By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Coinciding with a sluggish housing market, home owners have changed their preferences about how space is used and designed in their homes. Function over extravagance has reigned in recent years, along with affordability, when it comes to home features, according to the latest American Institute of Architects Home Design Trends Survey for the second quarter of 2010.
Here are a few highlights from the report, based on nearly 300 residential architects who were surveyed about the design preferences of U.S. households.
WHAT’S IN
Home offices: More people are working out of their home or telecommuting, prompting more home owners to want a dedicated workspace in their homes.
Outdoor living areas: Home owners want to expand their living space into the outdoors and are seeking to incorporate more outdoor living elements into their lifestyles, AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker said in a public statement about the survey. Continue reading »
Sellers can’t swing the cost of new appliances to make their home more competitive? Give potential buyers the skinny on how to save money on new appliances by sharing the free “Appliance Buying Guides” now available at the REALTOR® Content Resource. There you’ll find buying guides for ranges, dishwashers, washing machines, water heaters, and refrigerators.
With new enhancements to the REALTOR® Content Resource, you can now share these guides—and other articles—with consumers via Facebook, Twitter, and email directly from the REALTOR® Content Resource. You can also search more easily for content by themes (formerly “Collections”) or keywords.
The REALTOR® Content Resource, brought to you by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, is an exclusive member benefit that entitles you to download free home ownership content from HouseLogic to your marketing materials.
HouseLogic is the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® comprehensive consumer Web site geared to helping home owners make smart decisions to enhance, maintain, and protect the value of their home.
You asked, and the REALTOR® Content Resource listened: You can now share consumer home ownership articles via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail directly from the REALTOR® Content Resource.
The REALTOR® Content Resource, brought to you by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, is an exclusive member benefit that entitles you to download free home ownership content from HouseLogic to your marketing materials. Besides simple sharing of articles with your social network, the upgrades allow you to search more easily for content by themes (formerly “Collections”) or keywords.
Give the upgrades a test drive by sharing new articles from the October “Warming Up to a New Fireplace” theme now available at the REALTOR® Content Resource. The articles cover the cost and return on investment of adding a fireplace and energy-efficient fireplaces like wood-burning, gas-burning, and pellet-burning—all of which you can share with consumers via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, printed handout, or your Web page, blog, or e-newsletter.
HouseLogic is the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® comprehensive consumer Web site geared to helping home owners make smart decisions to enhance, maintain, and protect the value of their home.
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Kitchens are losing their image as just a place for cooking. They’ve also become a place to gather with family, entertain, and even work, which is influencing how buyers are perceiving the possibilities of the space. As such, more home owners are trying to make it feel less like a kitchen and more as an almost second living room.
For example, some home owners are opting to hide their appliances, such as with undercounter refrigerator drawers and dishwashers-in-a-drawer, a trend that the National Kitchen & Bath Association noted earlier this year.
Another trend catching on: Fewer upper cabinets. A kitchen filled with cabinetry is a hard look, says Susan Serra, a home designer in Huntington, N.Y., who specializes in kitchens. Less kitchen cabinets make a kitchen feel more open and allow the walls, windows, and light to show through. Continue reading »
By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
When the “House of the Future” was unveiled at Disneyland back in the 1950s, it could have been summed up — like The Graduate Benjamin Braddock’s career opportunity — in just one word: plastics.
Though the exhibit seems utterly dated today, it does reflect what people at that time believed the future held for home building: mass-produced structures made of cheap yet durable material that offered convenience and comfort for residents. And when you think about it in those terms, that doesn’t seem too far off the mark.
As the real estate industry, the economy, technology, and society have changed, however, one would expect visions about the “House of the Future” would evolve as well. Is there an example today that we could point to as a possible model for tomorrow’s homes?
Possibly, yes. A strong case can be made for the North Pointe development in Frederick, Md. Developed by Nexus EnergyHomes and officially opened last month, the houses are remarkable for two reasons: Continue reading »
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
So it looks like you better invest in a digital SLR camera or find a professional photographer to make your new best friend, at least if you want to sell a home for more money, according to a new study by Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate brokerage.
Digital SLR cameras are professional-grade cameras with detachable lenses and that tend to have more manual settings, which often help you capture higher quality photos than its cheaper point-and-shoot rival.
Redfin found in an analysis of more than 100,000 listings in the Boston metro area and Long Island, N.Y., that homes with professional photographs sold anywhere between $934 to $116,076 more than those shot from cheaper, point-and-shoot cameras. That’s probably enough to start making you feel a little insecure about your photographs if you’re not using a professional or a high-end camera.
What’s more, homes with professional photographs were found, on average, to be viewed 61 percent more online than others in that price range shot with a lower-end camera. The listings that used digital SLR cameras also commanded a 47 percent higher asking price per square foot, according to the Redfin analysis.
Digital SLR cameras, however, were only found to increase the likelihood of a sale for listings $300,000 and above. In other words, buyers don’t seem to judge a house by its photos as much for homes under $300,000. Continue reading »
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