If you're anything like me, you've driven through neighborhoods, admiring the Santa Cruz homes and immaculate lawns.  You've pictured your dry, brown yard, wondering how these homeowners managed to get their lawns looking so great. 

Here are a few tips and tricks that can help achieve that plush, green grass that everyone hopes for:

1.  Choose a type of grass seed that's right for your climate zone. 

There are three climate zones:  Warm, transitional and cool.  Warm season grass is better for lawns in the South, cool season for the North, and transitional for Central.  The best bet for the transitional zone is either a mixture of warm and cool season grass or using the same seeds as the warm zone. 

2.  Plant at the right time.

Throw grass seed on…

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If the thought of spring cleaning your Santa Cruz home doesn’t bring a smile to your face, you’re not alone.  To help you (and me) get going now, I’ve come up with this short list of the 6 essential, in my opinion, spring cleaning chores:

1. Store winter clothes:  It’s time to pack away your winter clothes. Coats, sweaters, and your heavy winter clothing need to be inspected, cleaned if needed and packed away.  Don’t skip the step of cleaning, or, when you get your clothes out of storage next fall, you might find that they’ve been damaged beyond repair by insects or set in stains.  Where should you store your clothes?  Somewhere clean, cool, dark and dry. 

2. Wash window treatments:  Spring is the perfect time to inspect and clean the window treatments…

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When people meet you for the first time, their first impression is usually a lasting one. You also never get a second chance to make that first impression when you’re selling your Santa Cruz real estate. You need to present your home at its very best all the time.

Here are 3 things you can do to make a great first impression:

1. Clean up the yard: A messy yard is a distraction.  It can be time consuming to keep up with general yard work, but it’s worth the effort.  Overgrown shrubs, limp lawns, and general disarray can turn off a potential buyer. If you have to hire someone to come in and give your yard a quick pick me up, it’s worth the money.

2. Get Rid of Items You Don't Need: Be very strict about this and get rid of all but the bare necessities.…

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The real estate market is shifting toward some definite trends that may affect your home for sale in Santa Cruz.  Since 2006, the median cost of a home has dropped almost 30%. The good news, according Moody’s Economy.com, is that most of the nation’s metropolitan areas are expected to see less than a 5% drop in prices a year from now. Even better news, 10% are expected to see modest increases. 

If you have a home for sale in Santa Cruz, keeping an eye on the trends can greatly increase your chances of selling, no matter what the area. Here are two of the biggest trends:

Trend #1:  Home Prices Staying Down
Home inventories are slowly creeping back up, and another 3 million distressed homes are expected to be foreclosed on this year. As well, one-fourth…

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When you’re ready to sell your Santa Cruz real estate, you want to make sure it's attractive to potential buyers. A fresh coat of paint can do wonders for your home, but with all the paint colors available to you, you may wonder which colors are best.

There are two primary things to consider:

1. Function. What is the room primarily used for? Some rooms are easy to label. After all, there are only one or two uses for the kitchen or bathroom. But what about great rooms or family rooms?  Rooms like that are most often used for relaxation and recovery from a busy day, and, therefore, should be painted in soothing shades of blue or green. Busier rooms, like the kitchen, can handle stronger colors like red, orange, or bright yellow.

2. Size. Generally, the…

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As you are looking for the ideal home for you and your family, you may find yourself trying to decide between two similar homes. You could have worse problems than this on your Santa Cruz home search, but how do you decide which home is better for you and your family?
Here are primary points to consider:

1. Location. This is where you are going to live. You need to consider how far away it is from work, schools, and shopping. You probably want to do as little driving as possible. A Santa Cruz home close to where you will be spending your time away from home may be the better choice for you.

2. Home repairs. What will you need to do to the home once you move in? Think about the time and money you will have to invest in the home before making your…

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Nothing makes a Santa Cruz home for sale look better than a new coat of paint.  Many people are intimidated by the thought of painting the exterior of their home, and hire someone else to do it.  But, you can do it yourself, with these easy steps:
 
Getting Your House Ready to Paint
The first thing that you’ll need to do is inspect the house.  Look at all the walls, under the eaves and around the doorframe and windows.  Check for peeling paint, mildew and rough surfaces.
You’ll need to gather a few tools before getting to the repairs and putting your Santa Cruz home up for sale:

• Power-washer
• 2-3” inch putty knife
• 2-3” inch pull scraper
• Wire brush
• Sander 
• Chlorine bleach

Preparing the Surface
Power-wash the walls so you'll have a clean surface.  You…

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 The national real estate market, state markets and city markets all seemed to be wrapped up in a nifty bundle that effect whether your Santa Cruz home for sale will have a buyer. With the news reports over the last two years about the pop of the housing bubble, homeowners everywhere essentially lost their minds.

Here are a few examples:

• Some homeowners panicked and immediately put their houses up for sale
• Some homeowners chose to walk away from it all, leaving their homes vacant and mortgages in default
• Some homeowners went into a flurry of home renovations, with the idea of selling
• National and Santa Cruz home for sale listings shot through the roof

The amazing thing isn’t that the real estate market seems to be stabilizing – that’s not the…

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Even though it may sometimes seem like it, home building and design trends are not conjured up using a crystal ball.  They are the result of surveys, observations, lifestyles, socioeconomic issues, entertainment, technology, and most importantly, the needs and desires of buyers.

Here are some of the national and Santa Cruz homes trends to expect in 2010.

Green is growing
A study conducted by Burst Media in late December, 2009, found that 90 percent of Web users surveyed have incorporated some aspect of going green into their lives, and overall, they are willing to pay a premium for environmentally friendly products. 

Homes are getting smaller.
For 2010, home builders say they will focus on lower-priced and smaller homes. More than 95 percent of home…

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Nothing will turn off a potential buyer quicker than an offensive odor in your Santa Cruz home for sale. It may make them think you don’t take care of your home. At the very least, the odor will interfere with their ability to picture themselves in your home.  Take the time to remove odors from your home.

Here are 5 tips to make your home smell fresh and clean:

1. Clean your carpets. Your carpets are fibers that absorb odor. Have your carpets cleaned by a professional to remove odors stuck in the carpet and pad. Another option is to rent a carpet cleaner and clean them yourself.

2. Paint. Sometimes odors like smoke can be trapped in your walls. A fresh coat of paint will not only brighten your room, it can seal the walls and mask the offending odors.…

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