The Home Features Our Buyers Rethink Most

By Katie Muegge, Design Manager, Onyx+East

Onyx+East constructed 227 homes in 2025, and has built 1,200 since launching into the residential development scene in 2015. As a Design Consultant, I work directly with buyers to choose from a list of options that tailor the home's floor plan and finishes to their lifestyle.

Sometimes there's a difference between the home people imagine living in and the home they actually live in. That tension recently came up in a Redfin roundup of home features buyers commonly rethink after moving in, where I shared insights on what regrets are most common. I wanted to expand and offer up the question I make every buyer ask themselves before signing off on an upgrade.

The most-requested feature buyers second-guess

The single most common request we get is a large freestanding or whirlpool tubs. It photographs beautifully and feels like the centerpiece of a dream primary suite. But once people are living in the home, many tell us they wish they'd traded that tub for a larger or better-positioned shower they'd actually use every day.

Buyers sometimes upgrade aspirationally. Something like a tub is often a Pinterest board idea, whereas your daily shower is your real life. My advice is always to invest in the things you'll touch every single day and consider functional design as much as aesthetics.

Specialized rooms are giving way to flexible ones

The other shift we're seeing is buyers prioritizing flexible spaces over specialized rooms. The formal dining room is the classic example. Most people never use it enough to justify dedicating so much square footage to special occasions. 

Instead, buyers want a space that can flex. That's not to say they won't use it as a formal dining space, but they like to know it can evolve into a kids playroom or a guest room as their priorities change. 

This is the point I shared with Redfin, and we see it across nearly every floor plan we design now. It's a theme across the broader market, with Redfin's piece noting buyers rethinking everything from oversized kitchens to high-maintenance landscaping to focus less on grandeur and more on making space earn its value on a more daily basis.

Homeowners' are staying in place longer. Redfin reported in March that people now spend a median of 12 years in their home, up from 6.5 years back in 2005. The National Association of Realtors homeowner survey shows 28% of buyers today have no plans to ever move again. Adaptable homes let them live larger and get more out of their investment without outgrowing the house.

A simple rule for deciding what's worth it

When buyers ask me how to decide whether an upgrade is worth the added cost, I give them a rule and a question.

Pay for what is difficult or expensive to change later.

Structural choices, room layouts, plumbing locations, or window placement are a lot more expensive and disruptive to change than couches or wall colors. Homeowners tend not to regret the time or money they invest in prioritizing those. 

Many finishes, fixtures, and hardware are comparatively easy to swap down the road, so there's rarely a reason to overspend on them at closing.

Does this upgrade fit how my family lives right now? 

Set aside the fantasy of hosting a twelve-person monthly formal dinner party for a moment. It may happen, but start by asking how this design choice improves the way you move through a typical random Tuesday. If the honest answer is "not much," that's usually a sign the money might be better spent somewhere else.

Then, once you've designed for today, design for the tomorrow you know is coming. A family with two toddlers is going to have two teenagers before long. More parents are moving in with adult children. Homes that hold value are the ones that functionally allow you to move through the realities of life.

How we think about it at Onyx+East

Good design is making sure every dollar supports the way a homeowner genuinely lives. That's the lens our design team brings when we're coaching buyers so they don't end up on a future "things I'd rethink" list.

If you're weighing which upgrades are worth it in your own search, we'd love to help you sort aspiration from reality.

Onyx+East's design perspective was recently featured in Redfin's 7 Home Features Buyers Commonly Rethink After Moving In.