John Gidding, designer and host of HGTV's Curb Appeal: The Block, joins Cheddar News to provide some advice on how to avoid turning your home into a money pit. 

<div class="block">John Gidding, designer and host of HGTV&#39;s<i> Curb Appeal: The Block, </i>joins Cheddar News to provide some advice on how to avoid turning your home into a money pit. </div>
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Stretching Your Dollar

How to Make Sure Your House Doesn't Become a Money Pit 

Hi, everyone and welcome to our new show called Stretching Your Dollar. I'm Christian Scher here at the New York Stock Exchange. And during this half hour, we're going to give you everyday tips to make the most of your money. We'll cover topics like how to negotiate better in your personal and professional life, how to manage your money and how to save for the things that you want. So, I'll share my expertise from Wall Street and I'll be joined by experts in their fields so we can figure out how we can stretch our dollars together. Owning a home, can be a beautiful thing. But if you're not careful, it can also be a money pit. You might recognize my next guest from popular HD TV shows, Curb Appeal the block designed to sell and much more. John getting joins me on set. John, thanks for joining. Thanks for having me. All right. So let's kick off here. What are the top tips that viewers need to know the summer when it comes to saving money on their property? The number one tip is to be water wise, water friendly options for your yard because that's going to end up saving you a lot of money. So this is why I partnered with Scotts Miracle Grow. And they've got this incredible initiative called Green Prints. Basically, these are five different landscapes that I've designed for the North American landscape, for homeowners to be inspired by different native plants that they can use. Basically water friendly planting systems for their yard so that we can reduce those water bills because they're only going up. Well, one of my favorite perks is green space, whether it a lawn or a garden or both, how can people save and improve those spaces without breaking the bank this summer? Well, so if you start thinking about your yard as a really thirsty piece of land, right? And start incorporating plantings that are going to be a bit more water positive. It's remarkable how much time and money savings are right there available for any homeowner. Basically, you install native plants. These are drought tolerant plants that are going to need much less irrigation over time. And that way after about a year, they'll be nice and established and the water bill should start going down and they're much easier to keep alive the drought to hugely easier. Yes. And that's another way you save money actually. Uh the, the gas money that you would spend for your lawn mower that also starts going less and less over time. Ok. Good to know. So how does sustainability factor into stretching your dollar hugely. So I mean, it's really the name of the game for tomorrow's landscape, sustainability factors in not just because of landscaping, requiring less water, but for example, if your house is leaking air, then you can also work to insulate a little bit better and that's going to help your electricity bill. So sustainability is definitely the name of the game when it comes to saving money over time for tomorrow's landscapes. And Chris, it's the homeowners that embrace this today, who will see value accrue to their properties tomorrow because these are the landscapes that are going to have a lot less irrigation requirements. And that's what tomorrow's homeowners are going to want. How much money can people save on average when it comes to investing in sustainable options for their homes. Typically, your investment is going to be right at the very front. You will invest in some new plants, perhaps some new tools to actually have these plants survive. But after about one year, those water bills are going to start coming down. So take a look at your water bill, take a look at your electricity bill. These are the two bills specifically that we're looking to reduce. So the payoff starts after roughly a year for about a year. That's when the plants become established and then the natural precipitation that occurs in the part of the country that you live in will take care of the water needs for your plants. From that point on. Well, one thing that I think pretty much everyone in the US can relate to this summer is it has already been extremely hot. Right. And that's in some cases going to lead to higher bills. So how can people budget for their property on knowing that climate change and temperatures continue to rise? I would say the two things to do immediately right off the bat is to reduce water in your yard, maybe only in the early mornings and in the late afternoons. So that way we're minimizing evaporation as much as possible. The other thing to do is put down some mulch because what that's going to do is it's going to keep your soil moist and it's going to keep the evaporation from taking away all that precious water. Our limited resource and that over time is going to help you save money as well. And if for basically ways of doing this, go to think water positive dot com starting August 1st. That's when my green prints will start to be published. And hopefully that'll give you a lot of inspiration. Looks great. Other top tips for home, potential homeowners out there, John, I would say, you know what if you're gonna, if you're gonna get a home and really take care of it, make sure it's for you as well, not just for the eventual sale, this is your house, get that curb appeal, looking good for you so that you feel good at home when you come home at night. And it's not just for the people that will buy your property next. I like it and it's very Zen. I love the green space. I'm all about the green space. The, the, the mental health that you get by gardening is huge. It's actually one of the biggest benefits. I like that. All right, John. Thanks for joining. Thanks for having me.