Low-Maintenance Features Millennial Home Buyers Will Love

Many millennials don’t want to spend a lot of time maintaining their home. They’ll do the necessary work, but they often want to minimize the upkeep that their homes require. For this reason, real estate agents regard easy maintenance as a top feature that attracts millennials.

Some materials and styles of home features are easier to maintain than others. Here are some of the top things to look for if you want a home that’s easy to take care of.

Fiber-Cement Siding or Brick

The outside walls of your home take up a large surface, so cleaning and fixing them up can be a major home maintenance task. Wood and vinyl siding, while popular, require significant time commitments to keep them looking nice.

If you want a material that practically takes care of itself, look for brick or fiber-cement siding. Brick looks gorgeous without needing any paint or other covering and is also very durable. Fiber-cement is tough as well, and the paint finishes on them often last for at least 15 years.

Metal Roofs

Repairing and replacing portions of roofing is a major drain on time and money that must be regularly attended to in most homes. Metal roofs, on the other hand, last for much longer.

They don’t show wear nearly as easily as other materials, and they’re resistant to fire and damage from things like falling tree branches. Today’s metal roofs also come in a variety of shapes and styles that can even be made to look like other common roofing materials.

Laminate Floors

While carpet can be comfy, it also requires a lot of cleaning, especially if you have pets or small children. Pet hair and dirt get stuck in carpet, and stains can be difficult to get out. Sometimes, stains even necessitate replacing a portion of carpet.

Non-carpeted floors, especially laminate floors, are easy to clean and resistant to stains. You can simply sweep or vacuum up dirt and wipe up spills with a towel. Like metal roofs, laminate floors also come in a variety of styles that mimic everything wood to tile.

Simple Landscaping

The outdoor area can be another major source of maintenance work. To cut down on this effort, plant things that easy to maintain and plant less in general.

Reducing the amount of grass in your yard reduces how much you must mow and water. Instead, put down mulch or surfaces like stone. Planting gardens, shrubs and trees can also reduce the amount of space that grass takes up. The key, though, is choosing plants that grow easily in your area, don’t need too much attention and come back up each year.

Quartz Countertops

Lots of countertop materials require regular deep cleaning and need to be sealed every so often. They’re also susceptible to stains.

Quartz is one of the easiest countertop materials to maintain. It never stains or needs sealing, is resistant to scratches and is anti-microbial. It also comes in a wide range of colors and styles. In a recent survey by the National Kitchen and Bath Association, quartz was the preferred countertop material choice of most designers.

Easy-to-Clean Finishes

Stainless steel smudges easily, meaning it requires frequent cleaning. Among those looking for low-maintenance home features, black stainless steel has been gaining popularity for its ability to hide these marks more easily.

Putting a protective finish on kitchen and bathroom hardware such as faucets and handles reduces the risk of scratches. According to Consumer Reports, a physical vapor deposition, or PVD, finish is the best option for resisting scratches. PVD can be used on many different surfaces.

Home Automation

For the technology-minded, the emerging home automation technologies can help to reduce the upkeep of a home. Smart thermostats can adjust the temperature of your home for you. Smart lighting can shut itself off when not in use, so that you can replace bulbs less frequently. The optimized operation that smart technologies enable could lead to longer-lasting appliances and features of homes.

While installing more tech into your home may require an initial increase in the attention your home requires, in the long run, it should allow you to automate more of your home’s care.

If you know what features to look for, you can find homes that are relatively easy to maintain. Look for the features listed in this article, and you’ll be able to dedicate less time to taking care of your new home and more time enjoying living in it.