How a Hybrid Work Week and Post-Vaccine Mindset Shaped Future Home Buyer Preferences for Parents

Home Buyer Preferences in a Post Covid World

No matter how high the vaccination rate is in a given part of the country, there’s no denying that the widespread availability of the COVID-19 vaccine changed the attitudes of those who had previously been staying at home almost exclusively.

Now, people have spent months going back to concerts, connecting with loved ones, and enjoying in-person dining experiences they had skipped due to the pandemic.

In addition, schools are trying to figure out the best way forward, given the inability to vaccinate young children but also their low rates of serious covid illness.

Families are now able to find more childcare options and consider an in-person school in ways that weren’t possible in 2020. Employers, however, are in various states of bringing people back to the office. As a result, the real estate market is still being affected by the changes that have come for the past two years.

People make their real estate choices with a strong eye to their lifestyle: how will they spend their time at home? What will their work commute be? It only makes sense that workplace norms will impact how home buyers, especially home buyers who are parents, will make their choices.

If you might be selling your home soon, realize the power that a hybrid work schedule is now having on the market. Understanding this fundamental shift in the labor market can help you to sell your home for the most money possible when you choose to do so.

What is a Hybrid Schedule?

As employers were given new options for bringing teams back to the workplace safely, they realized they faced a choice. In many cases, their teams had found a rhythm in working from home, and that rhythm had actually resulted in some positive outcomes.

In some cases, productivity rose, but in others, productivity held fairly constant and employees instead reported much higher job satisfaction.

While there are businesses where a return to the office is a cut-and-dry benefit, others are not so sure. They are loath to leave all of their workforces out in their homes with very little in-person connection, but they also like the way that each person working on their own and connecting virtually has improved productivity or flexibility.

As a result, some employers are choosing to create hybrid work weeks. These long-term work arrangements allow in-office work when it makes sense and when in-person collaboration could benefit the team. However, for all other days when individual contributors need to hunker down and get things done, remote work is remaining as an option.

Some companies are structuring this in terms of “core hours,” picking a 10 or 20-hour chunk of the week and expecting all workers to be in-office for those hours, leaving the rest of their hours to be done flexibly.

Other companies are saying that a new employee benefit is the option to work from home 2 or 3 days a week, allowing the employee and their manager to decide which days are most beneficial for the business.

Rather than bringing everyone back to the office full-time, these arrangements are becoming a part of some company’s long-term benefits packages. As a result, there are fundamental shifts in what kinds of housing options might be most desirable for families with hybrid work weeks for one or two incomes.

So what should you do to capture this market when selling your home, especially if you’re also buying at the same time? Here are our best suggestions.

How Can Parents Market Homes With an Eye to the Hybrid Work Week?

Bill Extra Bedrooms as Potential Home Offices

Start with the number of bedrooms in the home: if a given interested potential buyer only needs 1-2 bedrooms, discuss the potential for 1 of 3 bedrooms to become a home office.

If you happen to be selling a large house, you need not aim for only large families anymore: many families with two hybrid workers will want two dedicated office spaces. Extra space is a real benefit in a marketplace where people know they may continue spending lots of time at home.

If your home doesn’t have bedrooms to spare for this purpose, get creative in how you discuss parts of the home. Did you previously talk about a bonus room, family room, den, or another kind of space that wasn’t one of the standard rooms in the home?

Consider staging that space as a small home office to showcase its potential at a time when so many people are interested in a home office! You’d be surprised how a nook or built-in desk can become a highly sought-after feature if you showcase it in a good way.

Showcase Unfinished Areas as Potential Home Gyms

Similarly, hybrid work comes with less commute time and a lot of options for a lunch break or other flexible break time. Many families invested in-home gym equipment during the COVID-19 gym closures, and if they’re looking for a home now, they may be interested in setting that gym back up somewhere!

In fact, according to HomeLight’s most recent survey, agents estimate that the value of a home gym has risen 69.0% from $3,635 pre-COVID to $6,127 post-vaccine.

Get creative with your unfinished basement, attic, and garage spaces: clearly not everywhere can be a home gym, but many places that wouldn’t otherwise attract a lot of attention from buyers could be more intriguing as a potential home gym.

Since many people are willing to put their workout equipment somewhere less finished, you can get them to see more of your floor plan as useful to them through this strategy.

Consider how your home’s unique qualities can be imagined as a good place to live, work, and play since many buyers are now surveying potential homes with all of these options in mind.

Note and Play Up Livability Features, From Pools to Big Backyards

Similarly to gyms, people who are working from home don’t want the house to be a place that they get tired of seeing each day. As a result, lifestyle features like pools, backyards, outdoor kitchens, and hot tubs are seeing much higher premiums than in the past.

With the continuation of remote work via a hybrid work week, these high values are likely to continue at least for a time. Pair that with the ability to have friends over to socialize and use lifestyle additions like a pool, and you’ve got a winning strategy for selling your home.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, life at home hasn’t gone back to normal entirely. People know that the world is a more uncertain place than it was two years ago, and having a strong set of options for how to use one’s own space at home can give security and comfort.

Let the continuation of the hybrid work schedule work in your favor when selling a home to buyers who are parents.