Hot Home Trends in 2025

From earthy paint tones to bold kitchen island colors to smart home features and outdoor living, we cover what is hot and trending in home décor and renovations in 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Remax real Estate Insights Show,
where you get real talk by real agents walk to
you by Remax of Southeastern Michigan. Welcome to another episode
of the Remax real Estate Insights podcast. I'm happy you
hit play on the podcast today. I'm Janete Schneider. I'm
your host and here on this podcast, our mission is
to keep you informed about what's happening in the Southeastern

(00:22):
Michigan housing market, from local trends to practical insights that
help you make smarter real estate decisions. Today, we're diving
into what's hot in home renovations and new construction this spring.
We're going to cover everything from let's say, maybe latest
paint colored trends, to the most in demand features and
outdoor living upgrades. So whether you're thinking about updating your

(00:44):
current home, maybe you're in the market for a new
construction home, this episode is packed with inspiration and ideas
you don't want to miss and I'm thrilled to welcome
back as our special guest, Nathan Boji. Nathan is an
associate broker of Remax Classic. They have several offices excuse
me throughout Southeastern Michigan.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Welcome back, Nathan, Hey, how's it going.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
I'm doing great? How you doing good?

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Good?

Speaker 5 (01:07):
I'm feeling like this is becoming second home. What is
this like my fourth or fifth?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I think maybe you get the Longevity Award for repeat
repeat most repeat guests.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
So I'll take it. You'll always good time here.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
We'll take it.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
And as we're coming on air, we're just coming out
of the Memorial Day weekend. That's when we're recording this,
So hopefully you had a nice Memorial weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:26):
It was a great weekend and you know, got to
do all the things that I think are important, spend
time with family and be thankful for you know, all
of the people that have given us the opportunity to
have that time together.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Absolutely, that doesn't it comes with a cost, and if
it's a good time to reflect on that. Now something
I'm doing this year. You may have been caught up
in this once before, but I've been very consistent this
year with asking each guest a question to start off
the show. Oh boy, and it is what got you
into the real estate industry? Now I know your history
a little better than I know others, but share with

(02:00):
us how you got this.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
Targeted questions, Neett. So, uh, that's a very interesting question.
So my family's been in the real estate industry for
I don't know, going going on over thirty years. And
when you have family, uh in the industry and it's
a family business, you tend to just uh you know,

(02:23):
find your place in it. So when I was young, uh,
you know, my mom was in the sales side of it.
My dad, after he sold his uh retail businesses, he
you know, always kind dabbled to construction and things like
that and home renovations and uh improved home improvement.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
And stuff like that.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
So when I was young, I either got drugged to
a real estate office to hang out and sweep floors
and file paperwork and you know, all the stuff that
you give the kid.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
To do, which is every kid's dream.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:55):
Yeah, and then or you know, you got drug to
a construction site to sweep floors, and you know, so
there was a high likelihood I could have ended up
being a janitor with all the floor sweeping I did,
but I yeah, so family business. And I got licensed
shortly after graduating high school. The summer that I graduated

(03:18):
high school, I bought my first investment property and and
back then I was just this is for all the
home buyers right now that are fretting about interest rates.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
But I got an interest rate under eight.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
Percent, and I was excited because I was like, oh,
I got a deal. And so just kind of keep
that in perspective for today's buyers. So anyway, I sold
real estate while I was in college, and I've just
done it ever since, working with folks that were looking
to buy and sell real estate.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
I've invested in real estate.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
I've worked through many different market shifts. I've gone through
the foreclosure, isis the home, the short sales, lots of
new construction experience, which we'll play into our conversation today.
And so today I have a sales you know, sales business,

(04:13):
and then we also our family business, Remax Classic is
a thriving brokerage in metro Detroit, and so I work
in growing that and helping other.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
Realtors have successful businesses.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
So that's a little bit of my story, a little
bit of the story there. And you know, and what
I heard you also say is obviously you're very familiar
on the sales side. You know, you've personally invested. Dad
does some construction, some renovation, and like you said that
all about is going to is going to play and
play into things. So let's let's dive into kind of
what is popular, what's trending. One of the most important

(04:48):
things to note, I think that you know, paint colors
that we're going to start there. That's easy, that's that's
kind of starting with the cherry picking, right. Yeah, can
have a big impact, not only in how space feels,
but how it's perceived by potential buyers. I'd say the
right color palette can make a home, you know, feel inviting, modern,
move and ready. On the reverse, it can make it
look dated, you know, and whatnot if if you haven't

(05:10):
done much with it. So let's start there. What are
you kind of seeing for trends on that right now?

Speaker 5 (05:14):
Yeah, so we're we're seeing and this is probably gonna
sound funny to folks that have that have been you know,
homeowners and renovating homes and stuff like that for a
number of decades, because some of it's gonna sound kind
of familiar, which is typically the what happens with trends
is they just cyclical, they keep coming back around. But
right now we're seeing a lot of you know, your
your earthy tones, but the lighter stuff, okay, you know,

(05:37):
so warm colors for the majority of the homes, so
you know, you're you're seeing a lot of that, so
more of a cream but not the yellowy cream stuff,
but kind of the muted you know colors you're seeing
for a lot of our walls, a lot of bright
white trim, you know, is what is what complementing those walls.

(06:02):
But then you know, with all of those like natural
tones and earth tones, you need a little virls pops.
So you're seeing you know, you'll you'll find a fireplace
it's like a stark you know, dark black right, or
you'll see a particular wall or something, you know, navy.
You know, I've been seeing it. And I don't know
if this is just like the trend or just to

(06:24):
what people like. But you know, if you happen to
have like a first floor half bath and you walk
into that, you know, and you've got that you know,
lighter earth tone theme throughout the whole house, there's a
wall in that bathroom that is wild, you know. Yeah, yeah,
whether it's like a crazy pattern or some color or
something like that. So so we are seeing those like

(06:46):
pops of of you know, of color and things like that,
even with the earth tones and so forth. The other
thing that we're starting to see a lot is like,
you know, color but material, so you'll have something that
provides a little bit of text sure to Now I'm
not talking to popcorn ceilings.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Let's get that straight.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
And there were going to come back.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
I don't know why we did that. We should not
do that. And it's a lot easier to get rid
of these days. So if you have them, don't fret.
You can get rid of them pretty easily these days.
But you're seeing a little bit of texture in use
of like wallpaper or certain types of paneling and stuff
like that. But yeah, color wise, you know where it is.
It's a lot of those creams and beige and topes

(07:26):
earth tones so like. And when I'm seeing earth tones,
I'm not just talking like the grays and the topes
and stuff like that in the in the creams, but
I'm talking like, you know, natural tones, so like stage olive,
you know, stuff like that, things that are just natural
colors that we see in the environment every day.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Kind of calming, soothing to some to some degree. So
a couple of things that you said, I wanted to
kind of you know, circle back on. So you know
these are and are these this color palette common and
new construction as well as if I have an existing
home and I'm maybe starting to think about getting it
ready for market.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
Yeah, so when you're walking into new construction and this
goes from your one off spec builders to all the
way to your production builders. So that would be like
your told brothers, Pulty things like that, even even though you.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Know, told brothers just do some custom stuff.

