Articles Tagged "Gardening"

A lush lawn can be a real booster when it comes to your home's selling price, as our real estate agents will tell you. That's good news, but attaining a beautiful lawn requires some work and commitment. Here are some tips that will guide you toward creating the lawn of your dreams.

1. Improve the soil
   Lawns need good soil to look healthy. Be sure that your soil's pH (the measure of the acidity or basicity of the soil) is right for the kind of grass you want to grow. Soil test kits can yield the pH, and you can use amendments to fix it. You may need to till the soil if it is exceptionally hard, and perhaps adding some good quality soil.

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Our real estate agents can tell you that no matter how green-thumbed you are, the success of your garden still depends on a higher power. Before you design your garden, buy seeds, or get into the weeds with a new vegetable patch or flower bed, it's important to consult one of the top arbiters of horticultural success: the sun. Just like choosing plants for your climate zone, you also have to pick the right spot for your garden. This means determining how much sun exposure your garden will get, especially in areas where tall buildings and trees cast shifting patterns of shade. The method you'll use to choose the best area for your plants is called sun mapping.

Why Map Sun Exposure in Your Garden?

Solar energy is fuel for plants, but this doesn't mean that all plants require the same amount of sun exposure. Some plants need full sun, which means 6-8 hours of direct sunlight a day. Plants labeled as part sun and part shade require 3-6 of sunlight each day, while those labeled as shade need 3 hours or less of sunlight a day.  A sun map can give a clear picture of where and when the sun hits throughout the day. This can help you plan the landscape around your home and determine the best area for certain crops. Tracking sun exposure and shade patterns on clear days during different months of the growing season will give you a guideline for planting a healthy garden.

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Laffey Real Estate, a leading residential real estate broker on Long Island, launched their Virtual Showing Platform in early April to much acclaim.  The demand for virtual viewings is still strong.  Visit Laffey.com/OpenHouse page to participate.  Interested buyers can find homes to preview every Wednesday from noon to 1:00 pm via Facebook Premier and Laffey.com. 

This is simple and safe home showings.  Go to Laffey.com/OpenHouse page.  Choose the property.  Click on the Facebook Live button under the listing address.  The open houses are scheduled in advance so the date and time is shown on the listing page as well.  Visitors will be notified when they are registered and will receive a notification that their Virtual Open House is beginning.  It is easy to explore open houses from a desktop, laptop and smart device.   

The market is very robust.  Nationwide, there was a 20.7 percent increase in existing-home sales — which includes single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops — between May and June of this year, according to the National Association of Realtors. 

On Long Island, the number of pending sales spiked by 60.6% in Nassau County and by 55.6% in Suffolk last month, compared with a year earlier, OneKey MLS, the multiple listing service that includes Long Island, reported Thursday.

Prices increased in both counties. In Nassau, closed sale prices ticked up 1.1% annually, to a median $551,250, and pending sale prices rose by 6.4%, to a median $580,000. Suffolk County median closed sale prices jumped by 5.8% to $439,000 and pending sale prices rose by 8.4% to $450,000, the listing service reported.

In July 2020, the median list price of single family homes in Queens County, NY was $750K, and media sale price was $650,000; condos median list price was $638,000 and media sold was $530,000. Homes in Queens County, NY sold for 3.5% below asking price on average in July 2020

Combined with record-low interest rates and high rents, City dwellers are adding another element to the frenzied pace of available home buyers. The average interest rate was 2.96% last week, down 0.64 percentage points from a year ago, mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

"This method of engaging our customers have proven fruitful for everyone", explained Donnamarie Chaimanis, President Laffey Real Estate.  "With Zoom, WhatsApp, Google Meets live streaming and showing appointments, the overwhelming number of buyers coming to our website requesting virtual showings and meetings has been awe-inspiring." 

Since mid-April, during the height of the pandemic and beyond, Laffey Real Estate débuted more than 500 Virtual Open Houses reaching thousands of potential buyers across Laffey.com, Agent Websites and Facebook. 

Tired of buying fresh herbs at the supermarket and after snipping a few leaves, you find them withered in the fridge, unusable? What if you had your very own herb garden, where you could pinch off just as much as you needed and no more, leaving the plant to grow on and keep producing? If you've thought about an herb garden but weren't sure how to get started, take heart. Many herbs are easy-peasy to grow. 

While you can grow herbs handily indoors in a sunny window or with a grow lamp, you can also create garden magic with herbs outdoors. Your herbs will be more profuse with plenty of sunlight and fresh air, so it's worth a try. What's more, if you take some care to ensure it's well designed and lovely to look at, your herb garden can be a selling point when you put your Long Island home on the market. Just ask our real estate agents about this and other tips for selling your home.

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