6 Sure Fire ways to increase Curb Appeal

6 Sure Ways to Boast Curb Appeal   If you're thinking of listing your home this spring, now is the time to be thinking about one of the most important elements of real estate marketing: Curb appeal. It's your one and only chance to make a first impression on a potential buyer, so make it a good one! Here are some suggestions to make your home stand out from the rest: 1. Get some new eyes: The thing about curb appeal is that you need to look at your house through a stranger's eyes, not through your own. You don't even notice the faded paint on the trim or the missing house numbers, but other people do. So if you can't be honest and objective about the overall condition of the exterior of your home, find someone who can. If you have a friend, relative, or neighbor who you trust to be honest with you (and that you have a good enough relationship with that it will survive their bluntness, then ask them). Ask your real estate agent. If necessary, hire a landscaper or a contractor to act as a consultant. The main thing is to get a comprehensive, written list put together of what needs to be done to the outside of your home to improve the first impression it makes. Concentrate on the front, but don't overlook the sides and back either. 2. Start with basic repairs: The very first thing on your curb appeal list should be basic repairs. Is there a broken window? A torn screen? A loose gutter or downspout? A sagging screen door? It doesn't matter what it is or how small it is, fix it. They may seem like little things, but making sure that everything is in proper working order can make a huge difference in how people perceive your house and the care you have taken with it as a homeowner. Make sure you have big, bright, easily visible house numbers. Oh yeah -- and don't forget to squirt a little oil on those squeaky door and gate hinges. 3. Next, do some cleaning: Break out the broom and clean the outside of your house better than it's ever been cleaned before. Rent a pressure washer, and clean the driveway, walkways and patio. Clean your decks and your siding (a scrub brush is a better choice in these areas than a pressure washer, to avoid damage to the wood). If your wood deck is badly weathered, consider a deck cleaner and brightener made specifically for that purpose -- available at paint stores. Wash all your windows, inside and out, including the window screens. 4. Declutter: Just as you would with the interior, you want to declutter the outside of your house as well. Pick up the kids' toys, and put away the garden tools and hoses (remember, you're going to have people visiting the house, so this is also a liability issue). Remove all that accumulated junk from the sides and back of the house, and haul it to the landfill. 5. Next, tackle the landscaping: As part of the decluttering and general cleaning, do the landscaping areas as well. Prune overgrown plants and trim back overhanging tree limbs. Pull out anything that's dead. Rake up leaves and needles, and pull weeds. If you have an underground sprinkler system, make sure everything is working properly. If you have a lawn, fertilize and water it regularly to green it up, and run an edger along sidewalks and driveway edges. In your planter areas, you can make a huge difference in how your house looks with the simple addition of some fresh bark and colorful flowers. And if you don't have any planter areas, create a few, or add some simple planter boxes to do the same thing. There's nothing like color to really catch the eye and give your home a bright, fresh appeal. 6. Consider a trip to the paint store: Few things help your home show better than a fresh coat of paint. If it's been awhile since the outside of your home's been painted, this might be a worthwhile investment, especially in a tough seller's market. If you're handy with a brush and an airless sprayer, you might just want to undertake the project yourself. A long weekend and a few hundred dollars in paint can make a world of difference in how well the home shows and how quickly it sells. Otherwise, talk with a licensed painting contractor for an estimate. Maybe painting the entire house isn't really necessary. Sometimes just a fresh coat of paint or maybe a new color on the trim, exterior doors, garage door or window shutters can make a big difference as well. A word of caution about paint colors: When painting the house for resale, select colors that complement the house and the neighborhood and that will appeal to the greatest number of buyers, whether they happen to be your favorites or not. You may really have been itching to paint the house purple with black trim, but save that for another day.

 

Rare shark sighting close to Laguna shore

DANA POINT About 80 people on a noon Friday whale watching trip out of Dana Point harbor came upon a rarely sighted 20-foot basking shark, according to Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching.

"I have never seen a Basking Shark this close to shore in 90 feet of water off the coast (of) South Laguna Beach," said Capt. Tom White in a news release.

