What Style of Home has the Best Resale Value?
“But…What if we sell?”
This blog post is in loving memory of Dorothy Lafferty, my good friend and the veteran real estate Agent who sold us our current home. I interviewed Dorothy for this blog topic only a few days before she died suddenly of a brain aneurysm on March 20, 2023. I feel deeply honored to have been one of the few people to have spent time with her in her last few days on earth.
May your bright personaltiy and life perspective be evident in these quotes, Dorothy, you are so highly regarded and deeply missed!
One of The Most Popular Design Trends in 2023 is Personalty Driven Design
This trend is here to stay…for a while!
Homeowners often feel hindered to decorate their homes according to their own personal taste in case they should sell and their dreams don’t align with those of potential buyers. So I interviewed a couple of well known real estate agents in the Dallas area and examined the current year trends to help assuage these concerns and give homeowners the freedom to relax and enjoy decorating their home the way they want.
Dorothy was a practicing agent for 40 years. Within a few days of her death at age 78 (rivaling any 45 year old in energy level) she vibrantly spoke to me of her own love for personality driven interiors stating:
“You only live once, you need to enjoy your home.
Don’t worry, I can sell it!”
Over a glass of red wine we talked about my passion for deeply diving into a person's soul to pull out a vibe unlike anyone else's and then to reflect that in their home decor - the stuff that magazines are made of!
Me: “Dorothy, how can I reconcile this with people’s concerns about resale value when time to sell?”
Dorothy: “Everybody’s tired of the same old same old urban putty and revere pewter…ho hum. You only live once. You need to enjoy your home. Don’t worry, I can sell it. My favorite homes to walk into are those that are well done, but really reflect the personality of the person living there. I like to see things that are unique and interesting and sentimental…special…but I will say that really weird or outlandish pieces don’t sell a space well. It has to be well-done if you are going to go for it.”
Me: “I know you sell a lot of new homes in brand new developments along with individuals in the market like me. What are you seeing in the models?”
Dorothy: “Highland Homes [a premier builder in Dallas] has recently employed IBB Design for their model home designer. [IBB is known for daring designs]...”they are really blowing the norms and using bold colors in their models to sell homes and I love it! Apparently others do, too, because they are selling.”
Me: “THAT is great to hear…”
Images of IBB’s Designs in a Highland Homes model
Start Trail, Prosper, Texas.
Me: “I said in a recent blog about nailing your design style, ‘Worried about resale? So just incorporate neutrals on hard surfaces or things hard-to-replace, and do whatever you wish on everything else. OK?’. People buy dreams, not houses. People want to live in homes, not neutral boxes. How does that sound to you?”
Dorothy: “Post-Covid people desire living the way they want. They are wanting to step out of the box. That said, it depends on how outside of the box you go in terms of resale. Paint is easy to change, But it needs to be well-appointed, which is where you come in…”
Decor Matters - It is time for Personality Driven Design
@the_shoestring_home
I also met Sherry Cabrera, an independent realtor in Frisco who’s been serving North Dallas for over 20 years.
I said to Sherry: “First, lets look at the bones. The person whom you purchased your house from liked it’s bones and the person you sell your house to will like its bones. Static, unchangeable, and something you don’t need to sweat. Chances are, if you like the bones, you also like the period and style of the home as do the previous and future owners. Another non-sweat worthy component…”
Sherry: “More people need to do what you are doing instead of just hopping onto the next trend. You don't want your home to look clinical.”
Looking at my work, Sherry said: “This is all sellable. You need to teach people how to do this. What does not sell is if every room is a different color. It just has to be married together - you have to marry it together. People don’t realize that they have more usable things, like heirloom pieces from their families, but they don’t know how to use them. You can teach them how to use it so they can enjoy it and it can still be on trend. If you show people something that is unique and not generic, they will love it…People are tired of generic. Tired of kilm beige.”
Today’s new trends actually lend a ton of freedom for those wanting more personalized decor. A few of Decorilla's Must-Have Looks for a Stylish Home scream “Do what you want. Now is the best time!” while AD's Trends we are Quiet Quitting in 2023 add more gusto to the argument.
According to these sources and others, some trends lean toward a neat aesthetic while others value decoration making way for everyone to shine! But what’s not trending is a “nobody’s home” vibe. Minimalism is passing and now it can look like YOU LIVE THERE. Organic, bold and exciting tones and patterns on walls and fabrics are now entirely permissible along with unexpected color combinations. Experimentation is evident in newer lighting designs, more exciting accessories, and perfect imperfections. Neutral palettes will always be in the game but they are becoming more organic and rich and a little less intentional (think: “who you really are”). It’s more up to what you like than it has ever been before!
Functional and sentimental items (even better if a piece is both) are replacing things “just to look at”. Less “showing off”. There is now room for nostalgia, a return to ever-popular vintage and even unpopular-of-late antiques making the spectrum very wide in terms of what’s trending.
There is a new openness to all possibilities of arranging things. Instead of extremely modern minimalist kitchens, which you’ll often find in all-white or gray. Every surface is brimming with bowls, plants, and spices. Book shelves are loaded with books being arranged in such a way that you can finally stick a new book on your shelf with less concern for matching color or category.
Thank you these days are gone!
SO much better:
In summary, any well-appointed design will be visually appealing and could even be tremendously inspiring to a potential buyer! According to real estate agents the idea of resale should not be too terribly impacted, even if the decor is tailored to a PERSON rather than a trend. So relax and do what you want! If you have trouble coordinating it, hire a designer and get prepared for that first meeting. It has always taken us a bit of maturity and courage not to feel like we have to always follow the money. Now, maybe we are free to see if the money can follow us!