First impressions matter immensely, thus a property owner should never neglect their investment property’s landscaping. A real estate agent who is getting a property ready for sale spends time, energy and effort making the most of a property’s curb appeal to entice a potential buyer to buy for the highest possible price. A rule of thumb is that a realtor who invests $1 dollar of curb appeal improvements will gain their clients $3 of return at close of escrow. In the same vein, a property manager should counsel his clients to invest some time, energy and effort in sprucing up their rental property exterior landscaping to help attract more potential renters or keep the ones they have. The art of providing just enough curb appeal, just the right balance of attractive landscaping, while maintaining a fixed maintenance budget can be achieved through education, experience, and common sense. Experienced property managers should be able to put together a plan for their owners at no additional expense.

Long Term Landscaping Planning for Your Portfolio of Properties is Key

An experienced property manager can and will help their clients improve their exterior landscapes with just the right balance of attractive components while not breaking the bank. A proper mix will help the owner keep the property rented, while at the same time reduce the monthly maintenance of the property, which in turn reduces costs. For example, although lush, cool, beautifully manicured green grass is very attractive, the cost of installing and maintaining the grass is not as cost effective as keeping a small patch of grass with other drought resistant groundscape like gravel, bark, mulch and wood chips. These other ground cover alternatives also help keep moisture in the ground to reduce water consumption. An experienced property manager can evaluate and help an owner make some design changes to improve aesthetics and reduce maintenance costs.

Trees, Trees, and More Trees

Other than the property’s building a well-thought out scattering of trees are by far the most valuable asset a property exterior can have. Mature, gorgeous, and sky-reaching trees can also help reduce cooling costs for a rental property which in turn makes the property more attractive to rent. If your investment property lacks trees consider having an arborist or landscape architect suggest some different species of trees and locations to plant them on the property to maximize their possible benefits.

Seven (7) Ideas for Low-Cost Landscaping

When you have an opportunity you should get together with your property manager and try to implement a long-term plan for landscaping improvement and maintenance with the goal being to improve aesthetics and reduce maintenance costs. The following list includes some low-cost ideas to think about and brainstorm with your property manager:

1) City Tree Program – Some cities and towns actually give away trees for property owners as long as the owner follows certain guidelines;

2) Look for Sales – Wait until the end of the growing season to go shopping for trees, shrubs, soil and mulch because the retailers that didn’t sell all their inventory will be looking to get rid of these items at a discount;

3) Demolished Buildings – Look around your neighborhood for demolition sites as there are often free bricks or other building materials which can be used in your landscaping designs;

4) Work Your Existing Plants – Educate yourself to help keep and shape the trees and shrubs you already have to give them new life and vitality, or even relocate them.

5) Buy Small – Buy smaller sized plants, shrubs, and trees which will be less than larger ones.

6) Make Your Own Compost – You can easily build and maintain a composter on your rental property where you or your gardener deposits all of the grounds clippings, waste, and leaves. This compost will eventually produce fertilizer which is one more thing you won’t have to purchase.

7) Use Drought Resistant Plants – Not only is water scarce, but it is getting more expensive on a monthly basis, so a collection of drought resistant plants is important for long-term maintenance cost reduction.

Be Patient and Watch Your Property ROI and Exterior Improve

When you have slowly but surely implemented a long-term plan for exterior landscaping improvement and maintenance your reward will be improved aesthetics, reduced maintenance and reduced costs. More importantly your investment property will be more attractive to potential renters and those renters who do live there will not want to leave. Finally, the improvements and maintenance expenses are fully tax deductible provided you and/or your property manager has saved the receipts and properly recorded them.

Remember, first impressions make a huge difference. A property owner should get together and implement a plan with their property manager and never neglect their investment property’s exterior landscaping and overall appearance. If your property manager is not making these types of suggestions maybe it is time to begin looking for a new property manager.

If you tried to think of people involved in product creation, who would come to mind? You may think of Edison, Franklin, or maybe Henry Ford. Would you ever think of yourself as someone who can create a quality product? Product creation is actually relatively easy and product launching is not that tough either! If you follow a few easy to understand steps, you could be starting the product creation and product launching process sooner than you think.

The first step in creating your information product is to know and understand your market. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you are unsure of what to do or where to look to know your market. Studying your niche market and understanding the buzz words and buying patterns can ease the process dramatically. Personally, I would recommend networking with someone who has had success in the niche market you are considering and learn from their results. If they are into product creation and not very business savvy expect some hesitation. If they only sell products and have nothing to do with product launching or product creation you may your first affiliate (sales person)! Something else you can use to find hot trends is with the Google Trends tool.