About 80 people on a noon Friday whale watching trip out of Dana Point harbor came upon a rarely sighted 20-foot basking shark, according to Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching. "I have never seen a Basking Shark this close to shore in 90 feet of water off the coast (of) South Laguna Beach," said Capt. Tom White in a news release.

PHOTO COUTESY OF DANA WHARF SPORTFISHING AND WHALE WATCHING; TEXT BY VIK JOLLY, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the shark as a "huge, sluggish shark of the family Cetorhinidae. ... Named for its habit of floating or slowly swimming at the surface, the basking shark inhabits temperate regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans."

The encyclopedia says the giant shark grows as long as 46 feet and "is exceeded in size among fishes only by the whale shark."

Basking sharks are not considered dangerous. They eat plankton.

Capt. Larry Hartmann, who was also on the boat, characterized the encounter about a half mile off the beach across from Three Arch Bay as "off the charts."

"It was amazing," he said. "It took us about two hours to decompress."

"You don't expect to see something enormous like that that weighs about 6,000 pounds this close to shore," said Hartmann. "And then he decided to swim right in front of the boat and had his mouth wide open. He then swam under the boat and popped up on the other side."

Hartmann scrambled to get a camera and started snapping pictures.

"The tail was so enormous that it was just sort of shocking actually," said the 46-year-old captain. "It was nice to see such a beautiful animal."

The noon whale watchers also found gray whales, dolphin, and sea lions on the trip, the news release said..

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CLICK TO SEE VIDEO, courtesy of Dana Wharf.

Laguna Beach Living

LAGUNA BEACH – After months of 15-hour work days, Michael Weiss was eager to host friends and family at the completed Sands Café at Aliso Beach.

Weiss and a partner leased the concession stand property in March 2009 from the county with plans to turn it into a year-round café, offering a full menu doesn't work.

Unlike a traditional walk-up concession stand, Weiss aimed to create a dining destination. The café would have served daily beach goers, but the tables in the sand enabled a full menu, including breakfast, with a higher price point and quality. With a café, Weiss said he could count on enough business to stay open ten months out of the year. A concession stand, Weiss said, could only stay open 5 months yearly, which would ultimately lose money.

With its custom décor, quality meal choices and family-friendly atmosphere, Weiss said he hoped the café would draw people to Aliso Beach.

"They were going to have a memory to take home with them," Weiss said.

Orange County owns the land at Aliso Beach, which is a county park. After requesting proposals, the county approved Weiss' business plan and offered a lease, allowing for the beach seating area and storage containers.

Weiss continued to work to get the café ready for opening, when a local activist pointed out the outdoor seating and storage containers needed a new coastal development permit.

The Coastal Commission, a state agency which supersedes county authority, oversees any development that could affect beach access or use. Rich Adler of OC Parks said the county interpreted development as new structures – not moveable tables and storage containers.

"In most cases, we are fully aware of all the issues that relate to what we're doing in our beaches and parks," Adler said. "This is new."

The county saw the café as a positive use of the beach that would encourage more people to come. And since the tables would go into storage at night, Adler said it seemed no more dramatic than other day uses, like weddings or a junior lifeguard program.

"We never really thought twice we couldn't do it on our own sand," he said.

Laguna Beach's planning commission, which handles coastal development permits through the city's local coastal program, approved of the café, said city manager Ken Frank. But the storage containers and tables in the sand were another matter, he said. Though Weiss could go back and apply for a new permit, approval is unlikely.

"We don't approve those types of uses on the sandy beach," Frank said, adding the city was unaware of the tables and storage containers when it approved Weiss' business.

Now, Weiss knows his plan to create a destination café won't happen. When he walks through the building, he points out items that are now unusable if the café reverts back to a concession stand – breakfast foods, a convection oven, extra refrigerators, appliances and of course, the tables.

Unsure when or if he'll be able to continue at the location, Weiss laid off 13 employees, two who had left other jobs to work at the Sands. He doesn't know if the business can be salvaged or if the county can help. Weiss estimates he spent $250,000 building up the café, money he thought would be an investment. Though his four children are all under 6, he hoped they would grow up to help run the family business.

"Lots of mouths to feed with no business," he said. "It's a bad situation."

Contact the writer: ckoerner@ocregister.com or 949-454-7309