The time of year you decide to add new plants, can determine the success of their growth.

The same as you would avoid planting in freezing temperatures, in hotter climates you’ll want to sheer clear of doing so when temperatures are above 100 degrees. It’s recommended that most planting be done in the spring of fall. Still, some are going to choose to plant anyway.

One suggestion is to be sure your plant purchases are made logically. This means not making impulsive buys that won’t pan out. For example, ensure that any plant you’re planning to purchase is locally grown, as cooler area plants won’t survive a desert summer.

Planting during the warmer months is going to require extra watering and monitoring for indications of water stress and sunburn. At the same time you don’t want to drown them, but simply keep the area evenly moist for a few weeks before backing off gradually into a more regular water schedule.

The types of plants that are fine to plant in the summer include most native desert trees including mesquite and paloverde. Vines of the passion and yellow orchid varieties are also fine. Although cactus, aloes, and other succulents can be planted now, you should hold off during the high humidity season, such as Arizona’s monsoon.

When planting, dig a hole wider than the pot in which the plant comes. Be sure that the soil isn’t too wet; it should crumble in your hand. In general, you needn’t amend the soil, as desert plants are generally fine with native soil.

After loosening the root ball, place the plant in the hole and fill it in without tamping all the air out of the soil. Immediate watering is recommended unless the plant is a cactus or succulent, which should be plants dry and not watered about a week. For other plants, moisture will be needed for several weeks.

Housing market reports vary widely depending on what part of the country you are in.

If you’re a homeowner looking to sell a property but would like to be well-informed about home values before setting a price, there are a number of avenues you can use to evaluate your prospects.

To gauge the general trend for your area, look at sales that have closed going back at least five years. Scope median, rather than average, prices, as these are the more accurate barometer for home sales in your neighborhood. Also check to see what new homes are selling for in your area.

Gathering information on value fluctuations over a span of years will give you a general idea of price trends, which allows you to assess the relative strength of your market and enable you to price your home most effectively.

Enlist the help of real-estate agents who’ve closed sales in your area and inquire as to the details of those sales. Check with at least two agents and ask them to qualify their view of your home’s current value. After reviewing recent sales comparable to your home, ask why your home sits at the value they’ve chosen. Avoid the trap of hiring the agent that is simply telling you what you’d like to hear, and instead solicit the services of one who has a successful sales record in the post-crash era. Be sure to ask if they know of any deals, such as no money down homes.

With more and more competition cropping up from foreclosed homes, builders are making their new homes more appealing with trendy features.

1. Space maximization – Its seems buyers are no longer looking for huge spaces that are expensive to maintain, but instead are looking for efficient layouts. Popular now are dual function areas such as a laundry room that doubles as a home office.

2. Energy Efficient – The move toward green has many benefits, not the least of which is money savings. Homebuilders see an advantage in offering features such as super-insulated walls and attics, as well as solar systems that produce energy.

3. Color conscious – Neutrals are gaining again in popularity, However, it’s not the same boring beige that is trending; Instead, builders are offering the elegance of white, cream and brown combinations. The colors are intended to create a sense of comfort and ease; therefore, colors are not overdone but are included with textures that add a calming effect.

4. Headboard, out – You’ll find in many model homes a feature wall used in place of a headboard in the master bedroom. This gives the room the appearance of being larger and can often be break-taking. Give a room a focus such as this is inexpensive but powerful.

5. Storage anyone? – Because of the importance of storage, you’d be hard-pressed to find a model home that doesn’t feature a large closet or pantry. There is a large move now toward storage that provides convenience to avoid clutter.

6. Countertops – Granite remains the most popular material for your counter-tops but the trend to quartz and marble is very noticeable in homes. This is the result of the popularity of cleaner lines that mesh well with stone that is less busy.

Where home builders really do themselves proud is with the models they build to show potential customers many of the options that can be obtained if a homeowner wants to spend the money for upgrades. And when these home builders decide to break out the good stuff, it’s a benefit to everyone.

For instance, I’ve seen some model homes with some of the most beautiful media rooms you’ve ever seen. Both media rooms and theater rooms can add something special for those people who love entertaining. The same goes for a game room, sometimes with things such as pool tables, ping pong tables and other things added for effect.

