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Learning More About Real Estate

After finally saving up enough money to use as a down payment, I decided that it was time to hit the market. I met with a lender, got pre-approved for a loan, and then started visiting different properties. However, I quickly realized that I didn't know as much about real estate as I would have hoped. I wanted to find a great neighborhood and know what to ask the professionals, but I could tell that I needed a little help. To point me in the right direction, I started working with a great real estate agent who was familiar with the area. This blog is all about educating the general public on real estate matters.

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Learning More About Real Estate

Five Luxury Features That Are Actually Necessities

by Nathan Olson

If you're a hopeful home buyer who has been looking at models, floor plans, and listings, you've noticed that "luxury" seems to be the rule now instead of the exception. Much of this is perception; while more luxury homes are being built nowadays, a lot of that luxury is now considered standard even in regular homes. Here are five home features that have made the journey from optional luxury to everyday necessity.

Storage Space

It used to be that you had a closet along the wall in your bedroom and maybe a few cabinets in the kitchen. Home builders and buyers, though, finally realized that when people move into a new home, they don't want to get rid of half of what they own just because there's no place for the items. The larger closets, pantries, and storage spaces found in luxury homes have now become standard in new homes, with cabinets in the laundry area, built-in shelving at the tops of stairways, floor-to-ceiling pantries in the kitchen, and lots of other storage areas. Instead of buying standalone storage cabinets that look decidedly unluxurious, you can now count on buying a home that has ample room for your stuff.

Smart Homes

Smart homes, where you can program and remotely control everything from the lights to the garage door to even the oven start and stop times, are becoming much more common. This used to be a matter of convenience, but now being able to program your lights and thermostat is a matter of saving money on your bills, and being able to control the garage door and other parts of your home has become a matter of security and safety. No longer are smart home features optional -- now you'll find the technology slowly spreading across new home plans.

Quartz Countertop

Quartz is a miraculous countertop material. It's hard, smooth, and doesn't need sealing every few years like granite does. It's also one of the more expensive counter materials available, so it's been relegated to the optional luxury market for years. However, builders and buyers have cottoned to the fact that quartz offers so many benefits that spending the money to install it is actually a better deal than installing another material.

Outdoor Kitchen

Once the realm of estate-type homes with huge expanses of land, outdoor kitchens have become much more common in smaller land parcels. These outdoor stoves, ovens, and bars let you prepare meals outside without having to cart lots of pots and pans between the house and the patio; you simply cook everything outside. This means that you can keep the back door closed more often and keep bugs from getting inside the house. It also keeps your home cooler in summer as you're not heating up your indoor kitchen.

Radiant Floor Heating

This type of heating has electrical wires or water-filled tubes running underneath the floor. It's not something that's easy to install in existing homes, but new homes are often built with this type of heating because of its energy-conserving features. Heat rises, so if you use a central heater with a vent near the ceiling, for example, you end up wasting a lot of that heat -- it will just stay near the ceiling, and you'll have to blast more air into the room to see any effect. But with radiant heating, the heat rises past you, so you feel warmer with less energy used.

If you'd like to see more luxury home features that are now considered necessities, talk to luxury home builders about their floor plans. Take the time to see how the space and features in the plans could let you expand your life and make it much more comfortable. Contact a home builder, such as Adobe Homes Florida, for more information.   

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