Latest Home Builder Trends - Summer 2015

NATURAL SELECTIONS

Step away from the super-dark, hand-scraped floors for a second. Consider engineered woods with a lighter, more natural finish. Our experts say that white, gray, and washed-wood finishes are making a comeback. Think about bleached, limed, or fumed woods with matte finishes or sealed-only floors. Don’t count out engineered products. They aren’t necessarily cheaper, but you can achieve a more exotic look. You might also consider porcelain tiles. Porcelanosa’s Parker line boasts a “wood” look. Stone floors are also showing up in unexpected places, like master bedrooms. 

Fun Fact: To get the look of steel windows, your contractor can match wood on the inside of the window to the color of the outside of the window. Steel versus wood could be a $50,000 difference in price!

CLEAN LINES, MORE OPEN SPACES

Our experts say that, on the whole, new construction is going more contemporary. This doesn’t mean that everyone is moving into glorious, Rachofsky-like glass houses. But on the whole, houses have cleaner lines with less focus on turrets and more use of Austin stone and standing-seam roofs. 

Settling Into Custom Homes (Part 2)

We are back with the second part to our blog about "Settling Into Custom Homes"

Know Your Home

Your new home can be a bit of a mystery to you until you take the time to get to know it. That's why most builders conduct a new home orientation. This is the time when the builder of custom homes will show you the location and operation of key systems and components in your new home. The builder will likely also explain warranties and provide you with printed and/or electronic versions of operating manuals and warranties.

This is the time to make sure you know where the electrical circuit breakers, water cutoff valves and other key aspects of your home are located and how to operate them.  Many builders of custom homes also provide a record of the paint colors and brands, carpet and flooring choices and other decorative aspects of your home. It's wise to file this information for future reference. Make sure you know where, when and how to change your furnace and air conditioning filters. Jotting down filter sizes is a great idea, too.

Settling Into Custom Homes (Part 1)

Tips from the pros to make your move as simple and care-free as possible.

Settling into custom homes can be a big adjustment for you, your family and even your pets. The moving process definitely entails some planning, but it also rewards your efforts with a smoother move-in. And once you're in your new home, there are some fun and creative ways to make your new house a home. Here are a few tips from homeowners and experts to help you settle into your new home as quickly and seamlessly as possible:

New Address

When you move into custom homes, it's important to spread the word. Be sure to file change of address forms with the post office so that your mail is sent to your new address. It's best to do so before you move to make sure you don't miss important mail, and so bills in need of payment are not delayed.

Moving Tips : Pet Edition

Moving to a new house can be stressful for both you and your pets but the following moving tips will reduce the amount of stress you will go through. First of all you have to make sure you have everything you need for your new home. This includes veterinary records, permits and registration for your pet. Some states are extremely restrictive so be sure to check beforehand.

Before you go pay a visit to the veterinarian for a checkup for your pets. Don’t forget to get the records so you can forward them to the new veterinarian.

While moving locally can still be annoying, it usually only requires a short drive across the city or state. Long distance moving, however, is a different matter. Still, daunting as this task may seem people do it all the time, and if they can do it, so can you.

Tip 1: You must know how you're going to transport your pets

Plan your moves in advance. There are a variety of transportation methods you can use. You can either take your pet on a ride in your personal car, or you can opt to fly your pet.  There are also various pet shipping companies that specialize in safely moving pets of all breeds and sizes safely over long distances.

New House Builder Tips : Choosing a Color Scheme

White? Green? Brown? Shocking pink?

Whatever the choice, colors have an impact. That’s why most new homebuyers enjoy selecting the colors that will define the look of their new home.

For those who have the means to build a completely custom house, the sky’s the limit with respect to color choices. For those who purchase a resale home, whatever the former owner liked is what the next buyer will get.

Between those two is the newly built house, which offers buyers a limited number of pre-determined colors for paint, trim, front door, roof tiles, cabinets, countertops and more. The options are many, though not enough to overwhelm most buyers’ ability to decide.

