Home buyers today expect outdoor spaces that support how they live, entertain and relax — making seamless indoor-outdoors transitions a top priority.
Outdoor living is a primary focus for home buyers. They are looking for outdoor spaces that fit the lifestyle they want, and if you want to build homes that are popular with buyers, you have to provide spaces that suit that lifestyle. Here are four factors to consider when designing outdoor spaces.
Create Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Transitions
Seamless indoor-outdoor transitions are crucial for home designs. Epcon has done consistent market research over the last two decades, and seamless indoor-outdoor transitions have been our primary focus in home designs. For example, Epcon’s proprietary courtyard home designs have all of the main living areas on the first floor and are designed to bring the outdoors in and the indoors out.
Creating seamless indoor-outdoor transitions requires well-thought-out designs with a natural flow free of obstacles. Look carefully at how spaces join. There needs to be logical paths and walls suitable for furniture placement.
Large windows and doors can help, too. You want to visually connect to the ground and the sky from the inside. The floor-to-ground correlation expands the interior and makes homeowners feel more connected to the exterior. Many buyers crave a connection to nature and light and being able to see both the ground and sky from inside their home provides it. If one or both of those aspects are compromised, the indoor-outdoor connection may be lost.
Make Outdoor Spaces Work Like Interior Spaces
Outdoor spaces should be purposeful and reasonably sized. Think of activities people may want to do outside. Whether it is cooking, entertaining, exercising or even working, you need to create spaces that could work for those activities. You should look at outdoor spaces like rooms instead of an area to grow grass. Large expanse of lawn are becoming less and less sought after. It’s too much unusable space requiring too much upkeep.
Prioritize Lifestyle Over Trends
As a builder, you should know your buyer and the lifestyle they want. For example, Epcon creates low-maintenance, amenity-rich communities with single-story homes with private outdoor courtyards to provide social opportunities with a lock-and-leave lifestyle.
Just like interior spa bathrooms, luxurious owner’s suites and gourmet kitchens are high on the wish lists of many buyers, so are certain types of outdoor spaces. Outdoor kitchens with specialized equipment, lounges and wellness spaces are all trends we’re seeing. Living a certain lifestyle in a certain kind of space is as much about human psychology as it is about buildable features. Create outdoor spaces that buyers can personalize to fit the exact lifestyle they want in this stage of life.
Create an Inviting Community
Curb appeal has always been important for builders. When designing for home buyers, you need to consider the lifestyle they desire. For many buyers, it’s not about having the biggest home on the block. Instead, it’s about belonging to a close, connected community.
The development is often more important than the individual homes. Community takes center stage over extravagant self-indulgence for most buyers. Choose styles that give off neighborly, small-town curb appeal, which will also raise property values since buyers are willing to pay a premium for a sense of community.
Styles like Craftsman and Farmhouse have had staying power over the last decade. They offer the modern, clean lines that most buyers want today, while also being comfortably rooted in vernacular tradition. Allowing buyers to choose the exterior elevation that perfectly suits them has become an essential tool for selling homes. It’s no longer enough to offer one elevation per floor plan. Much like interior options, buyers expect to have their choice of several attractive exteriors.
Outdoor living is far more than just a lawn and a porch these days. Make sure you are creating spaces that fit the lifestyle your buyers want.
Article originally published on Builder and Developer Magazine.