Speaker 5 (08:11):
But anyways, yeah, you're you're seeing this trend all the
way through and that's paint colors and materials. So you know,
flooring we're not seeing you know, you know, I know
there's people that absolutely love cherry cherry wood flaw us
right and nothing against that, but today it's everything is.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
White oak or a you know, a very light colored wood.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
Wide plank, natural finish, not so much stained one way
or another.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
Okay, we're seeing a lot of that.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
And a lot of white and you're and you're gonna
see that in the new construction. And then if you
go to homes that are getting renovated, I mean that's
almost every house walk into renovated. I mean they go
it's white cabinets, and if you've got the space for
an island, you have an off color very or both
color as the island light countertops in most cases. And

(09:06):
now this is this is the majority of it. Like
when you get into the custom builds sometimes you're seeing
some different stuff. But yeah, I mean that's that's yeah,
it's it's across the board. I mean, that's what people
want these days.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
So let me ask you this because you mentioned texture
and yeah, I've been, you know, kind of doing a
little reading on this and it's like, okay, yeah, texture
is coming into play. And you mentioned the word that
makes me cringe, which is wallpaper. Not because there can
beautiful wall paper, don't get me wrong. I just had
bad experience with it in the house we sold a
year ago because we lived there for twenty years and
then you know, the house was great, location was good

(09:41):
that you can't change, so you buy the.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
House for that, right.

Speaker 5 (09:43):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
What I completely.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Underestimated was the amount of time and sweat equity I
was going to put into removing wallpaper on literally every
inch of that house.

Speaker 5 (09:54):
Yes, well, you know there's the old saying just because
you have a hammer, not everything is in nail and
that plays true across all facets of life, including wallpaper.
You know, it's a great accent material, and you can
achieve certain looks when you're trying to accomplish a texture
or a particular style or something like that with wallpaper,

(10:18):
much easier than you can with having either.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
The actual what you're trying to accomplish.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
Done, you know.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
And I mean, they have some really unique stuff that
mimics stone, mimics you know, other natural materials, would leather,
you know, and stuff like that. And I mean, and
there's some really elaborate wallpapers, and I think at that
point it's not even a wallpaper as a wall covering.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
You know. I was in a home a couple of
weeks ago.

Speaker 5 (10:43):
And it was like almost like a a pillowed kind
of effect on the wall done in leather. It's pretty
pretty intense, but it's very slick looking. So yeah, it's
you know whenever I so I have that horrible experience
of the wallpaper too. There was an investment property that

(11:03):
I was flipping one time, and we ended up just
tearing out the wall because there was seven layers of
wallpaper on it.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
You know.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
The homeless built in the forties, and so there was
a lot of opportunity for people to just keep changing.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, you that was the opposite problem.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
They attached it right to the drywall without the appropriate
yeah material, yea, they have slapped it on there. So
it's like, yeah, but I mean and I get that.
And so are you seeing when it comes to like
wallpaper and texture and using it, you know, for effect
and stuff like that, Well you will? You see that
a lot of new construction or is that more people
renovating existing homes to their own team?

Speaker 5 (11:40):
So production new construction you don't typically see that unless
you're paying for a specifical upgrade.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yeah. Custom, yes, custom builds.

Speaker 5 (11:48):
You are seeing that because that particular buyer is picking
out what they want in that property, each detail, along
with the you know, the architect, the designer in the builder.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
And so forth.

Speaker 5 (11:59):
But innovations, we're seeing a little bit of it. In
renovations is done for a couple of reasons. One, you know,
that person that is renovating the home is putting some
of their own style on it. But also too, it
is in many times a cost effective way of achieving
a certain look that is very important to you know,
a renovation bottom line, Especially if you're flipping it for
business and things like that, or if you're someone that's

(12:22):
moving into it and you're you're trying to pay attention
to your budget. You can sometimes achieve it with those
types of you know, a paneling or a wallpapers like
that on a small area versus you know what, going
through the actual process of doing what it is you
want done, you know, and that's why we're seeing a lot.
You know, we still see a lot of trim work today.
You know, the builders have it figured out. Go into

(12:44):
new construction and find and look at what they've done
with trim, and look at how much they're charging you
for the trim, and you will understand why they do
it because it's on their side, it's not that expensive
to do, but it gives such a wow factor that
people will pay for it. Yeah. So if you're thinking
of adding some sort of pop in the house and
you want it to be a little bit more substantial,

(13:06):
you know, trim is a great way to accomplish a lot.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
I mean relatively quick, relative relatively inexpensive. I mean, I
mean everything's going to have a cost with it, but
something that you can do and really appreciate.

Speaker 5 (13:17):
Yeah, yes, and and you know, with the right carpenter
they can accomplish some really unique looks that look like
they are way more substantial and costly than they really are.
You know, some tricks to where you can use some
different trim pieces to make it look like it's something
that it's not.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
But I mean it still looks amazing.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
But no, that's interesting.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
We were just watching what was it, lake Front, I
don't know, renovation or one of those shows the other
last week, and we were both laughing because, you know,
it was a combination of them paying to have work
done and then it's like the homeowner doing a little
sweat equity. And God bless them because I think, you know,
anybody that wust roll up their sleeves and do something
you know, awesome for you and put yourself out there
to do something you've never done. I don't think he

(13:59):
owns a miter saw. Because you're looking at the way
the trip, Yeah, the way the trim was put up there,
and my husband and I were both looking at it,
going he didn't finish it, you know, I mean it's
like up there, but you didn't.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
It wasn't finished the way it should have been.

Speaker 5 (14:10):
Yeah, if you're gonna tackle it yourself, you know, there's
always a deal on a miner saw, a Riobi miter
saw at home depot. You can get pretty inexpensive these days.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
And YouTube is your friend.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yes, yeah, you can do it.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
You know, find your local realtor and I'm sure they
have some great references for carpenters.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Are you're gonna throw in a couple of different, you know,
kind of features in the house and get your thoughts
on hardware and light light fixtures. What type of things
are you seeing trending there these days?

Speaker 4 (14:39):
So let's start with light fixtures.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
And the reason I'm I think that's important to seeing
is because there's so much that goes into a light fixture.

Speaker 4 (14:47):
That most people don't think about.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
One is obviously the look, the aesthetics of it, right,
and we're seeing a lot of you know, the light
fixture aesthetics. So like lighting that you might have like
pendants maybe in the kitchen, or or a nice chandelier,
whether it's in the foyer or the dining area or
in the dining room formal dining room if you have that,
or I mean, you're seeing some really elaborate chandeliers, and

(15:10):
in some of the higher end homes that have the
space to do you know, an expansive walking closet, we're
seeing chandadiers and stuff in there. But you know, in
your kitchen and things like that, like let's see you
go with like a you know, a matted uh, you know,
gold finish, or your light fishes are going to match,
or maybe you're gonna have a bit of a pop

(15:31):
on one of them. That's over the eating in the kitchen,
you'll go like an completely opposite so from the lighter
color of the gold to black finish and things like that.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
And and I.

