6 minute read
These features could sell your house faster as spring-buying season takes off
By A mber B onefont South Florida Sun Sentinel
WITH spring-buying season in full swing, home sellers eager to see their properties sold quickly could benefit from having certain features in their house, a new analysis shows.
Homes that have attributes such as a steam oven, quartz finishes or even hurricane shutters/windows, typically sell for a higher price than the average home, according to data from Zillow. And homes that have a characteristics such as a doorbell camera or even a fenced-in backyard typically sold between three to five days faster than a home
Greens
CONTINUES FROM PAGE F2 characteristic alliaceous odor.
By late spring, they basically disappear underground until late summer, when flowers emerge, followed by seed production in the fall.
The seeds, which resemble tiny black marbles, Rosenbaum said, are “very dispersal-limited” — meaning that they are not moved by helpers such as the wind or covered in fruit to attract birds that will eat them and fly off, planting the excreted seed elsewhere. Deer mice may cache and move some of the seeds, but only a short distance.
“If wild leeks are in one forested area, and there’s suitable habitat across the road, they are not necessarily going to get there on their own,” Rosenbaum added. “And so we humans become a potentially excellent dispersal agent, and we’re really good at identifying suitable habitats.”
He and Mackow have seeded them in shady areas around their farm.
Rather than digging wild leeks in the wild, he suggests ordering seeds or seedlings and using your shovel to prepare what he calls “woodsy beds” for them. Identify an area that’s at least a without those added items.
“Multifunctional homes that offer retreat spaces and features for outdoor entertaining are particularly appealing to post-pandemic buyers, who expect their homes to be a place where they can work and play,” the report from Zillow noted.
Here are the features that help a home sell faster, according to Zillow.
• Doorbell camera: 5.1 days faster
• Open shelving: 3.5 days faster
• Heat pump: 3 days faster
• Fenced backyard: 2.9 days faster
• Mid-century design: 2.8 days faster
• Hardwood floors: 2.4 days faster little bit shaded, beneath deciduous trees or shrubs.
“Then amend it with your more woodland soil-building blocks: leaf compost, a thin layer of wood chips,” he said. “Just try to build up that kind of dark, moisture-retentive organic soil like you would find in a higher-quality woodland.”
Because ramps’ foliage fades after the spring show, Rosenbaum suggests pairing them with a plant that will perform a second act in the space: spikenard (Aralia racemosa), for example, or black cohosh (Actaea racemosa). Or maybe the little-grown poke milkweed (Asclepias exaltata), found on forest edges.
Once your patch is established, manage the ramps sustainably, harvesting only one or two leaves from each mature plant (and never digging the bulbs).
More unexpected spring greens Rosenbaum is looking forward, any day now, to chopping a few ramps and folding them into an omelet or cooking them with some homegrown morels, “just this killer wild-foods combination of the local bioregional spring,” he said.
Who knew that quickly frying ramps leaves in a skillet with
• Shiplap: 2.3 days faster
• Gas furnace: 2.3 days faster
Homes that had features like a steam oven got a 5.3% more than a house that didn’t have it, while professional appliances had a 3.6% price premium, and hurricane shutters had a 2.3% price premium.
To calculate what features of a home will help it sell for more or faster, Zillow compared the final sales prices of homes listed and the time they spent on the market, as well as whether they had certain features listed in the home description.
• Walkability to nearby areas: 2.4 days faster some oil makes them balloon up like little corn tortillas? They are also great sauteed in a pan with fiddleheads, the unopened foliage of the ostrich fern, whose season is approaching. (But cooking with fiddleheads can be toxic, so be sure to wash them well and never eat them raw: Always boil them before you saute or cook them in any other way.)
Anyone who has grown the ostrich fern knows that it is a mover, inclined to colonize. But isn’t that what we often want from a deer-resistant, shady ground cover in workhorse situations — along property edges or in other spaces that we may have unthinkingly filled with the likes of pachysandra or English ivy?
