marketing

Is Your Door Open to New Customers?

Yesterday, I left my quaint beach town in Long Island and spent my day in fabulous New York city. Manhattan is like a giant vending machine, where you can choose to buy a hot dog, a Louis Vuitton bag or a horse and buggy ride through Central park all within one block.

There are an infinite number of  places to shop, eat, and people watch. The streets are overflowing with five star restaurants of every cuisine imaginable.   You’ll find all the famous department stores like Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue and Macys.  How do you choose where to spend your hard-earned dollars, quench your thirst, or satiate your hungry taste buds?

NY Pizza

New York Pizza is the yummiest food you can eat

Luscious, tempting smells spill out of restaurants with open doors from Deli pastrami to Chinatown’s Sweet and Sour chicken. Restaurant owners know that the enticing aromatic scents filling the air will scintillate the olfactory senses of  many hungry pedestrians passing by.  Crowds will be drawn in to their restaurant to devour their fresh, hot chocolate chip cookies or sizzling Mexican fajitas.

How do you attract customers? Is your door open and inviting to differentiate you from the thousands of other similar websites? Why would a potential customer choose your business over your competitor’s that turn up in google search results?

Upgrade Your Home to Add Curb Appeal

Cambridge Pavingstones

A paved Pool or driveway raises property values up to 12%

You’ll increase your home’s curb appeal and resale value by adding a paved patio or driveway and like you’ll also get to enjoy the area while you’re using it. In fact, paved exterior living spaces are the hottest trend going right now. More and more homeowners want to take their entertaining and recreation options outside. The great thing about a paving project is that you can also do it in phases with cutoff points, so that the project is done within your budget and doesn’t look incomplete. For example, this year you could add a paver patio and next year add a fire pit, seating wall, or outdoor kitchen.

As the days get longer, for many homeowners thoughts turn to planning that new, in-ground pool as part of their backyard master plan. Resort-like advantages aside, homeowners are quickly learning that a pool with an adjoining pool deck, when well-designed and properly installed, can actually increase the appraised value of a home even in times of a real estate downturn. 

Past surveys have shown that consumers value a landscaped home as much as 11.3% higher than its base price. In a recent Gallup research project, homebuyers revealed they think landscaping adds 14.87% to a home’s selling price. Real estate agents agree. Of the members of the Society of Real Estate Appraisers, 95% concur that landscaping adds to the dollar value of real estate. According to a premiere publication targeted to the residential, commercial and specialty design-build industry, a landscaped patio can raise property values more than 12%. What’s more, homeowners know that a patio area with added comfort amenities combined with the conveniences for outdoor dining and entertaining can also increase their quality of life for years to follow. But only some take into account the other benefits that choosing concrete pavers in lieu of other pavement materials such as poured or stamped concrete, natural flagstone, and composite decking can bring to the equation.

In ornate paving material says, “high end”. These ornate driveways are normally paired with grand entries and other high-end finishes in the house. Combined with other higher-end touches, the ornate paved driveway pushes these homes into a higher more luxurious home price bracket. The paved driveway or pool deck adds value.

In fact adjusting and developing these areas of your home’s exterior is the most common way that many property owners boost their home’s overall value.