AVOID These Popular Trends That DATE Your Home

Hey savvy home sellers, it's Jen. Welcome back to my channel. Today we are talking about five popular trends that are dating your home. Now these trends have been around for years and I'm still seeing them in some of the new construction homes, but if you have any of these trends in your home and you're getting your house ready to sell, I don't want you to worry. I'm going to give you some tips to help you freshen up the house to try to make it appeal to as many home buyers as possible. Before we dig in, I just want to address something that comes up in my comments a lot and that has to do with personal choice. All of the advice I give, all the content I create is designed to help you put yourself in the best possible position to attract as many buyers as possible to your home, to try to sell it for the highest amount of money for the least amount of time. But at the end of the day, it's your home. Every home is saleable. However, if you have a home that is overly personalized, overly customized, it might take a little bit more time. It might sell for a little bit less money. And if you're okay with that, then that's all that matters. You want to create an environment that you're comfortable in. So what I'm telling you is it's okay if you design a home that maybe has all of these trends in it and you like it, so keep it. But just know that it might be a little bit more challenging to find a buyer. As my grandmother would say, there is a butt for every seat. And yes, there is a buyer for every home. It's just a matter of how long is it going to take and what's that buyer willing to pay? All right, let's dig into the first trend and that is gray, gray, gray. Now in the video I did recently on paint colors, I heard you loud and clear, gray is out. Now I did research this extensively and the trend of gray is going by the wayside. It's been popular since the late 2010s, but it has been massively overused. When you combine gray floor with gray countertops and great paint, it is just overwhelming. And it does in the color psychology world evoke a feeling of sadness and melancholy. It's a very cold and impersonal color. So you'll be happy to know that this trend is being put out to pasture. So what is replacing it are warm, neutral, natural colors. And when it comes to flooring, the trend is moving towards more natural colors. The things that actually appear in nature, you're not going to find typically gray flooring in nature. You're going to find oaks. You're going to find mahogany, cherries. Those colors give a warmth to a room as opposed to making it feel cold. And if you have gray flooring and you're getting your house ready for the market, you don't necessarily have to replace it, but I would cover it with some area rugs, get some bright colored area rugs, something that breaks up that monotony, something that gives an add some warmth to the room. Now the next trend that's on its way out is open shelving in the kitchen. When you have the shelving instead of cabinets, aesthetically, it looks nice, but functionally it doesn't work. It's way harder to keep clean and aesthetically, it makes the space feel cluttered. So the trend is moving from style over to functionality because the reality of it is, is people don't want to see all the kids sippy cups. They don't want to see all your Tupperware when they're touring your home to think about buying it. All that stuff that you shove into your cabinets, the mismatched coffee mugs, it doesn't really matter. It's not going to add any value to your kitchen as aesthetically doesn't look good. So to have it hidden behind a cabinet door does look nice. Now the trend that we are starting to see are glass front cabinets. So you would have a traditional cabinet front for the majority of your kitchen, but you might have one or two highlighted doors that have glass fronts and maybe some lighting inside the cabinet. So maybe you have a few dishes that you'll display or, or glasses, you know, glassware that you're going to display to kind of offset it. But the open concept is out. And speaking of open concept, the next trend that is being put out to pasture is the open concept floor plan. Now this trend has been popular since the early 2000s, but the trend is definitely shifting towards more privacy, more dedicated rooms and flex rooms. And we started to see that during COVID. When people started to work home from more, they started spending more time at home, they wanted their space. That open concept did not work. They wanted to get away maybe every now and then from the rest of the family, or they just needed privacy to do their work. And from a very practical standpoint, when you're dealing with an open concept floor plan, you have more sound travel. If you have people talking in the living room and you're in the next room trying to read, or you have people in the kitchen or kitchen noise in general, and you're trying to watch a TV program, it's disturbing. And then when you start adding in kids or grandkids, that's a whole nother ball game. And then the other point I'll make is that it's way less energy efficient. If you have electric heat or mini split air conditioning and heating systems, you can control each of those zones separately. However, if you have an open concept, you