Speaker 5 (15:43):
Think you know, when you're thinking about your traditional chandeliers
and like the entry, it's not so much just the
traditional crystal chandeliers, you know, it's very elaborate geometric shapes.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Which it becomes almost like a design it has been.

Speaker 5 (15:58):
And that is I think a really great atavidence of
what technology is doing because of the onset of LED
lighting and how that can be shaped in position to
really make some elaborate looking things. That's why I think
we're seeing some of this cool, cool lighting stuff like that,
which leads me into the actual light itself is you know,

(16:20):
most everything is LED these days, even the stuff that
looks like it's like an Edison bulb, it's it's led. Yeah,
and it's pretty wild what they can do with it nowadays.
And in one of the unique things that we're seeing,
especially new construction, you're seeing a little bit but on
the renovation side is you know, you're getting the LED
fixtures that you can decide.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
What how warm or cool do you want the light?

Speaker 5 (16:45):
You know, do you want that really bright white or
do you want the warm kind of candle light? Right,
you know, And and I think that's important to a
lot of people. I know, you know, when my wife
and I did some renovations recently, that was like a
big thing for us because we wanted you know, we
we didn't want the stark white light for the majority
of the house, but there are certain areas that you know,
you want.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
To see what the heck you're doing.

Speaker 5 (17:06):
Yeah, So there there's that. But the other thing with
lighting too is we're starting to see a lot of
the smart lighting, if you will, so where you can
either operate it from your mobile device or there's some
sort of central system in the home that can be
operated whether to turn everything on everything off.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Change colors, or set up some sort.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
Of programming so that way, you know, we've always had
the timered lights and stuff like that, but you can
get really elaborate with stuff now to where if you're
maybe you're traveling for an extended period of time, and
you want the lights to look like lights when they're
on and off in the house when you're in the house,
which is completely random.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Right, it's not set like every night at six o'clockety yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:44):
Yeah, they've got systems to do that and think so.
So we're starting to see a lot of the smart
lighting and things like that, and on the what's really
interesting is when you're building new you can you can
build to support those infrastructures really well. Right however, and
renovating sometimes you know you're in situation where the walls
already closed, everything's already wired, the light's kind of in
the spot you're wanting it to be in.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
Now, granted, you can change all that, right level do
you want to go to? Right however?

Speaker 2 (18:09):
I mean, now they have smart light bulbs.

Speaker 5 (18:12):
You just put the light bulb in the socket and
then you connect it to your Wi Fi and you're
off and running. You can change what warm or cold
light you want. You want it green, red, blue, pink,
whatever it is, and how often do you want it
to turn on and off, you know, without having to
rip it out?

Speaker 1 (18:28):
And yeah, which I mean because obviously tearing into walls
and doing all that is more than I'm going to
say the average the average homeowner.

Speaker 5 (18:35):
Is going to absolutely and and that's you know, and
that's great for the average homeowner. Someone renovating on a budget,
someone that's doing it professionally to flip, that's got to
pay attention to the numbers, you know, because the margins
aren't as big as whatever it thinks they are. And
you know, so that all plays into it. One other
thing I just want to say about lighting styles. I

(18:56):
think you know, recess lights are are huge, right, That's
kind of the go to because they're kind of out.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
Of your lot the site.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
They don't in true, especially if you've got another really
nice lighting piece in the room, you know, and you're
having those lights make a bold statement.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
You don't want the kind of like.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Quote unquote working light.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
To interfere with that.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
And the technology with the recess lights are getting so
phenomenal now that you know you can have smaller ones that.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Are doing way more work and more output than the
bigger ones used to do.

Speaker 5 (19:29):
And you know, you don't have to be afraid if
you've got you know, vaulted ceilings in your home, whether
it's you know, a thirty foot vault or a fifteen
foot vault. You know, that's a challenge to change the
light bulb when it goes out. These light bulbs they
just you know the LEDs us forever. So you're starting
to see people think about that. They're like, well, I
don't have to worry about getting there.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
And change if that becomes a non issue.

Speaker 5 (19:50):
Yeah, yeah, And I've had that happen in in you know,
many instances, whether it was in my own home or
properties I was working with that you know, know there's
a two story ceiling and there's like, well, how do
I change the light bulb?

Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know, now you need to get the light change
pole and the whole basket and it.

Speaker 5 (20:08):
Never does or like are you going to risk your
neck and climb up on a twenty foot ladder to
change the light or you know, or you got to
pay fe hundred bucks for electrician come out and do it.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
You know, it seems a little.

Speaker 5 (20:18):
Yeah, seems crazy, but you know, you just have to
look at what where where the priority is. But yeah,
so lighting is important and there there's a lot of
things that you can do with it, and you can
you can spend.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
A lot or a little and accomplish some really great
look And.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
That's what I think is I mean, especially if you're
if you're thinking about getting your home ready to sell,
is I think something that you can do. Again, like
you your point, you can spend her as much or
as little as you want, but if you can spend
you can spend a little and upgrade the look of
the house tremendously.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
You know.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
If you haven't kind of looked at the lighting, you
know in a while, if it's been in there for
several years or decades, it's like, look around. That is
something that you can do and it completely changes a
look and modernizes them.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
Absolutely, you know.

Speaker 5 (20:58):
And and and you can just you know, swap out
light bulbs or fixtures and it could totally change it up,
you know. I guess going back to we were talking
about chandoliers and if you have a formal dining room
and you have the traditional you know, brass, you know,
finish looks like a candelabra kind of deal. And you

(21:21):
know from nineteen seventy two or whatever it might have been. Yeah, exactly,
you know you could. The good news is your infrastructure
is there, right, so all your wiring is there. Yeah,
you have a chandelier box, so it's an electrical box
in the ceiling that can hold more weight than just
a regular right, you know. And now you can swap

(21:45):
out that fixture.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
You can get.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
Similar fixtures like the really cool geometric led ones that
we're starting to see. You can get those really high
and you spend several thousand dollars or you know, got
a home depot, they've got something that's going to look
really great. You can spind less than one hundred box
yep and and have a really great look. And if
you're handy and you understand how to work on electric

(22:09):
electrical systems, you can insult yourself. If not, you know,
electrician a lot of times if you have the.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
Hardware will help you out a little bit.

Speaker 5 (22:16):
But yeah, so it's it's there's a lot you can
do with it, and it can make or break a room.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Absolutely, you touched on this a little bit, but I
want to go back to flooring.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
So we're going to go back to that a little bit.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
You said, you know, you referenced, you know, cherry would
still popular with some, but leaning leaning as a as
a trend more towards lighter, wide plank stuff like that.
So would I mean stone is also an issue, tile carpet.
I mean there are there are options, you know, as
far as what's out there today. I'm assuming, and I
don't want to put words in your mouth that would
remains the.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Most popular for flooring options right now? Or would you?
Would you challenge me on that?