The second step is the product creation process. Take your niche market and brainstorm ideas and topics relating to it. There are a lot of product launching contests going on recently relating to a newly created internet marketing tool. There are so many aspects to the mentioned niche that literally, and unfortunately, anything can be considered an Internet Marketing tool. The reason that anyone can basically create an Internet Marketing tool is because of something called Private Label Rights products.

What I use private label rights products for, and highly recommend them in this specific manner, is to cure writer’s block especially when it is lingering. Many people base their entire product creation and product launching on a private label rights product. This is where you can start to shine and build a strong brand for yourself. If you set goals for yourself, short-term goals to be exact, you can see your product creation come into being much faster and there is a good chance with less revision needed. If you keep hitting time restraint road blocks; however there is nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach, you can consider outsourcing portions of your project. Outsourcing can be an extremely huge benefit or just as great of a disaster.

You can find someone to outsource work to at a freelance site such as Guru.com or eLance.com. When reviewing proposals it is almost mandatory you perform a background check on them as you are in essence hiring them. Doing a background check on freelancers is as easy as asking for samples of their work and reviewing feedback on the freelance site from previous customers. Depending on the size and requirements of your project this can add up to a decent sized investment, so caution is very important. One tip I always recommend to people looking to hire an individual is to ask them what they can provide you that no one else can. This simple question gives them a chance to “toot their own horn” and acknowledge where they feel most competent as far as their skill set.

The final portion of the product creation and product launching formula is the launch. This can literally make or break the effort, time, and maybe (if you invested) money you put in to your project. There are numerous aspects to product launching and although their relevance is debated in terms to their effect, experts agree all must be followed. The person in your field who you asked for product advice from can help you substantially if you have kept in touch. If not, the first thing you need to do is to create a visually appealing website with flawless design work.

I also mentioned outsourcing before, this is one aspect of product launching I have little strength in and I always outsource this portion. The website does not have to be large however the content (ad copy in Internet Marketing) must be stellar and as perfect as possible. This is where advertising knowledge or experience is beneficial. When the site is set up you now put a lead capture form on your website.

I put two lead capture pages on all products I create on the internet and is one of the best methods of getting a solid start when you are in the product launching stage. When you gain information from a prospect or someone looking to get paid for referring sales you are able to provide them updates or specials. Many people abuse their prospect or affiliate lists by in turn emailing them with a new product daily and I find the recommendations to be totally unrelated to their original need, problem, or interest.

Another stage in the product launching stage is creating a free report or demo version of your product to entice the product to sign up to your email list. Using proper follow up with this can help generate numerous sales for you. One thing you need to ensure is that your free product completely relates to your main product that you are looking to sell.

You are now ready to advertise your product launching to customers as well as the opportunity to sell for affiliates. This is the single aspect that many product creations and launches fail on. It is actually not entirely difficult. One thing you can do is write articles (and a good amount of them) on topics relating to your product. I am a huge advocate of giving a solution in forums. When you join a forum you are normally offered the opportunity to create a signature. In your signature, you should enter the link to your opt-in or lead capture page. When you respond to posts, you are advertising your opportunity.

It is not impossible to create a product and it does not have to take a long time. You need to setup a plan and stick to it. If you get stuck, look at similar and successful products to your own and try and see how they did it. When you sit down and brainstorm you will be surprised with what you can imagine.

Earlier we gave you 4 tips for Happy Home-Based Business Partners. Now we’ll cover 4 more.1. Give Up Every Now and Then – Just like in a marriage, you must learn to compromise in your home-based business. You can’t always have it your way; you have to learn how to give in to what your spouse is doing sometimes. You have to consider your spouse and their ideas and needs in order to make the business work.2. Remember Why You’re Doing What You’re Doing – Keep focused on the fact that you’re building a home-based business for your family and use that as your motivation. Remember that when times get difficult or stressful, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.3. Leave Something Behind – Proverbs 13:22 says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children… Use your home-based business as an inheritance to your children and their children. Imagine teaching your children all of the skills you have learned and developed while building your business. Do you think they will be ready for the real world when they get out of school? Of course they would.You would have left them with something that no one can take away from them. You would have taught them how to be self-sufficient and how not to depend on someone else giving them a job in order to provide for themselves.4. Create Your Legacy – Make sure that your name (and your spouses) is a good name. Make sure that when people hear your name they think honest, integrity, intelligent, character, encouraging, fair, loving, hard working, etc. When people think about the two of you they should have the upmost respect for you and what you have done in your home-based business.So before you and your spouse take on the task of building a home-based business together, remember these points. And if you are already in business together you may want to re-evaluate your partnership and make some changes so that it is prosperous financially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.Make sure you read the Resource Box for more information on a great home-based business and follow the instructions there.To YOUR Success,Rodney