

property is on the low end. And to me, one of the biggest things

is when you go up to a house and you're walking in the entry, so

look at yourself as the as the buyer. You're going into your

place to buy. What do you see? And you step back and you walk

you look at the first of all, when you're walking up to me,

it's always a sidewalk, if it's a flagstone sidewalk, if it's a

gravel sidewalk or DG, I honestly it's a huge improvement

that would add value. Pavers at a significant value and those, I

mean, most sidewalks, five to 10,000 bucks, depends what you

got and what's going to be taking place. But you can right

there, give a beautiful entry with a sidewalk, if you have a

concrete sidewalk, but it's shifted and it lifted an area

and you got a half inch or an inch gap. Just think about

someone walking, and as they look around, they make that

little they drag their feet, and they trip over that, that little

half inch rise in the concrete that shifted, that will will be

a negative walking in someone's house. They'll turn back and

look at it, and they'll think, oh my goodness, get your all

this concrete out. This is going to be expensive. And they're

going into the place thinking, I already have work to do. So and

also, if it's a narrow sidewalk, a two and a half foot

sidewalker, a sidewalk that don't got a nice curve to it,

and it's it's not a efficient walkway. So you like, Okay, we

need to widen it. Just make a little bit wider, and you can

add, you know, three I like four foot sidewalks. To me, four foot

is very easy. You can pull a trash can back and forth. It's

just nice and wide. You can walk side by side if you're going to

the front door. Those are all big pluses. And I think you get

a huge return on investment when you can have a nice walkway, an

entryway where the pavers curve, and they got a it's kind of a

welcoming that adds great value to when you come into the entry,

you want them to be looking down and say, This looks nice, and

they see the walkway. That's a very positive so, you know,

paver walkway, or a concrete walkway, if you want to be if

you have it, just clean it up. If it's get it sealed or

whatever, to make it look nice and shiny. That adds great value

also, and just the cleanliness of it is important. So widen the

sidewalk or make it smooth. If the pavers got settled more, if

you have pavers already and it's got a dip in it, it's got a dip

in it, or the sides crack, someone drove over it, just, you

know, fix it. Lift up the pavers, put the mortar in it.

That little bit of touch up makes a big difference. If you

already got pavers and you want to just make them smooth on top,

where they on the sides of somehow they broke off those

things there. Add great value. The other thing is, on the

sides, decorative rock do you have as weed fabric showing

that's just annoying. Seeing weed fabric, seeing polyline

sticking above the rocks. You're covering up all those things. I

mean, you want that rock to look nice and refreshed, clean it up

and just add a few, several tons of rock in the entryway to

spruce up the rock around, to cover all the weed fabric where

it don't look stingy and skimpy. And they're like, man, they cut

some serious corners. You don't want them to think that when

they walk into your house. And then another thing that are low

cost, you can add boulders, just a couple clusters of boulders

for accent, a lot of people, I want to plant a bunch of trees.

I want to get some bushes. I personally would hold off on

that, because there's a lot of people, as there were a water

shortage in Arizona, that that's not a positive thing. I've been

the property where Let's rip out plants and put boulders in,

because I'm not going to water plants. And so they see that,

hey, that just low maintenance. Lot of people are in this low

maintenance thing. So I would not be excited and not put my

money toward a bunch of bushes and trees and and I would

consider boulders. I would consider nice accents and

mounds. Those there add great value. Do. Someone's property,

and it's not significant amount of money to do that at all. So I

would definitely strongly consider the entryway, and

really focusing on that part also by the mailbox. Is your

mailbox look nice, or is it? Is your mailbox a crooked or, you

know, a column mailbox, nice mailbox, that is your address,

that's literally telling you who you are. That's your to me

mailboxes, and that just adds great as represents what you

stand for. Is it on a post with just a little box on the front,

or is it a nice column mailbox? The number on the side. It

sticks it stands out. It's making a statement. This is the

property you get. I mean, it has, it has your landmark or on

it. And I really think that adds a lot of value. When they stop,

they drive by and look at, I mean, every day they're going to

go to that mailbox and they're going to open it up. And so you

want that to be a wow factor and not overdo it, but just a nice

mailbox, not one that's bent, curved or banged dented up. You

want that to stand out. You don't need to be way overkill.