Speaker 5 (22:53):
So I would say you're right, but I think we
have to look at it in context. So would the
look is the dominant look?

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Right?

Speaker 5 (23:02):
And that breaks And the reason I say it that
way is it breaks down into a couple of different things.
You have wood flooring, which is solid wood planked flooring, right.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
That that goes in. Now, that was all we had.

Speaker 5 (23:16):
You know, originally when building homes. Today though, we have
many different options right that look like wood. We have
everything from your solid wood to engineered wood flooring and
engineered wood flooring. You have many different variations you have
is it an all wood product with the veneer at
the on the top of it, which is what we're
what you're looking at, what you're walking on. Is it

(23:39):
a composite engineered so meaning it is a wood paper
cardboard product with a veneer on the top of it,
a wood veneer on the top of it. Or is
it a more of a laminate type wood flooring, which
is it's an all composite material, meaning a wood cardboard, composite,
you know, a kind of a lam in it. And

(24:02):
I don't want to use uh, you know, the wrong
words from like ah, but it'll give everybody perspective that,
you know, so a an artificial veneer on the top
of it. Going on, and as of recently, and when
I say recently, i'd say within the last decade or so,
we now have the luxury vinyl planks, which they you know,

(24:23):
it's a completely uh you know, artificial material, vinyl, super durable.
You can get it in whatever look you can think of.
You can get it. It installs, you know, a couple
of different ways, you know, depending on your application. You know,
if you're putting if you're putting these mantials on concrete
versus you know, a floor joists or subfloors or stuff

(24:44):
like that there's a couple different applications to do. But
the vinyl plank stuff, I mean it can be nailed down,
glue down, float, Yeah, it really is, and it's super durable.
But I guess the point I'm trying to get across
is it's the look of the wood that is still
super popular and what people want. It's the materials to
accomplish accomplish the look, and a lot of times it

(25:04):
has to do with application where you're putting it.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
For instance, you know, if you're going to.

Speaker 5 (25:10):
Have a high if you've got an area that's got
a lot of water usage, so maybe you've got a
bathroom right or in the laundry room, and you know,
a hard surface material like porcelain ceramic is just not
in the budget. But you need something that's durable that
accomplishes your look.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
You know, the vinyl, the.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
Vinyl plank, Yeah, because you can do whatever you want
on it. Thren reason obviously, but it's very good for
for places a lot of water exposure. Also works well
if you have high traffic or pets. You know, if
you've got dogs, especially big dogs, they can do a
number on a wood floor. Yeah, and kids, I got
little kids, they somehow they managed to do a lot

(25:51):
of They're very small, very destructive.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
So but.

Speaker 5 (25:57):
You know, so you have to think about the application
in in your budget and what you're using it for.
And the other thing that you kind of have to
think about is how you want it laid out in
the room. You know, like we're talking about lighting light.
You can make a brick a room. Putting in your
wood or wood looking flooring in the wrong direction in
the room will throw it off completely, Buddy Vertigo, Yeah,

(26:19):
I mean you've got to kind of take that in consideration.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
So the woodlook is dominated.

Speaker 5 (26:23):
And what's really interesting is I kind of left this
off the list because I don't think of it as wood.
But the look thing is there's a lot of uh,
you know, ceramic and porcelain that.

Speaker 4 (26:31):
Comes in a wood. You know, we we redid one.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
Of our office lobbies and put in a porcelain tile
that looks like wood blank flooring, but it's in a
high traffic area that.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
It's gonna it's going to endure yea exactly.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
So what is number one?

Speaker 5 (26:49):
The heart surface stuff, So whether it be a stone material,
but ceramic porcelain is dominant in a lot of various bathrooms.
Of course we're seeing that. A lot of bathrooms, we
do see it. I still use a lot of kitchens
in entry ways and things like that, where again you're
a little bit more traffic and you kind of want

(27:11):
a little bit maybe of a contrast the rest of
the house. Yeah, and it depends on your layout in
floor planet. If you've got things that are kind of
separated into rooms, you can kind of get away with that.
But if it's all one open concept, which we see
in construction today and a renovation, everybody goes, I could
take out that wall. It's like, you know, every house
that I walk into with somebody, that's usually the first thing.
Do you think we could take out this wall? Which

(27:32):
I don't know. I'm not a structural engineer, But the
point of it is, you know, those materials are one
hundred percent in bathrooms and things like that, and I
mean you can get really elaborate with the uh, with
with the ceramics and the portions. Now, I mean, you know,
I sort of laugh and think about you know, when
I go to a home that was built in the fifties, everybody,

(27:53):
everybody can picture this. I'll say it, and you'll picture
whether it was a house that you went into or
grandma's house or something, but it was the bright baby blue,
lime green, literally mosaic tiles everywhere.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
Right.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
I can totally picture that when we were looking at houses.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
We went and we went and like, oh my god,
they haven't they haven't updated this.

Speaker 5 (28:12):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, And so so you know, there's that.
But then like if you fast forward to like the nineties,
then everything was like early nineties was the square white tile, yes, everything, right,
And then we had that stint in the early two
thousands where subway tile came back with a vengeance. Yes,
And now we're you know, we're caught somewhere between you know,

(28:35):
really elaborate looking tiles to the natural stones. It's really
taking over for those. But what I think is the
coolest that we're seeing with a lot of the portions
that we're starting to see and we see this trend
a lot where we're seeing these types of materials go
into kitchens and things like that. Are these massive tiles
and I'm not talking like a ten inch by ten

(28:56):
inch I'm talking a four foot by four foot tile,
which really can set off a room if you have
the space.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Oh yeah, you have to be able to pull it off.

Speaker 5 (29:05):
Yeah, And I mean it's it's got a really great look.
It changes up the amount of wines and things like
that that would be drying somebody's eyes too. And there's
the overall materials and stuff that they're using, uh to
accomplish it and to get the looks. I mean, it's
it's pretty phenomenal. So so it's it's it's not your
gramma's tile anymore.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
No, maybe, But it is funny how you could almost
like you say, pick a decade and there was something
that was popular and and there are times that I
was like, you know, if you watch like an old sitcom,
let's say you could say, oh, that was the like
nineties based on clothing style, right, And I mean if
I often wonder what are we doing today, that's going
to be dated, you know, like, you know, twenty years
fromw they're going to look back and go, oh, my goodness,
why would they have done that.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
I can tell you exactly what it is.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
So but but this is why it works is because
it keeps coming back constantly. And it's white cabinets. Okay,
You're seeing tons and tons and tons of white cabinets
everywhere or some variational white. We did it like in
the early nineties, right, I think it was white now
I was white from Micah back then or thermofoil, which
why we use that, I don't know why. Anyways, I digress,

(30:09):
but you know today, but it's going to it's you know,
in probably another decade.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, why did we do that?