can't do that. You can't just turn down the heat or turn up the air conditioning in the office and have it isolated to that particular room. You end up having to heat or cool the entire space. And if you're not using that space, it is a total waste of money. Now with homes that have open concepts, we're seeing more room dividers or sliding doors, ways to separate the space. And the trend is shifting towards multi-room or flex rooms where you might have an extra room that doubles as an office or a guest room or a media room. And the other trend is closed off kitchens, which are way more functional. It contains the space. It contains the sounds. It also gives you more storage, more counter space to work with. So it's a more functional space than the open concept. Now, if you've been in your home for a while and you have some of these trends and you are not in a position to remodel your home, nor do I recommend it before you put it on the market to sell, it might be a good idea to consult with your local real estate agent to get some ideas and get some input on what buyers are looking for. There might be some very inexpensive ways that you can offset some of these trends to attract more buyers. Now, I have been in the industry since 1996. I know a lot of agents and I know a lot of the good agents. And if you have an agent that you know, that you trust, fantastic. But if you don't, I'm happy to connect you with one of the agents that are in my exclusive network. There's a link in the description. Click on that link, short form, fill that out. I'll get in touch with you, get some information from you and then match you with the right agent in your area that will take great care of you. Now, staying on the topic of kitchens, the other trend that is on its way out is all white kitchens. Now, if I'm being honest, I am not sad to see this trend go. I am not a fan of white kitchens, primarily because I lean towards the practical side. And that's one of the reasons why white kitchens is moving out to pasture, is it's just harder to maintain. It shows every smudge, every spill, every grease splatter. You have to keep it clean. It's a lot of work to keep a white kitchen clean. But the other reason is the same reason why gray is moving out. It feels sterile. It feels cold. And the trend has been black and white. White cabinets, white countertops, white subway tile with black hardware, maybe even black grout. And the contrast has been one of the reasons why this trend has been so popular. But it's also one of the reasons why people are moving away from it. That contrast is very startling and it's very cold. The contrast between the black and the white can be very visually overwhelming. So what's replacing it, and you can kind of see a trend here, is warmth and character. People are moving towards the warm woods, wood cabinets, mahogany, oak, cherry, natural materials, and colors. Not only colors, but two-tone colors. So having a darker color on the bottom cabinets and a lighter color on the top cabinets to have that contrast, but not overwhelming contrast, is something that we're seeing more and more and becoming more popular. But the main reasons, whether you do natural wood or you decide to paint, is it creates a sense of warmth and comfort and it's way easier to maintain and way easier to keep clean. And then the last trend, which has been around since the 2010s and is starting to go by the wayside, is minimalism. Now minimalism has been the buzzword. Everybody's been talking about it for years. Minimalism is the key to having less and saving money and having a more productive life. And the reality of that is it's going by the wayside. And the shift has been to what they're now calling maximalism or the new minimalist. And we saw this shift during the pandemic. People want to come home and they want to feel comfort. They want warmth. They want their favorite items around them. They want a lived-in environment. It can be tidy. It can be clean, but it doesn't have to be minimalist. And then the other thing is they want their environment to reflect their own style and their own experiences. The shift has also been towards more vibrant colors, more retro, more vintage, an eclectic style. Styles that reflect your personality on who you are. Now again, your personal style may not appeal to all buyers and that's okay. You have to remember what your goals are. If your goals are to get the most amount of money in the least amount of time, then it may be worth picking up a paintbrush. But if it's more important you to have an environment where you can live and feel comfortable and feel that warmth and exist in your home the way you want to exist, then you put it on the market the way it is. Every house will sell. It's just a matter of finding the right buyer. And it may take a little longer. You may have to reduce the price to be able to widen your scope to find that buyer, but the house will sell. And if you're willing to have that trade-off in exchange for living in the house the way you want it, then absolutely that's what you should do. Now if you want more information on what adds value and what doesn't add value when it comes to updates and repairs in your home, you're going to want to check out these videos. I'm Jen Sylvester and I'm here to help you be a Savvy Home Seller.