Real estate website Trulia combed through the data to find out what amenities buyers want most, from coast to coast.
If you’re planning to sell your home in 2017, it’s a good idea to spend some time in 2016 planning how to market your home. Whether you intend to check some best-for-ROI upgrades off your to-do list or play up the features your home already has, it’s smart to make sure your home’s real estate listing contains the keywords and phrases homebuyers in your area are searching for.
To help, Trulia scoured the listing data of for-sale homes in more than 100 metros to find out what features are most popular in each state. Trulia’s data team combed through for-sale listings for more than two dozen common terms, including “hardwood floors,” “views,” “stainless steel,” “open floor plan,” “high ceilings,” and more, and tallied the terms that appear most often to find each state’s favorite amenity.
The clear winner from coast to coast? In a word: decks. Almost half the country — 22 states — claimed decks as the top home amenity. That’s not a huge surprise, considering they rank as number two on our list of top home improvement projects for fall, bringing in a whopping 80% to 120% return on your investment. The rest of the top listing terms, in order of descending popularity, are “granite,” “storage,” “hardwood floors,” and “views.” Sellers, take note: If your home includes some (or all!) of these amenities, make sure to play them up in your listings (and in your listing photos).