Speaker 5 (30:16):
And then you know it'll be dead for a little
bit and then it'll come back and you know.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
So everything old is new again. Right.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
So we well, we are chatting with Nathan Bojie. He
is the associate broker with Remax Classics. So we've covered
some colors, We've covered some materials. I want to kind
of get more specifically into into rooms before we get
you know, kind of move on to something else, because
kitchens and baths tend to be the areas of the
house that a lot of buyers are going to pay
attention to, right and whether new construction or existing home

(30:44):
that you're buying. If you're an existing you know, homeowner,
that maybe where you spend a little bit of money
if you're going to to either make the house your
own or if you're getting ready to to sell. So
talk to me a little bit about what happened. We
covered on kitchens. That's popular these days.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
So let's talk about cabinets and countertops. Okay, okay, So
cabinets the trend that we're starting to see. And I
don't know why it took a sole On to figure
this out, but is.

Speaker 4 (31:09):
Drawers versus doors.

Speaker 5 (31:12):
So when I when I say that, you know, upper cabinets,
you're still doors, but your base cabinets, so these are
the ones holding up your countertops, right, right, We're going
away from all of the doors. Even the doors will
slide outs, right, Yeah, we're going to drawers. So wide
deep drawers or even tall elongated doors you could put

(31:33):
like a baking pan in. But these these drawers that
are you know, wide and deep, you can put full
sized pots in them. Pants, you can get organized systems
in there to line them all up so your lids
are all nice, not clanking together and all this kind
of stuff. Right, So in the drawers are are very
appealing because it makes it very easy to get to stuff,
so you're not having to you know, get down on

(31:54):
your hands and kneaes reach way in the back of
the cabinet for that you know that one you.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Know pan that you used twice a year.

Speaker 5 (32:00):
Yeah, and and if you kind of think about it
in a very large scale, right, so not just your
own use, but let's say you know you're going to
sell this property at some point, maybe or not, but
most people do today. You know, I think we're averaging
about seven years and then we sell. That accessibility is
appealing to way more people. Right, So if you're thinking

(32:21):
of the largest, uh, the largest demographic of real estate,
of people conducting real estate transactions today is the baby
Winter generation, hands down by a large margin. So if
you if you're thinking about that and they might be
buying your home, that's for them to pull out of drawer,

(32:43):
grab their stuff, and be on about their day. It's
also you know, it's very I mean it's very easy
for everybody to use. So so that that is a
very big thing coming up with cabinets. So we're also
seeing a lot of natural wood colors in those uh
in those important features. I would say if you're buying
a home, whether it's you're buying brand new construction, you're

(33:05):
working with a builder, or you're buying a renovated at home,
some things I would look for is a construction of
the cabinets, because you can buy two cabinets that look
identical that are significantly different in their construction quality. You know,
you can have drawerboxes that are basically stapled together right
that you know will probably last for a period of time,

(33:26):
but they're going to wear out pretty quick. And then
you have what we want to see, so tongue and groove,
you know, in solid box construction. So that's an important
term when you're talking to to whoever it is you're
working with. Are these cabinets solid box construction?

Speaker 4 (33:41):
So what that.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
Means is it's more of a more wood than cardboard.
And I don't mean cardboard like what your Amazon stuff
comes out. Cardboard is a universal term for you know,
composite particle material and and you know some of the
cabinets are constructed out of particle board and stuff like that.
So those are good questions to ask.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
And I'm going to be looking for abstruly.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
Yeah, because especially if you're going to be in a
home for any length of time, you know that durability
is going to be important because you know, if you're
you know, if you need to replace a drawer, that's
pretty easy in you know, in.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
The big picture, the big picture.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
But if you've got to replace a cabinet, if now
you're talking about cabinets, countertops and stuff that you've got
to really alter.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Maybe you've got plumbing.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Associated with wherever that cabinet might be and things like that, so.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
That you sure have to talk about real money, so
to speak, if you're if you're looking at and unless
you're wanting to do that type of repervation, but otherwise, yeah,
take a look at the construction.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
And here's the other thing that's really great about having
nice quality cabinetry, especially if you're getting kind of wood fronts,
is what's saying five years Like, man, we really like
the white cabinets five years ago, but.

Speaker 4 (34:46):
I'm kind of something richer. You know.

Speaker 5 (34:48):
The nice thing is if you've got a nice quality
cabinet with nice wood fronts, you can refinish them for significantly. Yeah,
you know you're you're gonna get a nice You're gonna
work with a painter that specializes in cabinetry painting because
there's a whole process they got to go through so
it gets done. But that's some flexibility you have that
could you know, instead of going in and spending thirty
forty thousand dollars on cabinets for a larger home, or

(35:11):
you know anything, you know from fifteen to twenty five
thousand dollars for smaller homes. Right, you know, you know,
got anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand dollars come in,
refinish them and you're off and running and.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
It gives a fresh yeah.

Speaker 5 (35:24):
Yeah, So that's on the cabinets themselves. Countertop wise, hard
surface is king and that's the stones. Now, what's really
interesting about the stones is we have so we have
we have granite, we have courts, we have quartzite, we
have marble, which you don't see a whole lot of
because it's such a soft material.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
In respects, the popular.

Speaker 5 (35:47):
Ones are are those first three is the granite, the course,
and court site. So what's the difference between courts and
quart site. Qurt site is a natural stone, so naturally occurring.
They pull it out of the ground and cut you
a slab. Quurts is a man made material. It's and
now they use stone and things like that and different
you know, epoxies and stuff like that to make this

(36:09):
really hard surface.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
That's great.

Speaker 5 (36:13):
And then granted is stone on the ground, right, but
those are king We're starting, you know, lighter colors there again.
Now you will see if a home does have an
island in it, or if you're renoving a home you're
putting an island, they will kind of change the color
of that island countertop to kind of contrast a little bit.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
We're seeing that a lot.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
Waterfall edges on the islands are super popular. Now we're
seeing some really elaborate suff I haven't seen a lot
of this, but I think it's kind of cool.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
Is backlit. It only works with a.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
Few stones, so you'd have to talk to whoever your
contractor is to find out if that will work on it.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
So that's kind of cool.

Speaker 5 (36:49):
But yeah, and the reason people like those surfaces is
they're extremely durable. They look really good, and they they're
easy to clean.

Speaker 4 (36:59):
They hold up.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
One little kind of myth that everybody thinks is you
can take a pot off the stove and set it
on your hard surface.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
You can't.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
It's all nice and shiny and smooth, because there's a
finish on it that will break down if it's too hot,
too much exposure over time, so it's still used.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
I've never thought that that was a good process, even
though people you're right, it wasn't myth that you could
do it. I mean, I'm just thinking, this just doesn't
seem like I should take something that's you know, literally boiling. Yeah,
you can set it on that surface.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
Another trend that we're seeing with the countertops, especially with
the hard surfaces, so like the edges and the profiles
of you know, the countertops. For a long time we
got these really ornate you know, almost like trim work, right,
and that's kind of toned down a little bit, straighter
edges round.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yeah, So let's talk real quickly about bathrooms, similar things
there as far as chemine tree and countertaps or what
do you see?

Speaker 3 (37:48):
You know, what are you seeing as far as popular there?