What about extra large garages, or garages with lifts? What about a jacuzzi in the bedroom or even a special jacuzzi room with a large flat screen TV? What about a home library or den or extra large office space? What about a greenroom?

Here’s the thing. Builders create these masterpieces as showrooms for the kinds of things they can add to a quality home. Visitors love seeing what they could have in their homes, even if they don’t always follow through on it.

But where it comes through positively for both parties is when the home builder is ready to sell the model. Models don’t stay that way forever. At this point, deals can be made that are beneficial to both seller and buyer. Sellers know that they’re not going to get what they normally get for these homes, yet they’re going to get a lot for them just because of what’s in them. Buyers know that these homes will cost a little more than they might have been thinking about paying and yet it’s hard to deny oneself all these great amenities that they might have never been able to consider before.

This truly is a case of “build it and they will come”, or in this case “buy”.

The first question to ask is what is perfection. The reality is that perfection means something different to each person you ask. When it comes to home ownership, it’s no different than anything else. While one person might say perfection is having an extra large 2-car garage, someone else might say having a hot tub in the bedroom is perfection.

When one moves into a home that’s already been built, if they’ve taken the time to look at everything in that house they’ve already recognized certain things that they wish they could change, or plan on changing, but have said that they can live with it. When moving into my first home the one thing I wasn’t crazy about was that in half the house there was pink wall to wall carpeting. I figured there was a way around that so I didn’t let it bother me. What my wife and I ended up doing was purchasing large rugs and putting them in each room to eliminate so much pink, and people thought it was a great designing trick.

In every home, unless you’ve taken the time to design in and go to the store to select each and every component, there will be something you won’t like. Most things won’t cost all that much money to change, such as cabinets, rugs, or even windows. No one should ever let that type of thing keep them from looking and then purchasing one of these homes.

However, there are some things that everyone just won’t be able to overcome. If the bathroom totally irritates you and the cost of changing it runs into 5 digits or more, you really have to consider whether this house is for you. If there are multiple things you want to change or that you can’t live with, it’s probably better to move on and find something else to your liking.

If you expect perfection in almost anything you will be disappointed. The same goes for homes, whether you have one built or buy one that’s already in existence.

The concept of automated homes used to mean that homeowners could turn things on and off from one central location. It could be a panel on a wall in one or many rooms in the house or it could be connected to a program that one’s computer could run. In this case Lennar is setting things up so that homeowners can run the automation from their smartphones as well.

They tout this as potentially saving energy by allowing homeowners to better control heat or air conditioning while they’re away from home, such as turning them on shortly before getting home to be comfortable without having to worry about setting timers all the time. Other features are turning lights on and off and even possibly setting things up to do pet maintenance while you’re not home.

I see much of this as a good thing while still worrying about other things. For instance, if someone gains access to your phone while you’re not looking and knows where you live, they could possibly unlock your doors or turn off your alarm system if you haven’t set your encryption properly. There’s also always the possibility that some technically savvy people could figure out how to run your system much closer to your home.

Still, this is a very bold move, one that could revolutionize the home industry, which could use a boost to help draw people back into the marketplace. It would leave one less thing to worry about if you left home, and you could probably run monitoring equipment of all types, thereby feeling more secure in the safety or your home as well. It’s worth exploring to see just how much automation there is and how easy it might be to use.

One, mobile homes are already constructed. You can get them as small as a large camper or you can get them as large as a 5-room ranch style home. Many are made out of metal so they can transport better, although the larger they are the less likely anyone’s riding around in one for any extended period of time.

Two, mobile homes don’t require the purchase of land. Most people put their mobile homes in parks where they pay lot rent, often as low as $200 a month, which is drastically less than buying land and putting a regular home on it. Sure, you still pay utilities, but their minor compared to regular homes.

Three, the internal parts of mobile homes are already completed. Sure, you don’t get to select what kind of floor or appliances you want, but everything you need has already been built into the home so that’s one less thing you have to worry about.

Four, if you don’t like the neighborhood you’re in, it’s easy to move out. You can move across town or to another state, and you have your home with you, already furnished and ready to reestablish yourself somewhere else.

