If you are selling your home soon, you would be well advised to pay attention to home buying market trends and what consumers want/don’t want in their homes.
There is a wealth of information to absorb if you know where to look.
Read on if you want to hone your home buying market trend knowledge.
Mark Nash, a seasoned real estate broker/author has surveyed 923 real estate agents, managing brokers and association executives and put together a great article citing What’s In, What’s Out With Homebuyers.
In case you’re not familiar with Mark Nash, he’s a real estate author, broker and syndicated columnist based in Chicago. The author of several books, including 1001 Tips For Buying And Selling A Home. He contributes residential real estate analysis to Bloomberg TV, Business Week, CBS The Early Show, CNN, HGTV.com, Smart Money Magazine, The New York Times, The Today Show and USA Today. He also hosts the 1001 Real Estate Tips website.
Mark’s list of what’s in and what’s out is summarized below.
What’s In & What’s Out with Homebuyers
The “In” list
- The housing correction
- Homes that are priced right
- Online home valuation sites like Zillow
- Market timing
- Savvy buyers
- Home offices
- Two home offices
- Upscale garages
- Caving: Man caves and Mom caves
- Rejuvenation rooms: home spa/exercise room/personal quiet space
- Heated patios, walkways and driveways for all you Northerners
- Snoring rooms: a relationship saver for the masses
- Modular housing
- Sustainable design
- Structured wiring: maxed out for all your technological needs
- Mixing finishes on kitchen base and wall cabinets
The “Out” list
- “As is” in home sale marketing
- Buyer incentives
- Endless open houses
- Over-full-price offers
- Bedrooms not large enough for a queen size bed
- Plentiful glass upper cabinet doors in the kitchen
- Bowl-shaped above-counter bathroom sinks
- Any shiny metal finishes: Brushed nickel and pewter are BIG
- Stainless steel appliances: (not in my opinion…but what do I know)
- Spiral staircases
On the way Out…
- Bamboo floors
- Hardwood laminate flooring
- Home sellers that smoke in the house they are trying to sell. (Do people really have to be told this?)
There were a couple of home buying market trends listed as ‘what’s out’ that I made note of.
One of them being spiral staircases, once considered to be a positive component of a home is now considered to be a negative for aging baby boomers. Pets and young children have a tough time navigating them, as well and kids don’t like them. In other words, they are an accident waiting to happen.
The other item I made note of was surprising to me but made sense, once explained. If the home you are trying to sell has a lot of upper kitchen cabinets with glass doors, it may be a big turn-off for home buyers. Why? They’re just not practical. If you love to constantly clean dirty, greasy windows and you have nothing but the finest glassware and dishes to have on display 24/7, then you are a perfect candidate for full view cabinetry. The rest of us need somewhere to store all of those plastic fast-food kiddie cups and the mix and match dishes without fear of ridicule…or maybe you could care less what your mother-in-law thinks. I’m just sayin’…
What’s Out In Home Trends Is Subjective
I poured through the above mentioned article by Mark Nash, and the next day I made a visit to a new home under construction near my house.
What do you think I found inside? A spiral staircase with wooden treads (steps) and a kitchen maxed out in glass upper cabinet doors.
I am fairly certain that this is a custom build with a contract on the house because the kitchen was painted in, what I considered to be, a non-complimentary color of blue-green. Sandy says the cool color clashes with the warm tone of all of the cabinetry. I’d have to say I agree. View the pictures and decide for yourself.
More Home Trends
- Top 10 List To Get Your House Ready To Sell: Exterior & Landscaping
- Tips To Help You Sell Your House
- 5 Home Trends We Never Saw Coming
- Real Estate: Who’s Buying Now?
- What’s Hot And What’s Not In Home Building Right Now
I started as a home-stalker… visiting brand new homes under construction in the neighborhoods near my house. That inspired me to write about home building and home renovation projects — chronicling homes during different phases of construction from a consumer's point-of-view. Basically, the tips you'll find in my articles are a collection of checklists for what I think should (and should not) go into building or remodeling a quality home.