Speaker 5 (37:50):
Yeah, So cheminatry were utility, so places to put things.
You know, I don't know about any your bathroom, I
don't know. Your husband he's probably got like three things,
and you have like thirty five things. I don't know,
maybe not if.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
You're taking a guest there, taking a guess.

Speaker 5 (38:07):
Yeah, I mean that's kind of how my house is.
But now when I go to my cousin's house, he's
got like seventeen things and his wife's got like.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Six in our house. It doesn't matter because we've got
two full bathrooms.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Dan has one. I have one. It really doesn't matter.
One clean both somehow I'm still clean.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
But there you go.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
Yeah, but no, So I pointed out utility, so places
to put things in whether it's whoever's things might be
in it, but places to put stuff, and it could
just be you know, extra linens and twip you know,
bathroom supply stuff like that, right, So storage is paramount.
Hard surfaces on both the cabinets and in the flooring
I'm sorry, countertops in the flooring. So let's talk a

(38:47):
little bit about like the actual bathrooms itself.

Speaker 4 (38:51):
If you have the room to do it.

Speaker 5 (38:53):
In your bathroom, do a dual vanity, two sinks.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
Super important. Not everybody can have.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
The two bathrooms like you guys, But if you have
the room, do the dual vantage if you can. The
other thing, if you're building new and you have the space,
very popular is a private water closet or toilet room,
depending on what you're called. So that's the little room
that the toilets in that can close the door and
the rest.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Of the bathroom is still available.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Yeah, you know, It's funny that when I've seen a
lot of retovations when there's multiple bathrooms in the house,
that full bathroom so this is either with a shower
or tub and or tub, people are taking out tubs,
and that is it is still a trend. But tubs
are are still pretty popular if needed if there's only

(39:37):
one bathroom in the house. So that's important if you
consider it, right, and if you're renovating a house and
you've got an older tub in there and it just
looks like that somebody like you know, wash gravel in it,
don't stress out too much and think that, oh, this
is gonna be thousands of thousands, thousands of dollars to
take out this tub, putting the tub in, all this
kind of stuff. There's multiple things you can do. You
can get the tubs resurfaced, which works phenomenally well, and

(40:02):
it's a very economical process. And you know, depending on
what type of material, looking, what you're trying to do
and things like that, how severe it is obviously, I
mean you're looking, you know, five hundred dollars.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
To fifteen hundred dollars.

Speaker 5 (40:11):
Okay, they have a lot of you know, inserts that
can go right over top of it fiberglass material that
works great in many cases. So you know, one thing
to keep in mind when renovating new construction wise, I
would you know, definitely have one bathroom of the tub
in it, you know, in the master bathrooms.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
As seeing some really elaborate stuff with kind of.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
Like you know, you know for thirty fifty, thirty forties,
fifties is clowet tubs just sitting there right, Yeah, and
it probably dates back eve into eighteen hundreds, I think
about it. But the today we don't necessarily have the
claw fut tub, but just floating tubs. They're just kind
of sitting there and it's like a statement piece. It's
an art piece almost. You know, they've got really intricate shapes,

(40:55):
and you know, I've even seen some really intricate ways
in the higher end, uh, you know, homes with intricate
ways of felium like a stream coming down from the ceiling.
I mean it's pretty pretty impressive. Yeah, but you know,
if we're talking about our you know, homes that are you.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Know, not that every day people, Yeah, every hit people.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
You know, I think it's important to have at least
one bathroom of the tub master bath. If you can
do it, do your you definitely want to have a
tub and install standing shower. I think really hard about
having a seat in a shower. One it does it
is proven to be very useful, uh, And two it
appeals to a lot more buyers. Again, and that's anybody

(41:39):
from whether you're you know, baby winter generation or if
you're someone that's got little kids or someone that needs
uh you know, has accessibility needs right, you know. So
that's and it's very functional in in the showers. Though,
if you're doing a gut renovation, you're putting everything down
to the studs and you're gonna put back putting niches
in the wall. So it's a little cutout so you
can put all your stuff right, so you're not tripping

(42:01):
over your shampoo bottle that's sitting on the floor, right,
or you don't have this little shelf that's jutting out
that you're gonna smack your shoulder on every time you
turn around.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Speaking from experience there, you.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
Know, I'm a bigger guy, so I pay.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Attention to those little shelves. Don't tend to hit.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
Yeah, I've clipped a couple here in my day, but yeah,
so so those little cutouts, little niches and things like that.
The other thing is a good idea too if you're
if you're renovating. Most builders are onto this, so you
don't necessarily have to worry about this new construction if
they're putting them in. But when you're renovating, get a
shampoo bottle, measure it and realize that that it's way
bigger than you think it is, and make your cut

(42:38):
out tall enough to accommodate those bottles.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Because otherwise it'll fit the bar so but it's not
gonna fit the actual exactly.

Speaker 5 (42:45):
And as far as you know your fixtures, plumbing fixtures
and things like that, that we're seeing the showers obviously,
shower head things like that, but we're starting to see
a lot of body sprays, a lot of rainfalls are
so really popular. And when you start getting into the
high end stuff, you can incorporate steam showers and all
kinds of things, but you know, for your everyday stuff, those.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
Are the important stuff.

Speaker 5 (43:06):
As far as like surrounds and things like that, you know,
whatever your preferences on exposure, but all glass is kind of.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
Is the way to go. So we're seeing a lot
of that as well. In in.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
You know, one thing I've always kind of thought funny
with the bathrooms on new construction is how big they are.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
It's like, are we playing basketball in here? Or like
taking a shower right now.

Speaker 5 (43:31):
This is coming from a guy that thinks it's funny
that I got bored during the shutdown due to COVID
and all that kind of stuff. And I finished a
basement in my old house and I put in a bathroom.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
I don't know what I was doing, but it was huge.
Had nothing else to do, well.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
I mean y at that point we found entertain and
make no apologies at this point for it. All right,
So we talked a lot about you know, kind of
insight colors, fixtures, you know, furnishings if you want to
call it that flooring stuff like that. Let's talk a
little bit because I think it's becoming more prevalent, more
top of mind for more people, which is the outdoor

(44:07):
space of a house. I mean I personally, I've always
felt like for me personally living in Michigan, which has
a good what five to six months of the year,
I mean, I go outside, but it's not.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Very little under protest, you know.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yeah, you know type of a thing. But it's like
for you know, for for those that we do want
to embrace the nice weather, the outdoor, you know, whether
it's the patio of the deck.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
I mean, this has.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Really become a whole, big important feature of a house,
hasn't it.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
Yeah, And I would say it's across the board, regardless
of what where in housing you fall, whether you're in
a you know, you're in the two hundred thousand dollars
home range to the two three, four, ten million dollar
homes right whether you're a you know, if you're if

(44:51):
you live local here in Michigan and you're in Royal
Oak and you're in one of our wonderful bungalows that
we have, or you're in a large, you know, larger
estate sized home maybe in the Northville or Bloomfieldhols here
or something like that, that outdoor space has become ever important.
And I think for a couple of things. I sometimes
like to think it's because there's people like me that like,

(45:13):
I just lived outside and I want to be outside
when I was a kid, and we want to experience
it as adults. But I think what really hit home
for a lot of people is when we everything was
shut down and we were quote unquote stuck inside. We
were like, I'm gonna get outside today air. Yeah, And
so we started to think about, like, well, I want
some living space outside. So whether it's just you put

(45:33):
in a nice little patio, whether it's a little concrete patio,
you do some papers or something like that. That's something
you could put a little table on to have dinner out,
or you put the grill on or whatever it might be.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
Or maybe you've got a little fire pit.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
You know, something like that, all the way up to
elaborate full blown kitchens with built in grills and you know,
refrigeration and freezers and sinks and TVs and ceiling fans
and covered porches and things like that.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
I mean.