But it does make a difference. Is sprucing if it's got damaged,

or if it's a post, you know, you can build a whole column for

3000 bucks, or three to $5,000 that'll make a big statement.

And also, going back to other other ideas that those are all

covered, and you're like, Hey, that looks good. I like that.

But those are covered. To me, it's always incredible to have

one part of your property a focal point, the backyard,

wherever there's a big window or an area that's a focal point

that they look out the kitchen window, if there's an area there

the back patio window, or in the front where it's just kind of

blah. I mean, I just get some big boulders put a little mound

in there. You get some tall, skinny, tall rocks that just

make a statement. You know, just one area where it just kind of

it draws your eye. And those are, are very important on

someone's property, when they look at it out, you know the

kitchen windows, you're already looking at the patio, you're

looking out. You want something, they can look out and just, and

just their eyes draw to it, and their mind goes there, and it

just, it just brings a focal point to them, and it's like,

wow, that's mine. And not like overseeing your property into

the neighbor's property, unless you got a beautiful mountain

view. But you don't want them to, like, look over the

neighbor's property like, Man, that's a nice yard. So somewhere

they draw their eyes, their attention to and it grabs their

attention that has great, great value for someone's mind, when

they're looking out their window and they're looking at walking

your property, and they gaze out the window just a focal point.

And so instead of spending all this money and sprucing the

whole yard up, just look at small focal points, the

entryway, the mailbox, or a very drawn window that you can just

look out and say that's nice while they're looking outside.

Instead of like, Man, I got to look at that house, or I got to

look at that. You want their eyes to pull away from that and

over to an area that's on your property, and it's relaxing, and

it eases their mind, and like that's something that draws

their attention. I think that brings great value. It gives a

peace of mind, and it pulls that away from them. You don't want

to add any, to me, any value to the side of the house where

you're not really walking up and down, or even a corner where you

windows aren't showing you know those there when they see it

like they get their eyes aren't drawn to it right away. I

wouldn't waste your money or put your money in that.

Another thing is, if you got plants or trees, your irrigation

timer, you want to you want a nice timer. You don't want a

timer that's hard to read. It's hard to adjust. Or the veil box

is just all full, and you can't, like, see inside of it, because

they're going to get an inspector and they'll open the

veil box up and, like, well, irrigation, don't know about, I

can't, I can't grade it. It looks like needs work. So it's

not a lot of money to get that valve box all cleaned out. And

you can clean it out and let it look just don't need to replace

everything, but make it look presentable where the wires

aren't chewed and the hose look good. I, you know, I think that

adds, you know, very small amount of money or just a little

bit of effort to shine that up gives confidence that, hey, look

at my mailbox. It's good. Look at my timer. Here's our timer.

It's, you know, you're going to save water with this timer. It,

you know, it's timers are low cost to replace overall, unless

it's a hardwired or at a difficult location. And if that

is, you need to move it you want the timer. A very easy location,

not in the back of the garage, and it's over top of a where

it's hard to get to. They're like, well, let me see the timer

irrigation. Well, here it is. Like, well, that's inconvenient.

I need to move it. It's gonna cost a bunch of money. All those

things are going through their head when they when things

aren't convenient, they're trying to figure out, well, if I

buy this, I got, this is what I got to deal with. And the same

thing with other parts of the yard. If I buy this, this is

what I got to deal with. It's going to be inconvenient.

