It's one of the most unsightly and often hard to fix trouble spots for homeowners -- a lawn that has gone to the dogs!

This can be a very difficult problem to handle when it comes to selling your home.

A lot of things can be fixed fairly quickly like a leaky faucet, marks on walls, or a cluttered room. But ugly, patchy, lawn can be a sign of lack of care which conveys a message instantly to potential buyers. And if that poor lawn is in the front yard, an ill impression of the overall home can be formed before buyers even step inside. A home that looks appealing from the outside in is what buyers are shopping for these days. Bidding wars and flipping homes aren't the norm right now.

So buyers are shopping the often large inventory and comparing everything. What they see when they approach your home may stay with them through their entire search. Remember the adage, "A first impression is often the last impression." In market conditions where inventory is still high a good look at your grass and the image it presents is vital.

Poor lawn conditions may not be entirely the result of lack of care. Instead, the neighbor's pet, or your own, might be to blame, coupled with how you're treating the problem areas.

Most products don't get rid of the ammonia that's left in the lawn after a dog uses your yard to relieve himself. Of course, this mess leaves dead spots in the lawn and makes a lot of work for homeowners. What the homeowner ended up doing is digging up the spot, putting in new soil and replanting grass. That's a lot of unnecessary work and expenses. Rascal Spots is a product that naturally sequesters the salt that pets have in their urine and once it's sequestered, it doesn't bind with the soil particles and [instead] allows it to pass through the soil profile out of the roots' zone and allows the grass to grow back and fill back in naturally.

The company launched this year is hoping to prove to homeowners that this product can simplify their lives as well as keep their lawn looking good in a short period of time and for under $40 a bottle (covers 5,000 square-feet of lawn). Rascal Spots also uses its "greenalizer technology" in the same treatment application to make the lawn greener naturally.

On a typical spot, in 30 days you'll see an 80-percent re-growth. The lawn can come back faster. "You can add seed but you don't have to, but that will make it fill in faster. Homeowners can also ward off dead spots by paying close attention to where the pet goes to the bathroom on their grass and then treating those areas regularly with the product. If that's done "then spots will never show up." Another important consideration is safety. Treating your lawn with the product is safe. It's not toxic to people or animals. There's no residue afterwards and it has almost a zero carbon footprint. As with any home issue, when you get to the root of the problem, it provides a good opportunity to weed out the trouble spots.