How to Landscape your properties

Once you have found your home or your office, hire a reputable landscape firm to help you. It will add incredible value to the property. It's amazing. Trees, bushes, rocks, and flowers can turn the most mundane building into work of art. Landscaping can add value to a building far above the cost of labor and materials. If you can't afford a landscaper, do it yourself. I always joke that landscaping on your own is a win-win; it's cheap and good for your health.

If you hate physical labor, like I do, you'll hire someone. The trick is finding someone with your taste who can work within your budget and within your schedule. Remember that the cheapest is not always the best. As with contractors, shoddy work will need to be redone or, even worse, corrected, and that can be a disaster. When choosing a landscaper, find a firm with a good reputation by asking your neighbors or other business owners for recommendations.

Also, try to visit some sites where the landscaper has previously done work. If the work is shoddy, you'll know right away to find someone else. You can also check on the equipment that landscaper is using. If the equipment is busted, the service will most likely be busted, too.

And finally, make sure the work that they're doing will last for years with minimal maintenance. No one wants to have to replant every year. A landscaper can do incredible work, but if it looks worn and dead within six months, your will have thrown your money away.

How to Deal with Contractors

Real estate brokers, plantation workers/contractors and interior decorators like racehorses-they can be as lazy as all get out, and then they can race to finish line and surprise you. There's not much in between. They can really be difficult to handle, but if you prepare yourself, you'll have a much better experience working with them. Always remember that they will try to get away with as much as they possibly can. If you call them on it, they'll shape up. They're a strange bunch- and I won't offending anyone by saying that, because they know it as well as I do.

Some of them can work wonders and will do so eventually. Some of them won't work wonders ever, which you will also find out eventually. That's way it's good to pick contractors, ask neighbors, friends, and colleagues about contractors they're worked with. Nine out of ten will tell you horror stories, and if they don't, get the contractor's name and put it to use.

Always get references from contractors. Ask the contractor to give you ten names of other jobs they have done within the last year. Jobs that they did four or five years ago are not good measures; the jobs need to be recent. And don't ask for just two names; ask for full ten. It's easy to make two parties happy, but only a great contractor can make ten parties happy.

Once you've hired a contractor and negotiated a budget, my best advice for you is to be tough on them. If you're not, they think you're soft and a pushover. You have to make expectations clear. Be clear and up front about timing and the inflexibility of your budget. If you need the job finished by a certain time, hold the contractors to that date. If you keep an eye on their work and act as knowledgeable as possible, you increase the chances that the contractors will respect you and get something done.