Plenty of homes get described as built for entertaining. What that usually means is that the house has one large open room and a door to the backyard.
Whether that is worth paying for comes down to a question I ask every client. How often do you actually host? Not how often you would like to. How often you did last year.
WHAT MAKES A HOME EASY TO HOST IN
The homes that work for guests are rarely the ones with the longest feature list. They are the ones where the layout stops getting in your way.
- A kitchen that opens to the room. So the person cooking is not exiled while everyone else talks.
- A short path outside. From the kitchen to the patio without crossing the whole house.
- Somewhere to drop things. Coats, shoes, and bags that is not the sofa.
- Seating that moves. Chairs you can rearrange without emptying the room first.
- A guest bathroom people can find. Without being walked through your bedroom to get there.
THE FEATURES THAT EARN THEIR KEEP
Covered outdoor space is the one I would rank highest. Shade and a roof extend the number of evenings you can actually use the yard, and they do it without adding much to look after. A fire pit stretches that into the cooler months. A built in grill earns its place if you cook outside more than a handful of times a year. If you do not, it is an expensive shelf.
THE ONES THAT LOOK BETTER IN PHOTOS THAN IN FEBRUARY
A pool is wonderful for part of the year and a project for all of it. It needs cleaning, chemistry, and equipment that ages whether you swim or not. An outdoor kitchen is still a kitchen, which means surfaces to seal, lines to drain, and weather to survive. Walls of glass that fold open are gorgeous, and they are also seals and hardware that will eventually ask for attention.
None of that is a reason to say no. It is a reason to ask what you are signing up for before the first hot weekend.
COUNT THE WEEKENDS YOU WOULD ACTUALLY USE IT
This test saves people money. Take the feature you are most excited about and count the weekends you would have used it last year. Not an average year. Last year, with your schedule and your weather. If the number is small, you are buying the idea of the feature, and often someone else’s idea of it at that.
THE COMPARISON I REACH FOR, AND WHERE IT STOPS WORKING
The closest ordinary thing I can think of is a boat. People buy one for the days on the water. The work happens on all the other days.
That comparison holds right up until the trailer. A boat can be sold and towed out of your life when you stop using it. A pool, an outdoor kitchen, and a landscaped yard cannot. They stay, and they keep asking. That is why the honest question is not whether you would enjoy it. It is whether you would still enjoy owning it in the third year.
WHAT I WOULD TELL YOU TO WEIGH
I represent buyers and sellers, so I hear both sides of this. Sellers believe their outdoor space is a reason to pay more. Buyers often treat it as a reason to pay less once they price the upkeep. Both are sometimes right, and it depends entirely on the buyer.
- Upkeep is the real price. Find out what a season of maintenance looks like before you fall for the yard.
- Privacy matters as much as space. A lovely patio overlooked by three neighbors is a different room than one that is not.
- Sound carries. A house designed for crowds is a house that moves noise around.
- Design for your ordinary Tuesday. Guests leave. You stay.
- Flexible beats impressive. A covered patio you use monthly beats a showpiece you use twice.
If the outdoor space is what you are weighing, the neighborhoods hub is where I keep the area context. If you are still working out what you want, the buying process page walks the order things happen in.
Question for you: when you picture hosting, is it one big party a year or a handful of small evenings? Those two answers lead to very different houses, and only one of them needs a pool.
Adapted from Homes Built for Entertaining: Where Indoor Comfort Meets Outdoor Living, originally published by Windermere Signature Properties at windermerecalocal.com.
WHEN YOU ARE READY
Let’s talk about what you want in an area.
Send me the areas you are considering and what matters most to you. I will tell you what each one is actually like, including the parts that argue against it. Nothing is committed by asking.