Speaker 5 (46:00):
That space, outdoor living space has become super important across
the board for everybody. Uh So, if you're renovating, you know,
think about that. You know, does this home have space
for that? Can I refinish the deck? Could we do
something to maybe make the patio or a little bit
more expansive. You know what room do I have to

(46:21):
work with to do that? And on new construction you
need to keep in mind that it's most likely not
going to be included unless it is a really built
out outdoor piece, and even then it's going to be
an upgrade in most cases. So if you want like
the really like part of the house outdoor space, it's
like all bricked and ceiling fans, all that kind of stuff,

(46:41):
most likely upgrade. Otherwise the deck, they're probably not eve
gonna do it for you. You're gonna have to do it
after you move in. You're gonna get the nice little
gate across the you know, the package. Yeah, yeah, but
it is an important space that we're seeing from emmy
every level of housing. And I don't think that trend

(47:04):
is going to change at all. I think it's going
to get more elaborate, and I think cost for some
of the more what you know today is in the
high end homes. I think it's going to get more accessible,
you know, as time goes on.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
This is typically the case, you know.

Speaker 5 (47:18):
I actually it was so funny thinking thinking this out
as we're talking about it. I was thinking about a
YouTube video I just saw like a week or two ago.
There was a guy he was doing an outdoor space
renovation on his home, and he had a certain budget
to work with, but he it was really important him
to have outdoor cooking space more than just your grill, right,

(47:40):
So you know, he did some things and obviously was
a handy guy. He built out kind of a space
to have this sort of outdoor kitchen, but his budget
didn't allow him to go get one of these like
super high end like flat cooking services. So he got
one of those, you know, blackstone grills from Costco and
he he found act on YouTube on how to like

(48:02):
put it together but not put the base on it,
and then he just sort of like set it in
its own little spot on this little kind of like
kitchen area and he's got his you.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Know, but if you figured it out a way to
make it work, and like.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
I said, it was really elaborate but cost effective. And
I think we're gonna start seeing not just the YouTube packs,
but like I think we're going to start seeing stuff
like that happen as time goes on, because all of
the manufacturers of these project products are starting to see
that this is what people want.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
People want and when there's indeed and then especially.

Speaker 5 (48:29):
If you're in an environment that you can be outside,
not under protest.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
I love being outside.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
We eat outside as much as possible this time of
the year. And like you said, I grew up riding
bikes all the time in the summer. I'm used to
being outside. I love if the choice between eating indoor
and outdoor. At any point, if I can do it outside,
I will do it outside. Last thing I wanted to
ask you before, but before we wrap, because I know
this is near and dear to your heart. So we've

(48:56):
talked about inside outside. You've touched on it in a
couple of different ways. Smart home features because we because
I mean that they are not going anywhere either. I
mean they are definitely going to become more and more prevalent.
So what's trending, what's popular there?

Speaker 5 (49:09):
So I think smart home feature is going to take
on a whole new meaning inside the decade. And what
I mean by that is it won't it won't be
unusual for you to walk out your front door and
see a Tesla robot or something equivalent taking out the trash.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
I don't think I think that'll be uh my mom.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Will be really excited for that.

Speaker 5 (49:33):
By the way, Yeah, I think that'll be commonplace. But
let's back up to today. Yeah, smart home features very
very popular and it's in in what we're seeing across
the board. So home management. So this is managing the
temperature room home, right, So the nest thermostats or equivalent
you know, ecobs and of the great product that that

(49:53):
that does thermostats. But you can get thermostats through just
about anything.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
Now.

Speaker 5 (49:56):
I think Ring has them, simply Safe has them, and
things like that.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
But it's really great.

Speaker 5 (50:01):
It allows you to control the temperature of your home
from anywhere. It also gives you management of your energy
consumption if that's you know, something important to you, whether
from just a you know, managing energy or budget, right,
that's important to me. So that's that's one thing. Lights
we kind of talked about those a little bit. You know,

(50:21):
you can get smart lights everything from changing colors to
the coldness, the warmth, to having them come on and
off a certain time, or turning them on and off remotely,
you know, all those types of things. But we're also
seeing now even more elaborate stuff. Everybody I think in
the world, not everybody in the world, but a large
percentage of people have ring doorbells now or equivalent.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
Right.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
Those aren't going away, and I think we're gonna start
seeing even more kind of just permanent types of those things.
But you know, smart locks on homes, you know, whether
it's something that you can unlock from your phone, you know,
or you get you know, kids coming home off the
bus and it tells you, yeah, up door unlocked by
you know by you know, yeah, yep, and uh, he's

(51:05):
home or she's home or whatever.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
You know.

Speaker 5 (51:08):
So those we've got the smart smart groage throw openers, right,
you can open a garage remotely, you can close it.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
It gives you notifications if it gets.

Speaker 5 (51:16):
Left open, which has been a godsend for me because typically,
you know, run out of the house with my hair
on fire and I forget to close grutch and then
my phone, you know, dings ten minutes on the road
saying hey you forgot, you know, And now you can
even set it like if open for more and ten
minutes to close. Question also wouldn't work in my house
because if we're home, it's probably open.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
And you know, in.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
Some of the some of the systems, particularly the my
Queue system, you can even like connect it to your
Amazon account and when Amazon pulls up instead of leaving
your package on the front porch, so they could just
toss in the garage for you.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
But but but somebody that yeah, that wants to, Yeah,
it's there.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
And you know, and then we're getting you know, and
then there's.

Speaker 5 (51:57):
We can get into the points of like home automation,
where you getting into really elaborate you know, you know,
essentially managed systems with all the lighting, all the TV,
all the sound. You know, why Fi enable devices everything
from your washer and dryer right to your dishwasher, refrigerator, ovens.
I mean, it's it's getting it's getting pretty pretty interesting.

(52:18):
What they're going to what is already out, what is
going to be coming further, and.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
What will be commonplace down the road may not be
common necessarily.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
Some of the things that you're talking about right now that.

Speaker 5 (52:26):
If I was buying a home, and especially if I
was renovating a home, things I would have is like
I'm going to do, no matter what, I'm going to
do a ring doorbell like system, a smart thermostatic system,
and I am going to most likely do the smart
garage opener system. I think those are just three things

(52:48):
that have in place now. With all that in mind,
something that we took for granted for a long.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
Time, especially in new construction.

