Realty Insights for Home Buying, Home Selling, and Indy Info

My husband and I have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather and have been working on the landscaping at our home. This is our first experience with landscaping and it is pretty overwhelming when you don't know what you are doing! Unfortunately, we don't have the funds to hire a landscape company to design and do our landscaping, so it's all up to us. And, I know nothing about plants or landscaping. Thankfully, there are many great resources out there. Here are a few we found helpful: Lowes http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=pg&p=Down_to_Earth/GardenPlanner/gardenplansplash.html They have a garden and landscape planner that is extremely user-friendly and helps you visual your plans. You put in your house and yard and it lets you add shrubbery, trees, gardens, patios, etc. HGTV.com Lots of great information about what plants, flowers and trees grow best in what areas and how to best care for all your landscaping. Also has project ideas for all budgets and type...

Here are a few quick spring maintenance tips for your home: Inspect your roof for damaged, loose or missing shingles --it is recommended to replace the entire roof is damaged shingles make up more than 20% of the entire roof Test your air conditioning system --get any necessary repairs taken care of before the hot weather really sets in Replace your HVAC filter-- this should be done on a monthly basis

Following are ten ways Realtors can stay safe in their day-to-day business, courtesy of the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors. According to the National Association of Realtors, 67% of Realtors reported having a safety concern, incident or harassing situation and so it's nice to have a reminder of what we can do to stay safe. 1). Keep your (charged) cell phone and keys with you at all times 2). Work with your co-workers and come up with a code phrase that alerts them when you are in an uncomfortable situation 3). Give someone your schedule, so they know where you are at all times 4). When at an open house, let your customer enter a room first while you stay by the door 5). Upon entering a house for the first time, check all rooms and determine several “escape” routes 6). Meet all new clients at the office when others are there 7). Verify the identity of all new clients; ask for work, home, and cell phone numbers and try to contact them at one or more of the numbers 8). Ge...