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With 235 million monthly users, Zillow is well aware of what makes people linger over a home long enough to “heart” the listing. With the company’s newly released Zillow Buzz Index, we get to know, too. The metric, which measures how certain design details and architectural features boost buyer engagement on a listing, reveals that builder-grade isn’t always better.
“Character-rich details like original brick or wood beams create an emotional connection the moment someone sees a listing. In a sea of newer, more uniform homes, those distinctive features help a property stand out and feel memorable,” explains Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert.
What features are people particularly smitten by? Zillow reports that the ten that drive highest percentage increase in daily buyer engagement are:
- Exposed beams
- Victorian architecture
- Exposed brick
- Open shelving
- A treehouse
- Arched accents
- Vintage details
- Tudor architecture
- Midcentury architecture
- A-frame architecture
“[This list] shows that buyers are not just thinking about the home itself, but also how it supports their lifestyle and adds a bit of fun or a sense of escape,” Pendleton notes. And Domino editors are just as susceptible—these magnetic details also show up in many of the homes we choose to write about. Below, some of our favorites.
Exposed Beams
Before the homeowners of this farmhouse in Healdsburg, California hired Hana Mattingly at Innen Studio, they had met with architects who said it’d be easiest to start fresh. But that would have meant losing the exposed beams, wood columns, and charmingly crooked floorboards. Thankfully, Mattingly showed them that a 360-degree update is possible without tearing out all the good stuff.
Exposed Brick
In this Bel Air renovation, Cynthia Abi-Naked, founder of Los Angeles-based firm Anry Naked Interiors, the central brick fireplace was in need a pick-me-up in the form of white paint and some grout to fill in the deepest gaps. Now, the refresh pops against the other gem Abi-Naked unearthed: solid wood ceiling beams.
Arched Doorways
Mary Casper, the principal designer and creative director of Social Studies Projects, spent two years turning this dated Venice, California, duplex into a breezy retreat for her client. Curving the corners of select thresholds wasn’t just for looks, though. In a home with an abundance of 90-degree angles, “it helped soften some of those boxy volumes,” she says.
Open Shelving
In this Philadelphia townhome, Brooklyn-based design firm TBo didn’t incorporate any old storage; the solutions had to fit the smaller scale of the mid-century space. A wall of open shelving in the office keeps things tidy without weighing down the room visually, and allows the homeowners to showcase their art among their latest reads.
Vintage Details
While designer Samantha Tannehill‘s Southampton home isn’t incredibly old (it was built in 1992), you’d never know it. Tannehill made sure to balance vintage and new, as in this bathroom, where she found vintage tiles at a store in Massachusetts to create a chair rail of sorts. “The leaves match the green on the bottom of the clawfoot tub, and we kept the pedestal sink but added a medicine cabinet that’s much more modern,” she adds.