Reasons Home Buyers Prefer New Homes Part 2

Energy and Cost Savings
Today's new homes are far more energy efficient than homes built just five, ten or twenty years ago. Why settle for drafty, energy-wasting single-pane windows in a used home? Many new homes offer double or even triple-pane windows. Special window coatings and inert gases between the layers of glass are often available, saving you even more energy and money in both heating and cooling season. Insulation between the walls is upgraded and can even be designed with efficient spray foam insulation to help lower costs.

Comfort and Indoor Air Quality
Today's new homes meet stringent energy standards and codes not in place in the past. They combine high-performance energy efficiency with state-of-the-art ventilation and air filtration. The result is year-round, draft-free comfort and higher indoor air quality. 

Low Maintenance
Today's new homes have open floor plans and high ceilings that reflect the way we live today. They're also made of cutting-edge building products that require less care and maintenance. Brand new and under warranty also means lower maintenance and less upkeep.

Contact Us today to get started planning your new home.

Reasons Home Buyers Prefer New Homes Part 1

Design your own style
Why settle for ugly green laminate when you can select your favorite cabinets, counter-tops, appliances and flooring? While you're at it, you can choose gorgeous bath and kitchen fixtures, lighting and other options that you love. Your new home will reflect your style, not someone else's taste. 

Choose  your own Floor plan
Want a master bedroom on the first floor? It's yours. Need a loft that doubles as a playroom and guest bedroom? Done. Perhaps you'd like a sitting room with a fireplace in your owner's suite or French doors that open to your private patio or the pool? It's easy, when you build your new home.

All New, Under Warranty
A used home likely has tired products that may soon need replacing. Your new home is brand-new and under warranty. What's the cost to replace a roof, appliances, counter-tops or a water heater on a used home? Those components of your new home feature the latest designs and building materials and should offer you years of comfort and enjoyment before needing replacement.

Contact Us today to start planning your new home.

Research Your Holiday Mover

If you want to hire a professional holiday mover, make sure you research your moving company online to avoid unpleasant surprises during and after your relocation.

Hiring a licensed and insured professional mover for your holiday relocation is a must. You might be on a short deadline, but don’t risk booking inexperienced, or even rogue movers. Here are some tips that will help you to choose a reputable holiday moving company and avoid moving scams:

Check the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website to find out if the particular moving company is registered and licensed. The U.S Department of Transportation obliged all registered moving companies to follow certain safety rules and regulations.

It’s a good idea to run a check on your moving company at Better Business Bureau website. Hiring a BBB moving company with accreditation is a plus.

Ask family, friends, colleagues, neighbors if they can recommend you a holiday mover or a professional moving company they’ve used in the past.

You may read some mover reviews online. There are many moving related forums and blogs that you can check for reviews, testimonials and complaints.

How Kitchen Features are Expected to Change in 2015

As previously stated, the kitchen, along with the family room and the living room, will increasingly be combined to form the Great Room. But what exactly is the kitchen of the average new home of 2015 likely to have? According to survey respondents, a double sink (4.3 average rating), recessed lighting (4.2), table space for eating (4.1), a breakfast bar (4.0), and pull-out drawers (4.0) are “very likely” features in kitchens five years from now (Figure 6).

A central island (3.8) is “somewhat likely” to be included in kitchens of average new homes in 2015, along with a walk-in pantry (3.6), a recycling center (3.6), desk/computer area (3.4 ), granite countertop (3.4), and to a lesser degree laminate countertops (3.0).

What the average new kitchen of 2015 is “unlikely” to have is a trash compactor, fireplace, wine cooler, and butler’s pantry (all with an average rating of 2.3), hot water dispenser (2.6), and a small appliance storage area (2.8).

More survey results are available in a PowerPoint presentation (PDF format) that can be downloaded from the “additional resources” box at the top of this page. All the findings are available in the report, “The New Home in 2015,” including data on the likelihood of various universal, technology, outdoor, bathroom, and neighborhood features.

