11 June 2015
 Categories: Real Estate, Blog

Thanks to warm weather and long hours of daylight, spring and summer are popular times to move. It's to your benefit to make sure your apartment community's landscaping looks neat and tidy in preparation for renting season. Luckily, you don't have to spend a fortune or weeks of your time to do so. These four quick-fixes will brighten up your community's land with little effort.

Add some colorful potted plants near building entrances.

A splash of color brightens any landscape. If putting more flowers in the ground sounds too time consuming, purchase two potted flowers for each building, and place them to either side of the entrance. Keep in mind that if rain is scarce or they are under an awning, you'll need to have your grounds team water them.

Edge the walkways.

Walkways with edges that are overgrown with grass can look sloppy and unkempt. If your grounds team has an edging tool, request that they edge all of the walkways. Edging tools are not terribly expensive; purchasing one is a worthwhile investment that will keep your sidewalks and paths looking new and fresh.

Create a garden bed near your main sign.

If you have a main sign near your leasing office, as most apartment communities do, a little landscaping around this sign can go a long way towards making your property more attractive. Have a small garden bed built around the sign. Make sure the soil is built up pretty high, so the bed is visible when people drive by, and fill it with colorful flowers like snap dragons, pansies, and petunias.

Add some new bushes along the sides of buildings.

Planting bushes along the sides of buildings serves two purposes. First, it adds greenery to your property. Second, it helps keep heating and cooling costs down, since the bushes provide extra insulation and keep the sun off the buildings' walls. Planting bushes is a little more time-consuming than the other tasks on this list, but you can work on it slowly, tackling one building at a time, if need be. Inexpensive hedges and bushes to consider include boxwood ad burning bushes.

Potential tenants will judge a community by the outside, first. If your landscaping is a bit lacking, making these simple improvements will help you draw in more tenants this coming renting season. Keep in mind that you do not need to do all of this landscaping work at once. Schedule small improvements over the next year or two, and soon, your community will look much neater and more vibrant. If you don't have time to manage these improvements, consult with a property management company, like Management Services, to see if they can help.