Another thing that I think is adds a lot of value overall is a

small pergola. I mean, if you have room to go in your

backyard, I mean, we're in Arizona, this is paradise. I

mean, think about it. It's paradise. When people come

they're going to go to your backyard. They're going to go to

an area where, like, Well, where am I going to sit at? So if you

don't got a great yard, if you're kind of small of a yard,

and you have up against the house, I mean a 10 by 10

pergola, the metal louvers that move up and down, that just

think about, like, I mean, you're the percentage of the

return on investment on a five to $8,000 pergola is so small

compared to sit there and they walk outside and look at the

pergola. You make, wow. This is this comes with it. And I have

seen a lot of value. A lot of new buyers are like, hey, I want

to place a shade. I want to sit outside. I want to enjoy this

beautiful weather that Prescott has. So that adds significant

value. I mean, you can sit there and say, Well, I want to add

green turf. You know, that's great, but they might tear it

up. We actually did a house a while back. We added a turf in

the front yard. The new buyer called us back, and we end up

tearing it out. It was in the ground for less than, like, six

months. And I'm like, that was a waste of money. And I honestly

thought that that turf would be valued, but they wanted to put

plants in the front so turf is good. Overall, I think that

would be the next installing turf and pavers. Turf does add

value because it's dry green, or this dry area and kind of

brownish area turf stick stands out. But overall, I think a

pergola would add more value than turf, because you don't

know what their plans. Are they planning on putting a fire pit

in the backyard. Do they want a water feature? What are they

doing? But if you have a nice patio set, paver patio, close to

the house, I mean a pergola, more than likely they're going

to leave it or move it, because you can just move it, pick it up

and move it, and you don't have to tear the whole property. If

you unbolt it, you can move it somewhere else on the property.

So I believe pergola, and not only talking to realtors, that

adds great value to someone's backyard, because they can go up

there and they get their mind and look up and look at the

sturdiness of it, and that's like, this is included. So go

back to recap on the things that we want to talk about. Let's go

back and recap on the five things that add great value on a

small cost for selling your property. First, I strongly

recommend a paver pad, paver walkway to your front entry.

Spruce that entry up. Let's decorate the rocks on the side,

you know, cover that weed fabric, put a fresh layer of

rocks. Very, very important to make that entryway look nice

where you're not barely covering weed fabric is all it takes is a

wild animal to walk across your yard and that evening, and sure

enough, that weed fabric showing the next morning, when they walk

the property, they see it, and you're like, wow, they got that

skimpy. And then that's their negative thoughts as they go

into the into the house and also out front. It's very important

to have a nice, I believe, a nice mailbox. Your mailbox,

have a column mailbox where you can, literally, it makes a

statement, and it's like, this is, this is the very nice

mailbox. They see it out front, because when they're going to

that house, they're looking for the address. So you have a nice

address on that mailbox. It stands out instead of a little

bitty one. It's hard to read on, you know, just a black mailbox.

I mean, it ain't a lot overall. It's a small amount of money for

them to get their attention with house they're going to and then

in the backyard, you know, the pergola, I believe is, is great

value. And then also, I think it's very important to find a

main window or a focal point where your eyes draw to

everybody's property, either the back patio, kitchen window, the

front entryway, the corner lot, the corner of your property. Add

some kind of a statement. Get some rock tall rocks, some kind

of a landmark that says that comes with it, and I believe it,

or I strongly recommend, I know it sounds crazy, a flagpole

American flag. Put that out front and that to me and other

realtors said that it's in the Prescott area. This is a lot of

veterans, a lot of retired people that fought for this

country and fought for. Is freedom. They like flagpole. We

put a lot of flagpoles in there's people, before they even

move into their house, they've told us, we need a flagpole. I'm

flying what I fought for. And so those are things that I believe

adds value and is very stands out on your property. I mean,

just really makes a statement. So I strongly encourage you on

all those aspects. Any questions for your comments below. Tell us

what you think on how to improve your property and what you

believe will add great value. Interesting in your feedback.

Thanks for listening.