Community Colors

Builders give a lot of thought to exterior color schemes that are aesthetically pleasing and likely to appeal to the most people, says Royal Erickson, director of national contracts at Meritage Homes based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The goal is to create a sense of community.

“The colorists put together a scheme that has a certain siding color or stucco color that matches the trim that matches the roof and the stone. The idea is that it all blends together and looks great. It’s not the bright red house next to the florescent green house,” Erickson says.

Home Building Trends : 5 Steps to an Outdoor Living Room

It used to be that unless you lived far south of the Mason-Dixon line, you had less than a handful of months — at best — to enjoy your outdoor areas.

Then came HGTV and Pinterest and we all became inspired to create ahhh-worthy homes and landscapes of our own. The retail market responded with a symphony of innovative products that help us stretch out the seasons, making it more worthwhile than ever to create a backyard oasis that’s as cozy and comfy as any well-designed family room.

At the same time, the recession forced many of us to look at our homes in new ways, as both a source for entertainment as well as shelter. The result was a rise in staycations, where sticking close to the nest has become more the norm than the exception.

Cue the rebirth of outdoor living. “People are nesting more, so they naturally want to extend their home life outdoors,” says Steve Elton, chief brand officer for Brown & Jordan, a 78-year-old company that has long designed award-winning outdoor furnishings. “It used to be you had a Weber grill, a table and chairs and that was it. Now you’ve got whole kitchens outdoors, fireplaces, even waterproof electronics to extend the season. The outdoor experience has evolved.”

Outdoor spaces are second only to kitchens as far as priority renovations go, according to the Propane Education and Research Council. Of the 5,000 homeowners interviewed for a survey by HGTV and Casual Living magazine, a whopping 87 percent said an outdoor living room was important or very important and more than half said they already had one. Clearly more and more of us — especially those in the new home market — are looking right outside our windows for spots to both relax and entertain. 

Shopping Wisely For New Home Communities

Don't believe Mick Jagger — if you’re embarking on a journey to buy and build a new home, you can get what you want in your dream home.

The key is to do your homework first — and then to plan and organize your shopping process to ensure that your journey is rewarding, concise — and most of all, enjoyable. 

Builders and consumers who’ve bought and built in new home communities agree it’s fun, exciting and rewarding. Our goal is to demystify the new home shopping process so you know what to expect.

The key is simple: Ask plenty of questions. As you do so, you’ll learn which type of home, neighborhood and mortgage are right for you and better understand the exciting choices you’ll make — including which new home community, builder, and lot is right for you — and choices you’ll make to personalize your home. 

When you’re looking at new homes, you’re in good company. According to the 2012 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers from The National Association of Realtors, the majority of consumers considering another home consider new homes. That’s not surprising, since new homes offer:

• open floor plans that reflect the way we live today, especially family rooms that open to the kitchen;
• bedrooms with larger closets and larger, more luxurious master baths;
• ceilings and countertops that are often higher;
• the latest advances in energy efficiency and significant cost savings compared to homes built just a few years ago; and
• your new home and the products it contains are brand-new and under warranty, meaning more time to enjoy your home, not work on a fixer-upper used home.

Many buyers also value the ability to personalize their new home to reflect your tastes in many ways, such as selecting your favorite colors and styles in cabinets, countertops, appliances, flooring and carpet, tile, kitchen and bath faucets and fixtures and more. 

Given the many advantages of new homes, it’s not surprising they’re on the list for most home shoppers. And shoppers not looking at new homes may have a misperception. 

“We find some people don’t even consider new construction because they mistakenly think it’s automatically more expensive or more complicated [than buying a resale home],” says Kevin Oakley, director of marketing for Heartland Custom Homes in Pittsburgh. “People tend to shop by excluding things, but they may miss out on a chance to own a home that’s perfect for them.”

For new home shoppers, here’s a roadmap of what to expect: