Features Buyers Think Are Essential & Desirable in a House

The NAHB’s 2019 edition of “What Home Buyers Really Want” revealed that homebuyers are attracted to houses with a laundry room and ENERGY STAR® certified products. Around 4,000 new homeowners and prospective buyers participated in the survey. 

Learn more about the results of this survey from your local window company, Renewal by Andersen® of Eastern NY.  

What Home Buyers Want

Recent and prospective buyers were asked to rate 175 home and community features based on what they believe are essential and desirable. Participants were also requested to rank features that they do not want. 

A separate laundry room topped the list of most-wanted home features. ENERGY STAR certified features are highly-rated as well. It appears that buyers value storage. The majority of participants desire garage storage and a walk-in pantry. The most desirable outdoor features included a patio and exterior lighting. Ceiling fans, hardwood flooring on the ground floor and double sinks in the kitchen were noted as essential.

The survey included three categories of ENERGY STAR ratings, which are all included in the top most-wanted list. ENERGY STAR windows ranked second, with an 89 percent rating. ENERGY STAR appliances followed with 86 percent and 81 percent for whole-home features. 

Despite the high rankings of energy-saving features, most buyers aren’t willing to pay extra for them. However, when they were informed about the savings they could get per year, the responses changed. 

“Buyers may not be turning their hearts to the concept of saving the environment, but they will respond positively if you put it in the dollar sense of what they can save,” Rose Quint, the NAHB’s assistant vice president of survey research said. “This shows it’s important to advertise homes on the savings it will bring the homebuyer and how it could put money back in their pocket.”

Renewal by Andersen has been part of the ENERGY STAR program since it was established. We are the first manufacturer to be named an ENERGY STAR National WIndow Partner of the Year in 1999. This 2019, we were awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year–Sustained Excellence Award. When you choose our energy-saving windows and patio doors, know you’ll only get products that can reduce your heating and cooling costs. 

What Homebuyers Don’t Want

NAHB also made a list of home features that home buyers do not want according to the survey results. A “do not want” rating means that buyers are less likely to buy a home if it has that certain feature.

Sixty-six percent of the participants don’t want an elevator in a house. Despite this, 12 percent find it desirable and 6 percent thinks it’s essential. More than half of the buyers don’t consider a wine cellar or a plant-covered roof as an essential home feature. This goes the same for homes that are in a community with a daycare center. 

Moreover, 47 percent of the respondents don’t want to purchase a house in a community with a golf course and 46 percent don’t want a home in a highly-populated community with smaller lots and attached or multifamily buildings. 

Home Buying Tips

Location is the first thing you should consider when buying a home. If you have to pick between a home with great features in a bad location and a home in a nice location, always choose a home with a good location. You can modify the house once you’ve purchased it. You can replace old windows with our energy-efficient casement windows if you’re buying an older home. 

Instead of choosing a specific age of a home, attempt choosing a range of years. You can ask your agent to filter your home search for properties built before a certain year. Consider the year they were built, the direction the home faces, utilities, heating, and cooling systems and parking or garage. Also take note of the number of bedrooms, baths, and stories.

Aside from the desire for good features in the four essential areas of the home, which are the kitchen, master bedroom, baths, and dining room, there is an increased demand for home energy and accessibility features. Some of which are multi-pane windows, ceiling fans, storm windows, and solar heat. 

Energy Saving Windows

Your local window contractor, Renewal by Andersen of Eastern NY, offers some of the most energy-efficient windows in the industry. All our windows feature Fibrex® window frames that are 200 percent stronger than vinyl. 

Compared to regular double-pane glass, our High-Performance™ Low-E4® SmartSun™ glass is up to 70 percent more efficient in the summer and 56 percent more energy-efficient in winter. Depending on your location, this can mean up to 25 percent of energy savings. Our TrusCene® insect screens are 50 percent clearer than traditional screens. 

Aside from all those great features, our windows are backed by an exceptional warranty. Glass is covered for 20 years, installation for two years, and 10 years for all other window parts. We never hire subcontractors for our services. Our factory-trained contractors will provide 5-star installation experience. After the installation, our team will perform a unique Zero Defect check to see if your new windows were correctly installed. 

For window replacement services you can trust, choose Renewal by Andersen of Eastern NY. Contact us to schedule a free consultation and once we’ve determined your needs, we’ll give you a comprehensive quote on your replacement windows that’s valid for a year. Call us at (866) 479-1700 or fill in our online form.