If your Santa Cruz home needs beautifying, vines can be the answer to your landscaping questions.

• Vines can be used to screen unattractive features. Whether it’s the neighbor’s mess, an alley or whatever, you can hide it from view with vines grown on a fence or trellis. If it’s a retaining wall you want to hide, you can plant vines above it to cascade down and transform the area.

• Create shade quickly. If you have too much sun at your Santa Cruz home and don’t want to wait several years for trees to grow, erect an arbor and plant vines to grow over it. If it’s big enough, consider placing a bench or picnic table underneath and have an oasis for gatherings.

Here are some perennial vines to consider:

• Clematis is a stunning choice. Large,…

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If you are financially distressed, it might be time to cut your losses and minimize the damage to your financial future. If you’re feeling the economic pressure of an impending foreclosure, then consider putting your Santa Cruz real estate up for a short sale.

While it might seem like short sales should be a speedy process, they’ve been known to play havoc with many unsuspecting sellers. In honor of April Fool’s Day, we’ve created a list of the many short sale pitfalls sellers encounter.

• Settle your accounts – Strive to pay off all your other debt. Your bank might not approve your short sale application if you have judgments from other creditors pending.

• Pay your HOAs – Even if you’re defaulting on your mortgage, it’s important to meet your…

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Whether you’ve decided to purchase a new home or list yours for sale, you’ll need to hire an experienced Santa Cruz real estate agent. Selling and buying homes can be stressful, so you need to be able to trust and rely on your Santa Cruz real estate agent to do what’s in your best interest, even if they’re acting as a dual agent.

While ‘dual agent’ might be a confusing term, it’s quite simple — the real estate agent is working for both the buyer and the seller of the home. As both parties will have a lot at stake, this could be perceived as a conflict of interest. Below are some of a dual agent’s obligations which are put in place to prevent a conflict of interest:

• An agent should disclose dual agency – As soon as a real estate agent realizes that…

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Is there anything more enchanting than having hummingbirds visit your Santa Cruz real estate? These tiny creatures are the size of a large bug. Their lightning speed, amazing hovering abilities and threadlike tongues are a marvel to behold.

Here are some ways to make your Santa Cruz real estate attractive to hummingbirds:

1. Hang hummingbird feeders. This is the quickest method.
 Make it sweet. Fill your feeder with a simple solution made of one part white sugar to four parts water.
 Don’t use honey. Solutions made with honey will ferment and can kill hummingbirds.
 Keep it clean. Rinse the feeder before every refilling, and wash it periodically. Be sure to rinse the soap out very thoroughly. Once a month, disinfect with hydrogen peroxide and rinse…

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April begins gardening season, the time we get antsy to start working the soil, thinking about fertilizing the lawn and planting flowers in our Santa Cruz home.

Whether you’re preparing your Santa Cruz home to put it up for sale or just doing general maintenance and upkeep, here is your to-do list:

Annuals and Containers:

• Deadhead flowers to promote more blooms.
• Clean and sanitize summer containers, and plan your design for the summer.
• Plant summer annuals after the last frost.  Bring them indoors or cover with a cloth during a late cold snap.
• Start seeds indoors for annual herbs.
• Plant annual herbs such as basil and cilantro after the last frost.

Lawn:

• Raking should be your first task of spring lawn care. This removes dead grass,…

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