For affluent house hunters, copy-paste McMansions and sprawling big-box homes just don’t cut it anymore.
Affluent house hunters are passing up formulaic, predictable properties in favor of homes with architectural character and bespoke details, and they’re keen on features that don’t exist with cookie-cutter construction plans.
“In today’s fast-paced luxury market, architecturally thoughtful homes are increasingly rare,” said Rachel Fisher, managing broker with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in Tampa, Florida.
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A single coveted amenity or novel design element can be the factor that seals the deal for home buyers. It’s a trend worth considering if you’re custom building or updating a home that you plan to sell in the near future. Luxury brokers spoke to Mansion Global about some of the one-of-a-kind features buyers couldn’t forget.
Indoor-Outdoor Ease on the Fairway
Blurred lines between inside and outside spaces wooed the buyers of a custom contemporary home in exclusive Avila Golf & Country Club in Tampa, Florida.
Overlooking the 18th hole of a Jack Nicklaus golf course, the home features a wood-paneled entry pavilion, a stone-wrapped linear fireplace and floor-to-ceiling glass framing views of the fairway.
“The patio, the outdoor kitchen, the balconies felt like they were part of the interior because of the way they were designed,” Jose Cardenas, a luxury broker with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in Tampa.
After years of sampling luxury properties across South Tampa, the buyers found that many offered space and light but felt interchangeable and lacked architectural individuality.
When they stepped inside the Avila home for the first time, their minds changed. “It felt like serenity,” Cardenas said, echoing the buyers’ description of the home.
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The buyers were among an elite group of clients Cardenas invited to a private showing of the property, which generated multiple offers and sold within minutes. “Today’s buyers at this level are looking for an experience. They’re looking for a feel. And that’s exactly what this home delivered,” Cardenas said.
A Party-Ready Coastal Cabana
For the home buyer who scooped up an Intercoastal Waterway stunner in Wilmington, North Carolina, it wasn’t just the postcard-perfect sunrises or sweeping waterfront views that won her over.
The clincher was the outdoor cabana and grilling area tucked beside the pool, said Melanie Cameron, a luxury broker with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage. “She has a big personality and is an entertainer to her core,” Cameron said of the buyer.
Long afternoons spent hosting friends was a longtime dream of the buyer. But her previous homes never quite gave her the space to pull it off, Cameron said.
“The moment she stepped into that cabana—picturing charcuterie boards on the counter, music floating across the water, and everyone lounging in the sun—she knew she’d found the home that fit not just her lifestyle, but her heart,” Cameron said.
The cabana became the go-to spot for guests at the buyer’s housewarming party, where she set up a spread of colorful, small plates beneath the glow of string lights. “Watching everyone gather effortlessly in the very spot that sold her on the home felt like a full-circle moment, and by the end of the night, she said it was the first time she felt like she was truly living the lifestyle she’d always imagined,” Cameron said.
A Rare Piece of ‘Heritage’ Shoreline
When Jonathan LeSuer and Cory Stewart first set eyes on their midcentury waterfront bungalow in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York, they were struck by the home’s panoramic waterfront views, with over 100 feet of lake frontage and 180-degree vistas stretching to the north, south and east.
“We just pictured sitting there in the morning with a coffee, relaxing and being able to walk into the water from the beach access,” Stewart said of the lake house, which the Baldwinsville, New York, couple purchased in September as a second home and weekend escape.
But what makes the property so unique is its intimate connection to the water that could not be reproduced in a new build. Constructed in 1959, the house is positioned directly along the shoreline, a placement no longer permitted under current regulations.
“You can’t build a lake house like this, that close to the water. [It has]You have to be built back further,” LeSuer said.
Hovering over serene Skaneateles Lake, the secluded property features expansive windows and three levels of private deck space overlooking the glassy water and the village lights in the distance.
“You feel like you’re actually floating on the water when you’re down there,” LeSuer said.
Luxury broker Michael DeRosa, who sold the home to the couple, said the buyers ended up paying 47.5% over the asking price because the home stood apart from anything else on the market. “You can’t recreate heritage shoreline,” DeRosa said.
A Historic New Orleans Manor
Luxury broker Eleanor Farnsworth has sold the same historic manor in New Orleans’ Garden District four times during her real-estate career. Previous owners of the storied home, which was built in 1859, include New Orleans dining “grande dame” Ella Brennan and the daughter of a former governor.
“It’s one of the grandest Greek Revival mansions. You notice it when you drive by,” Farnsworth said.
Along with lush gardens and an expansive balconied porch with Ionic columns, the house features a center-hall with 14-foot cornice-topped ceilings, Waterford chandeliers beneath gold-leaf plaster medallions, and original marble fireplaces. Also preserved in the home is one of New Orleans’s last remaining grand ballrooms, which has served as the backdrop for lavish high-society parties.
“The architecture is just fabulous. It’s in several books,” Farnsworth said.
Those architectural details ultimately were what won over the buyer on Farnsworth’s most recent sale of the home. But when it came time to lock in the deal, both buyer and seller were split on who would get to claim one of the property’s newer amenities—a plaque created to commemorate the home’s appearance in the 2012 film “Django Unchained,” in which the ballroom is featured in scenes of the mansion owned by the film’s main villain, a slave owner played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
“That became the big, interesting factor in the negotiations,” Farnsworth said. “So, I went and had the artist make me another plaque to give to the buyer.”
Art-Like Olive Trees and Meticulous Modernism
Before the buyers of a century-old property in central Austin, Texas, set foot inside the carefully restored, Tudor-inspired home, there were indications they were about to see something special.
Through the gate, impeccably landscaped grounds are anchored by a lush curtain of 150-year-old olive trees imported from Europe.
“They’re like pieces of art,” said luxury real estate agent Kumara Wilcoxon of Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty in Austin. “You fall in love with the property based on the olive trees.”
The trees set the tone for a meticulous Modernist restoration in which each room is an experience—from the entryway’s Guggenheim-esque curved staircase to the walnut-wood accent wall in the upstairs living room to the Tuscan marble and custom German cabinetry in the kitchen. And inside the home, floor-to-ceiling windows frame light-filled views of the trees and courtyard.
“When buyers go into homes like this, there’s a reason they feel special. The level of craftsmanship and detail is at every turn,” Wilcoxon said.
A Windowed Wonder Wall
When a grand gated estate on historic Milledge Avenue in Athens, Georgia, went on sale, the eventual buyers were in the middle of renovating a house they had just purchased for their family and weren’t really on the market to buy something else.
But when they decided to tour the home just for fun last summer, the first thing they saw when they opened the front door stopped them in their tracks: a stunning wall of steel windows and doors, overlooking a resort-style swimming pool and brick pool house.
“It’s one of those showstoppers that you’re literally breathless when you see,” said Gena Knox, a luxury agent with Dwell Real Estate in Athens.
With the family being University of Georgia football fans and the home’s location a few steps from campus on frat row, their interest in the home quickly went from casual to serious. The nearly $6 million property ended up being one of the highest-dollar residential sales in Athens to date.
“It’s so beautifully and perfectly designed. And that was the one feature that caught those buyers’ attention,” Knox said of the windowed wall.