Wednesday, July 2, 2008

posted by Webprofits @ 7:42 AM permanent link   | Post a Comment | 1 comments

Most people clamour for spacious homes little realizing additional space is costly and also difficulty to maimtain. The question most prospective home buyers find intriguing is how much home space one exactly needs to feel happy and comfortable. Most real estate analysts opine the right home size depends on several factors like the stage of one's life, family size, life style,financial limitations, visitors etc. In the present day world when opportunities and choices galore are available, there is a natural tendency to acquire things that we do not really need. There are people who live in commodious and disproportionately large homes where quite a few rooms are never used. It is quite often much more comfortable to live in smaller homes that are designed well and where the family members can bond better than large mansions. However, the owners of the oversized homes claim they have earned enough to afford lavish homes and the size of their homes give them a sense of pride.

A variety of housing types and sizes are available in the market for people with enough money who look to a range of options. They may decide to sell their large suburban home for an urban center condominium, a cottage, a townhouse or any other smaller dwelling. But they seldom feel they are sacrificing space because they are trading large quantity of space for better quality of space. The kitchen may shrink to half the size, but the counters are granite and the appliances stainless steel.

Some of the key factors for agreeing to less home space are the lifestyle of the buyers, the quality of the neighborhood and the availability of amenities nearby. Lifestyle people like to stroll and expect pleasant sidewalks or trails. They look forward to a coffee house within easy reach. These people also desire common open spaces and/or parks nearby to serve as a substitute for the missing back yard. They are willing to settle for smaller homes if they can command other facilities like schools, hospitals and grocery stores in the vicinity.

Builders of lifestyle homes make available to their clients homes with the right ambience and combination of amenities that appeals to their customers.. Builders who aim at the lifestyle market provide some of these amenities, but it is not in their hands to create all the features of a neighborhood to attract these affluent people. Therefore, the lifestyle market requires either a high level of existing amenities or a substantial public and private investment to create them.

Most people looking to buy homes prefer larger houses but simply cannot afford them, or are unwilling to buy a larger house if located in peripheral areas. These buyers decide to forego space but not time. They would prefer arriving home from workplace in a half hour than to a large house in 90 minutes. The ideal solution will be to provide as many of the features of a large house as possible in a smaller house. This means retaining the car garage, the master bath, three bedrooms and the main living room, while giving up the formal dining room, bonus room and utility room. Careful architecture research is required to get exactly the right floor plan into a probable 1,500 square feet.

The buyers of smaller homes want public spaces to make up for their missing private spaces. Compact neighborhoods that target the less affluent buyers need not necessarily provide a nearby coffee shop, but generous parks and play areas and safe streets instead.