I have to tell you a story about some good friends of mine who recently sold their home. Let me explain how your good old “Blue Thumb” gardener saved the day once again!

If you’ve read my features over the past few years, you know that I take a basic common sense approach to everything I do. In fact, I take great pride in this. Often, I’ve found that what appears to be common sense to me is often overlooked by those who I consider as friends.

With the help of the numerous TV shows dedicated to showing homeowners the do’s and don’ts of what to do when you place your home on the market, the job I’m about to tell you about became quite easy for me. Of course, the ultimate goal of selling a home is to get the highest possible offer in the shortest time period. My friends simply thought putting a “For Sale” sign in the front yard was all they had to do. The rest would just take care of itself. Although this works for some, it may not if you live in an area with a lot of homes on the market.

If you are in a hot real estate market, it is not hard to put your home up for sale and watch the offers flow in. My friends lived in an affluent neighborhood, which is usually not a problem. However, in this particular case, it was a problem. They are successful professionals with very little free time. They also travel often, which causes them to neglect their home. The neglect wasn’t so bad that they embarrassed themselves, but they just didn’t really have the time (nor did they care) to put the work in to making their home the best looking on the block. On the contrary, it was the worst!

My friends asked me what I thought their home value was. I honestly could not tell them, but the advice I gave them did help them increase the value of their home in the end. I told them the only thing I knew for sure was that if they sold their home “as-is,” they would get much less than if they put forth a little bit of effort to improve and organize the exterior. The interior of the home was impeccable; it was neat and orderly.

I knew we didn’t have a problem there. My dilemma was how to get prospective qualified buyers to actually come inside. I was afraid that the only potential buyers were the ones who would want to “flip” the house, e.g., buy it cheap, fix it up and resell it for a profit. First impressions are everything, and their yard wasn’t going to cut it. That is where we needed to start.

My friends agreed to listen to me and do some research. We watched a few episodes of the various home shows on HGTV, and they were convinced to take my direction. I advised them to set a budget of both time and money and we started our quest.

First of all, we understood that Pittsburgh is not Southern California. The home we were selling was nice but was unlike the incredible homes on HGTV that were 15 times the price of homes in Pittsburgh. We started by analyzing what we thought was important for prospective Western Pennsylvanian homebuyers. What we found was that every house on their block had nice yards, but the landscaping looked a little dated. That is what was going to set us apart from the rest. We drove to a newer development to see what the newer homes were doing with their landscaping. Most of the homes had placed “islands” in unique areas of the yard that complimented the terrain. We found a home that was similar to theirs in style, lot size and contour, and decided we wanted to duplicate what we viewed. Then we took a quick photo of the home we liked—sort of a “drive-by shooting,” if you will.

We decided to pull out some of the existing old shrubs and replace them with new, mature and modern looking shrubbery. Then we purchased the same shrubbery and trees that were at the new home we viewed. We also bought more mature plants to try to make it look as if they had been there for a while.

We bought a new spade, ordered a few yards of screened topsoil and 25 yards of dark mulch. All of those shrubs, trees, topsoil and mulch looked intimidating, but we got right to it. I cut the shape of the new islands with the spade and pulled up the layer of sod. My friends dedicated their efforts to the landscaping close to the home removing and replacing some of the older shrubs. They were making great progress as I started mounding and shaping the islands. I knew we were on target because the yard was already starting to look great.

After the mounds were finished, I planted the trees and shrubs. Once that was done, I started with the mulch and finished with some flowers. While I was doing this, I suggested that my friend sharpen his lawnmower blade, which was quite dull. (He obviously never reads my spring feature). I showed him how to crosscut the lawn while his wife finished planting the flowers. Then I put the finishing touches on my islands.

When he was finished, I sent my friend to the store for some lawn fertilizer, Scotts® Turf Builder®,” to be precise. At this point we redirected some of the landscape lighting and replaced all of the dead bulbs. At the end of the day—some 10 hours later—we had a completely new yard. I suggested they give it a few heavy doses of water and then let the fertilizer do its work before placing the home on the market.

They invited me back two weeks later for dinner and their yard looked simply awesome. They must have checked out a few more shows on HGTV because they added a few hanging baskets close to the entrance and even painted the front door a unique and inviting color that matched the house perfectly. They also cleaned all of their exterior windows. Guess what?

It now was one of the nicest looking homes on the block, both inside and out. It sold in a little over two weeks for $16,000 more than their real estate agent had suggested. Needless to say, with five other homes for sale in their neighborhood, they were thrilled with the advice they received from your good old “Blue Thumb” gardener!