Speaker 5 (52:56):
And it's really interesting in home renovation is where to
locate hate all the things that run.

Speaker 4 (53:02):
All this stuff.

Speaker 5 (53:02):
So where in the house is your Internet service going
to come in?

Speaker 4 (53:06):
Now?

Speaker 5 (53:08):
And I know I've got some people listening there and
be like, yeah, but I don't have to worry about
that because I have star Link and I can put
it anywhere. Well, good point, you can, but you still
got to run the wire into something to you know,
connect it. So you got to think about that and
where your motive is going to be. If you're going
to do Wi Fi.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
In the house, it is one Wi Fi.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
Going to be enough?

Speaker 5 (53:30):
Or do you need multiple or do you need some
access points? So you know, low voltage contractors, So we
have electricians that do like your light switches and things
like that, and then we have low voltage contractors that
do like sound and in your internet and stuff like that.
I think, you know, we're starting to see them play
a large role in new construction and in folks that

(53:50):
are renovating, because you know, we're now having to take
that in consideration. Where am I going to put all
this equipment to run all this stuff?

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Right?

Speaker 1 (53:56):
And especially if you have an existing home wasn't necessarily
built for what's caught and what's here now, and then.

Speaker 5 (54:01):
Like let's throw out all of the smart technology you
can put in the house that we just talked about.

Speaker 4 (54:05):
Let's just talk about the people in the house.

Speaker 5 (54:07):
Right, everybody's got a phone, everybody's got an everybody's got
a laptop, you know, or smart watch, and you've got
you know, Xbox, you're streaming something on at least you know,
at least you know so you know.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
The infrastructure for that is going to become really important.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
So think about that when you are are doing those things,
because it's gonna it's you know, it'll it'll play a
role down the road and it's very appealing, you know,
when you can you know, promote that down the road
to a perspective buyer and say, hey, smart home features
include A B and C and A smart home feature
that a lot of people aren't thinking about right now
is a either prepped or already installed charger for electric

(54:47):
vehicle in the home or somewhere five way sidelin something.
There's more more electric vehicles on the road, whether you're
you know, whether you're driving a you know, a Tesla
or other four electric vehicles or Chevy or Toyota or
whoever it is. It's becoming more and more prevalent, so
you might want to think about that having it at
least prepped in your home. Maybe you don't drive an

(55:07):
electric vehicle, maybe you have no desire to ever get one,
but there's a good likelihood that whoever buys.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
Your home might it might be an issue for them.

Speaker 5 (55:14):
Yeah, and and here's kind of the cool thing too.
If you are either propping in or you're putting it
in on a renovated home, and maybe you aren't gonna
have electric vehicle, but you have some sort of hobby
that involves equipment.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
All runs on the same stuff you know you need
you need.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
There's really not a downside.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
Yeah, you want to run some compressors or you know,
something like that to do woodworking or metal working or
something like that.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
They all run same stuff. So plug in, you know
to that?

Speaker 3 (55:38):
So cool.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Well, we have been talking with Nathan Boji from Remax Classic.
He's been our guest today. Nathan, is there any parting
things we didn't talk about that you wanted to.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Get to before we wrap?

Speaker 4 (55:49):
Well?

Speaker 3 (55:49):
This is I know I'm dangerous. I'm giving you a
lot of.

Speaker 5 (55:53):
What time is it, what time do we have to
go home? I would so this is the last thing,
I'll wrap it up. What I would say if we had,
you know, a few more hours together, if we were
doing Joe Rogan style podcast here, what I would say
is buying and selling real estate today there's a lot
of noise, and it doesn't matter where you fall, whether

(56:15):
you're a first time buyer and experienced buyer and investor.
Work with a professional, work with a realtor that knows
their business, knows your market, will sit down and take
the time to ask you questions and give you the
answers that you might not want to hear.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (56:30):
And the reason I say that is because because of
the noise, there's so much noise about whether, uh, you know,
working with a realtor is beneficial to us, whether even
buying and selling real estate is a good thing or not.
And anytime you can find questions, you need to find
somebody that has the answer, uh, and a realtor that
is a professional in One of the things you know, Remax,

(56:53):
we've always you know, been proud of is we are
professional professionals and we've had you know, we we consist
only have you know the most experience out of out
of just about anybody.

Speaker 4 (57:03):
So that would be the thing I.

Speaker 5 (57:05):
Would say for everybody take away from this conversation today
is talk to a realtor. Talk to professional, someone that
has your best interest at heart and will help you
work through this process.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Well, I mean, I couldn't have said it better myself.
And I think if you know, for those of you
that have listened, I mean, I think Nathan shows you
what working with a professional sounds like is.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
I mean, is.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Somebody who knows what they're talking about. And I mean
how many times did you pivot and say, well, this
is what we're seeing a new construction, if you're renovating,
here's something you need to you know, you need to consider,
and these are the types of people that you want
counseling you and giving you advice. I think you gave
a perfect wrap up on that.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
I mean, I guess I'll end the way I started
is that you know, literally's been doing this most of
my life and I've seen every side of it, whether
it's from buying real estate, selling real estate, helping people
buy and sell real estate, and you know, for the
last number of years helping people build a career in
the business. You know, having professionals that you work with
in all those facets are one hundred percent important.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
Absolutely Well, Nathan, if there was somebody listening today that
is wanted to reach out to you, maybe they have
an interest in buying, selling, or want to pick your brain,
you know, on something real estate related, how can they
reach out to I'm.

Speaker 5 (58:09):
Always happy to You can find me on all of
the different platforms as Nathan Bojie or you can go
to Nathan Boji dot com and find me there, and
I'm happy to help and talk anytime, even if you
just want to pick my brain.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
It's a big brain. He can take the.

Speaker 4 (58:24):
Wealth of information.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
No promises on one might come out, but you know, well.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Nathan, thank you so very much for spending the time
and going so deep, you know, on all of these issues.
I think it's always interesting to you know, kind of
hear and see what the trends are. And I think
you really shared a few things that I think you
gave really nice advice for people to say, Hey, think
about this if you're if you're about to tackle a renovation.
These are some things to keep in mind. This is
what's kind of crunding and popular a good place to

(58:49):
spend money. So thank you very much for that, and
for our listeners, of course, thank you. We hope that
that you found these trends and tips helpful. Whether you're
planning a renovation, preparing to sell, maybe just dreaming up
your next home project. We gave you a little something
to think about. And if you enjoyed the show, be
sure to follow, subscribe, share it with someone you think
might find it helpful, and I would encourage you to

(59:10):
stay tuned for our next episode. I will be chatting
with the president of the Michigan home Builders Association and
we'll delve a little bit into that t word this year,
tariffs and what that's doing to that industry, as well
as some other things that he will have to share.
And it would be the prey of Home Month and
we'll talk a little bit about that as well. So
until then, make it a great day, and we look

(59:31):
forward to chatting with you soon. We hope you enjoy
today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, write a review, or
rate the show, as it helps us reach more people.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.