Once unfurled, the ostrich fern’s prehistoric-looking, plume-shaped fronds can stand 3 feet tall — and will sometimes grow as high as 6 feet — making them a lot more dramatic than any aggressive, alien ground cover.
But picking too many fiddleheads from an individual plant will reduce its productivity in subsequent years, which is why Rosenbaum never harvests more than one or two from any individual plant.
One wild plant that is not well known as an edible, Rosenbaum said, is the tall coneflower
“When showing homes, we find that buyers always make a comment when a home has additional security features like cameras and ask if they come with the home. Another feature is outdoor living space, such as a covered patio or outdoor kitchen/built-in BBQ,” said Alex Platt, with the Platt Group at Compass in Boca Raton.
— as in, up to 9 feet tall. The gold flowers held aloft aren’t what you harvest: The fresh, emerging leaves, known by the Cherokee people as sochan, are the culinary prize.
This plant, which shows up even earlier than dandelions, is perhaps the earliest edible of all, Rosenbaum said. He harvests leaves from the basal rosette when it’s about 2 to 4 inches high.
The plant, adaptable from partial shade to full sun, spreads, too. “I’d give it its own exclusive patch,” Rosenbaum said.
Then he thought again, offering another suggestion: Try planting it with ostrich fern and giant Solomon’s seal, which hail from the same kind of spots. “That would be a great combination,” he said, “dreamily replicating a little slice of nature that I have never yet gotten to see.”
A couple of tubers to dig
A very different harvest, usually toward season’s end, comes from two natives that form edible underground tubers.
Jerusalem artichoke, or sunchoke, a perennial sunflower, will try to outdo even the tall coneflower in height and inclination to spread. And like the tall coneflower, it will provide a feast for pollinators and birds.
There are some caveats as experts warn that adding these features may not offer the return on investment that potential home sellers might expect, but for sellers who already have these features in the home, highlighting them could get them more money or a faster sale.
©2023 South Florida Sun Sentinel. Visit at sunsentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
American groundnut (Apios americana) offers another kind of vertical element, scrambling up an elderberry shrub, for example, or a proper trellis. The twining herbaceous perennial vine is a host plant for the silver-spotted skipper butterfly, and produces flowers in rosy shades, with a shape that reveals the plant’s membership in the pea family.
The tubers are potatolike, but have more of a bean or nutty flavor.
Part of Rosenbaum’s work is conducting field studies for public and private clients, and he estimates that he has surveyed more than 15,000 acres in New Jersey. During his work, he has come across many precious scenes, but too often what he sees are the remains of once-vibrant colonies. That has left an indelible impression.
He writes of his “desire to see wild plants and humans share community again,” and is moved to tell plants’ stories in the hope that they will find homes in a wider area.
“Gardeners,” Rosenbaum noted, “can be at the vanguard of ecological restoration.” Prepare for a wild and delicious ride.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Public Auction
FRIDAY, APRIL 21ST at 12:00 NOON
MORTGAGEE’S SALE OF REAL ESTATE
THE U.S. BANKRUPTCY COURT HAS GRANTED RELIEF TO THE MORTGAGE HOLDER & SECURED CREDITOR TO
Public Auction
• WESTFIELD • 5 ROOM / 3 BEDROOM
2-STORY CONDEX STYLE DWELLING
“LOCATED
Aaron Posnik
Aaron Posnik
Aaron Posnik
Terms: $5,000 deposit. Balance due 30 days makes no representations as to the accuracy of the information contained herein. Call 800-522-8488
Other terms may be announced at sale.
MORTGAGEE’S SALE OF REAL ESTATE AT PUBLIC AUCTION
Thursday, April 20, 2023
10:00 AM-FEEDING HILLS (Agawam)
548 North West Street sgl fam, 1,960 sf liv area, 0.62 ac lot, 8 rm, 4 bdrm, 1.5 bth, fpl, Hampden: Bk 20834, Pg 142
11:00 AM-SPRINGFIELD
2573, 116, 2484, 3246, 2919, 3092, 3107, 0100030, 3099