New Trends Coming to the Smart Home in 2015

The future of the connected home is continuing to evolve, and with more startups pitching products, the ship date of older crowdfunding campaigns hitting customer homes and big name companies warming to the space, I’m starting to see a few trends come together for 2015. I’m sure we’ll see more at CES in January, but based on conversations I’ve had and products I saw at our Structure Connect show last week, here are a few things you can expect on the connected home front.

Bluetooth makes lighting a snap: At long last, products are coming on the market that will let you use Bluetooth to control light bulbs, outlets and more. These products are using mesh networking to make installing a connected light switch as easy as sticking a new plate to the wall using double-sided tape. Products from Avi-on (which is building bluetooth switches for GE’s Jasco brand), Oort, and Seed will change the way we use lighting in the home and at work. Even Peep, a company showing off a camera that snaps a picture when someone knocks on your door is looking at using Bluetooth as a faster way to get an image to people inside the home, since using Wi-Fi means it would go from the connected camera to the cloud and then to people’s phones.

To talk to your home, you’ll talk to your phone: This isn’t a trend I’m excited about, but it’s obviously where we are heading in the relative near term. Since our phones are equipped with awesome natural language processing already, big companies such as Nest and Apple and small ones like Nucleus and Ubi will use them to let people control their homes via voice. For example, Nest will integrate with Google Now’s speech recognition while Apple’s HomeKit is sure to have a Siri component. On the startup side, the Nucleus intercom system showed off a way to not only message people in your house, but to speak into the phone to control your lights. Ubi is building similar functionality into it’s app.

Low-power Wi-Fi is coming even if the standard isn’t ready: Two companies, Homeboy and Roost were offering different products that took advantage of low-power Wi-Fi. The benefits of such a set up are pretty obvious — you don’t need a fancy hub to control a device and it can work for almost everyone. The Roost is a connected battery that lasts for about 5 years and can convert an existing smoke detector into a connected smoke detector. The Homeboy camera was a rechargeable security camera that lasts for 3 months before needing a top off. Both companies have built their own low power Wi-Fi IP as opposed to waiting for the 802.11ah standard to actually come out.

You won’t need a home hub to automate your house: This year’s hot device, the home hub that combines a bunch of radios with a software platform to let people control multiple connected devices is going away. Even SmartThings CEO Alex Hawkinson is ready to build software that is independent of the company’s hub, although he admits it may take some time and won’t include all the devices out there. I also saw a startup, showing off an Android-based controller called the Reach app that lets people pause videos, play songs over their Sonos and control a few other devices like Hue lights. The app is in alpha right now, but I’m eager to see it once it hits beta.

Get ready to pay: The business models that have been lacking in several popular services are beginning to crystalize. From Linden Tibbets. the CEO of If This Then That disclosing that he plans to have consumers pay for premium IFTTT services, to an in-depth discussion from IControl’s CEO on business models for the smart home, it’s clear that while companies have been focused on the user experience, the revenue models aren’t far behind.

2015 HOME TREND PREVIEW: THE DESIGN COLOR OF THE YEAR

The color trend in home design is Monochromatic.  Try warm, cool, dark and light layers of the same hue. It's one chromatic concept, gracefully flowing room to room.

Guilford Green is the color that ties this altogether, is the 2015 Color of the Year. A neutral color that is a natural. A silvery green that works a wide range of color combinations - from neutrals to daring shades.

Through our research and travel across the globe, four color families emerged suggesting bolder color and confident choices. Color layering is so easy, see how you won't be able to live without it. Discover the berry, green, blush and blue paint color collections.

Download your guide to the 2015 color trends

New Homes are Expected to have More Green Features in 2015

Low-e windows are “very likely” to be present in the average new single-family home of 2015 (4.5 average rating), as well as engineered wood beams, joists, or trusses (4.4), water efficient features (dual flush toilets or low flow faucets) and Energy-Star rating for the whole home (both with an average rating of 4.1) (Figure 5), according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Some of the green features respondents rated only as “somewhat likely” to be present in the average new single-family detached home of 2015 include insulation higher than required by code (3.8), tankless water heater (3.8), and argon gas windows (3.7). Two green features were considered to be “unlikely” candidates for the average new home in 2015: green certification from LEED program (2.7) and other renewable energy sources i.e. geothermal, wind (2.8).