Five, the costs are way lower, which means you could end up with a relatively nice sized home that could cost you less than $30,000, in some cases less than $10,000. Frankly, that’s less than what most people pay for their cars, and they hold their value better over time.

by Rowena via Flickr

1. Aesthetics. Whether you’re buying brand new from a builder or buying a pre-existing home, you can bet that each put a lot of time into how they wanted the place to look. They both go for comfort and possibly some Feng Shui aesthetics, which means you know that care was taken to provide the best environment for either themselves or for someone else. If you’re buying from a home builder, you know they took the time to make sure all the appliances looked good together, and that the colors of the room matched up with the colors of the furniture. In essence, both parties have given you an experience you can feel as soon as you want into the home.

2. Convenience. For furnished homes, it’s all been taken care of for you. It’s like the convenience of a hotel only much bigger and it’s yours. Sure, you might want to change a thing or two here and there, but a well done home means you don’t have to change a thing. You can just move in and go about your business.

3. Time. Do you know how much time it takes to just put plans together before any building has begun for a home? Do you know how much time it takes to go out and look at all that stuff that your house is going to be constructed with? I’m sure you at least known the kind of time it takes to go around to stores trying to pick out appliances or furniture for your home. Sure, sometimes that’s fun, but other times it starts to get on your nerve. If it’s already been taken care of for you think of all the time you’ve saved.

4. Cost. Having some create plans for your home and then building it costs way more money than just moving into a completed home. Moving into a home that has no appliances or furniture might seem like it would cost less as well, but most home builders have special deals with retailers so that they get those items at a very low cost because they buy them in bulk. And these are name brand companies, which means you’re getting quality. Only having to make one payment, that being to purchase the home, instead of having to then go and purchase everything else, saves a lot on costs.

by James Thompson

1. Paint everything white. To you, the homeowner, that might seem boring, but studies have shown that the best way to your one’s home in the best light possible is to have it freshly painted white, or off-white if you just can’t pull the trigger. It seems most buyers like to use their imagination, even if you’re leaving all the appliances, of how they’d feel in your house, whether they end up changing colors later on or not.

2. Have as many open spaces as possible. Realtors are always recommending that those homey touches that make you feel good in your home don’t always translate to others, especially if it takes away space. Moving things out of hallways and trying to show more open space in one’s living room offers an inviting environment for a potential buyer.

3. Get rid of all animal smells and other smells ASAP! Not every loves pets, and even those that do don’t like the smell already in a home they’re hoping to buy. If they don’t like animal smells, they’re going to hate the smell of cigarettes or many other things. Even if you happen to love aromatherapy items, which smell pretty nice, those scents take away from how someone else will see your home. The one exception; warm cookies. That seems to go over very well, especially if your visitors can take free samples.

4. Thoroughly clean the bathrooms. Obviously you’ll want your entire home clean, but most people will really repel if the bathroom isn’t immaculate, which includes the sliding glass doors or shower curtains. These things seem to be something that many homeowners forget about because they get used to it, but it’s a crucial selling point.

5. Make sure the lawn looks nice. You don’t have to overdo it, but studies have shown that if the outside of the house looks bad, it doesn’t matter what you do on the inside. And the lawn seems to take more importance than the rest of the house unless the rest of the outside of the house looks pretty bad. So, cut the grass and trim the hedges and fill in those mole holes and you could be on your way to a quick sale of your home.

This means that there are some great deals on the market. How great? The price on some homes has come down more than 50% from its original rate. In some communities, where homes have been taken over by banks and then banks taken over by other banks, there have been deals reported as great as 65 – 75% or more. It’s not unusual to hear of homes that were originally listed around $400,000 suddenly showing up at rates under $100,000.

The same thing goes for condominiums. There are brand new large luxury condominiums that have less than a 20% occupancy rate that are looking for ways to attract buyers, and many of these are in places such as Key West, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, places with lots of beaches and great nightlife.

One such condominium community is known as Water’s Edge Luxury Condominiums, a 26-story luxury building in Clearwater, Florida. At one point the building was sitting almost totally empty until they got the approval to not only discount rates drastically, but they received special approval to only have to require a 3.5% down payment from the Federal Housing Administration. That has affected the occupancy rate in a positive direction, but there are still many units available for purchase.

There are plenty of deals like that throughout Florida for homes of all type. These homes are built with quality, are still brand new in that they’ve never had any previous residents in them, and are ready for you to move into them. Contact a realtor and start your new home search as soon as possible before the rebound takes hold.