Floor plans play a major role in a home buyer's buying decision. While finishes and upgrades can be modified relatively easily, changing a home's floor plan is either next to impossible or very expensive, since it would require moving walls, which in turn requires structural considerations. As a result, a solid floor plan is good for resale. This article outlines some of the most popular floor plan trends that our team sees everyday out in the field showing homes to buyers.
Open floor plans - it's very seldom that we come across a buyer who doesn't want an open floor plan. More than 50% of our buyers tell us that they want a great room floor plan, which is the most open floor plan that you can find. At the very least, most people want the kitchen to be open to the family room.
These days, the chef in the family doesn't want to be cut off from the rest of the family while preparing dinner. In addition, for entertainment purposes, it's helpful to have these two rooms open to each other. Have you ever noticed that your guests like to gather in the kitchen when you're entertaining? After all, that's where all of the action is taking place. If you have a family room next to the kitchen, then company can overflow into that room, or simply be in that room while feeling that they are still connected to the action.
If you have an older home, where the kitchen is a completely contained room and not open to a family room, you most likely can create significant value for your home by opening it up. It will require a bit of an investment, a good contractor, and some structural work, but it's usually well worth the cost and aggravation when you go to sell.
Generous sight lines - a sight line is what you see from a given point in the home. More and more, home buyers are preferring floor plans where there are many sight lines that extend from one room into another space (whether that be another room, or through a window to a backyard patio or a courtyard.) The opposite of this would be a sight line that begins and ends in the same room. Strategically placed doors and windows relative to the places in the home that the owner will spend the most time are an important aspect of creating generous sight lines. Generous sight lines tie often go hand-in-hand with the open floor plan concept.
Multiple ways into the kitchen - for traffic flow reasons, it's always best to have at least 2 entrances into a kitchen. This avoids having a bottleneck at the entrance to the kitchen when you have a lot of people in the house. Let's face it, the kitchen is usually "Command Central" in most households, so traffic should be able to move in and out of this room easily.
Private master suites - most home buyers prefer master bedrooms that are away from the secondary bedrooms. This applies whether the bedrooms are for the children of the household, or guests (or grandchildren!) The fact is, privacy is becoming more and more of a requirement for the owner of the home. Also, with the quality of today's TV's and surround sound systems, which are typically enjoyed at louder and louder volumes compared to the past, a master suite that is located away from the family room or media room is also a sought-after feature.
Location of rooms relative to natural light - if you are designing a custom home, and have the flexibility of planning the location of various rooms relative to the location of the sun, your builder and architect may suggest strategically placing rooms and windows to take advantage of natural light (or to avoid it.) For example, it's ideal to place a breakfast room on the east side of the home so that the morning sun can be enjoyed in this room. You might want to consider placing your family room in a location where it has minimal (or no) west facing windows, which would affect television viewing later in the day.
On the other hand, if you want to take advantage of sunset views, then you might want your home's main entertaining areas, such as the family room and kitchen, to be located with a west exposure.
The way a home is laid out is extremely important to home buyers' decisions to purchase. While home buyers are more eager to change a home's interior finishes or upgrades to meet their personal style, most buyers don't want to deal with moving walls to make a floor plan work. The popular floor plan features considered above are good things to keep in mind during the home buying process, so that you choose a home that maximizes your resale value when you go to sell.
Looking for Scottsdale homes? Contact me at (480) 351-5359 or fill out the contact form below. We'll help you find the perfect home with a floor plan that will have a positive impact on your resale value in the future.
