The Ultimate Luxury Home Wishlist - What Today’s Buyers Want

 Summary:

What defines luxury in today’s real estate market? It’s more than just price—it’s about comfort, convenience, and those jaw-dropping amenities that make a house feel like a dream home. In this episode of Off the Record, Joe and Makayla take you on a tour of the top luxury features buyers are looking for, from spa-like bathrooms to high-tech smart homes, gourmet kitchens, and stunning outdoor spaces. Whether you're buying, selling, or simply dreaming, you won’t want to miss this insightful discussion!

Episode Highlights:

✅ What is Luxury? Redefining luxury beyond just square footage and price tag.
✅ Smart Home Tech: How automation is making homes more convenient than ever.
✅ Spa-Like Bathrooms: Heated floors, rain showers, and steam rooms that bring the spa experience home.
✅ Gourmet Kitchens: The must-have features that chefs (and foodies) love.
✅ Entertainment Spaces: From home theaters to wine cellars and game rooms, we cover it all.
✅ Outdoor Living: Fire pits, covered patios, and outdoor kitchens that create the perfect backyard oasis.
✅ Unexpected Luxury Features: The small but impactful details that take a home to the next level.

🔗 Links & Resources:

📍 Browse luxury listings
📍 Explore more real estate insights: LivPortland.com/blog
📍 Work with the LivPortland team

Thinking about buying or selling a luxury home? Contact the experts at LivPortland.com to start your journey today!

🎧 Follow & Subscribe:

Never miss an episode! Subscribe to Off the Record and stay ahead of the latest real estate trends.

💬 Let’s Connect: Tell us—what’s your must-have luxury home feature? Drop us a comment or DM us at @LivPortland!

Thank you for listening to this episode. Stay up to date on the latest trends and insights by subscribing to our podcast and following us on social media.

For more information about buying or selling in the Portland Metro real estate market, please visit www.LivPortland.com or contact us directly.

We appreciate your feedback, so please leave a review and let us know what topics you would like to hear more about.

Transcript

00;00;08;21 - 00;00;26;25

Joe Reitzug

Welcome to Off the Record talking real estate with Joe and Makayla. If you're interested in the Portland, Oregon real estate market and want the unvarnished inside scoop, you've come to the right place. Thanks for giving us a listen. Okay, welcome to the show, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Hi, Makayla.

00;00;26;26 - 00;00;27;29

Makayla Mast

Hi. How are you?

00;00;28;04 - 00;00;29;06

Joe Reitzug

I'm fantastic. How are You?

00;00;29;06 - 00;00;33;08

Makayla Mast

I'm good. I'm excited about this studio space for testing, I know.

00;00;33;08 - 00;00;41;06

Joe Reitzug

Welcome, everyone to the new LivPortland Off the Record podcast studios. Yeah.

00;00;41;10 - 00;00;42;17

Makayla Mast

If you're watching this.

00;00;42;17 - 00;00;44;06

Joe Reitzug

If you're watching, we are.

00;00;44;08 - 00;00;46;05

Makayla Mast

Let us know if you like it. First of all.

00;00;46;11 - 00;01;00;15

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, for sure. We're down in the pearl at our pearl office. We're trying to find a new space for what we're doing here. Something a little bit more comfortable. Something just works. Yeah. Instead of our old studios that had barking dogs.

00;01;00;18 - 00;01;09;09

Makayla Mast

Which we love. But I think having it at the office is a different vibe, for sure. So let us know how we sound, please. We need your feedback.

00;01;09;10 - 00;01;34;23

Joe Reitzug

We do need your feedback, but we've got a very interesting show here today for you. We're going to talk about what amenities are luxury homebuyers looking for in today's real estate market, which is really cool because both you and I have been showing and looking at a lot of luxury properties lately, so we've got a good amount of experience right now just seeing what the newest, latest, hottest are on the marketplace.

00;01;34;23 - 00;01;44;07

Joe Reitzug

So and I think people are always interested at any price point, even if you're in the luxury price point, you kind of want to know what other people are doing, right? Absolutely, yeah.

00;01;44;08 - 00;01;46;14

Makayla Mast

How do you define the luxury price point?

00;01;46;18 - 00;02;09;07

Joe Reitzug

You know me. You can have the luxury at any price point, right? Yeah. I think if you're in a $400,000 home, but you do certain things with your kitchen or with your bath room or whatever, it can be very luxurious. It doesn't have to be a 8000 square foot, three acre mansion in Stafford or something like that. You know what I mean?

00;02;09;09 - 00;02;12;27

Makayla Mast

I agree absolutely. So just talking about what people are looking for.

00;02;13;02 - 00;02;34;05

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. And I think this applies to everyone. So we're going to be looking at interior features, spa like bathrooms, gourmet kitchens, entertainment spaces and outdoor features. Those are the ones that we've highlighted as the ones that people are looking for for the most part. So we're going to go down that list and talk about what we're seeing in really cool properties right now.

00;02;34;08 - 00;02;35;12

Makayla Mast

I'm excited.

00;02;35;14 - 00;02;53;02

Joe Reitzug

I know if you're like me, I always get a lot of inspiration from looking at different homes. In the past two weeks, I've had a couple of different clients that are in the upper price ranges, and we've been looking at some just some really, really cool homes. You just don't know what you don't know, right?

00;02;53;02 - 00;02;53;21

Makayla Mast

Right.

00;02;53;24 - 00;03;14;21

Joe Reitzug

And so seeing all this is, is really super interesting. And just so you know, if you're listening, we will have a lot of examples of these things on our website. You can go to LivPortland.com. That's LivPortland.com and click on the blog, which is where we keep all of our podcast there. And in the show notes we'll have links to some of the things that we're talking about.

00;03;14;21 - 00;03;25;13

Joe Reitzug

So if you want to if you're just listening and you want to see the visual, awesome. If you're watching, you know, drop down into the show notes and click on some of those links and, get some examples of these things right.

00;03;25;15 - 00;03;27;05

Makayla Mast

Sounds good. Should we dive into it?

00;03;27;10 - 00;03;32;03

Joe Reitzug

Sure. Interior features. What is what are you seeing right now?

00;03;32;06 - 00;03;50;11

Makayla Mast

Well, we have a smart home technology. I think that's always an interesting one. It's cracks me up because people get so fired up about this one. Yeah. It seems to be more and more common if you are spending money on upgrades. It seems like those options are becoming a little bit more affordable. But people freak out over like the nest, right?

00;03;50;15 - 00;03;53;04

Makayla Mast

Furnace. What's another one you can think of?

00;03;53;05 - 00;04;11;01

Joe Reitzug

I don't know, there's a ton of systems out there right now, but I was in a home in Lake Oswego last weekend that had one panel that controlled all the lights in the house, and there was one button for off all lights. Oh, how.

00;04;11;01 - 00;04;12;21

Makayla Mast

Lovely that is, genius.

00;04;12;21 - 00;04;13;18

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah.

00;04;13;19 - 00;04;17;02

Makayla Mast

I would love to know the cost of that electric bill to start. Yeah.

00;04;17;05 - 00;04;36;15

Joe Reitzug

So Makayla and I have represented some pretty amazing properties. And the thing that you get to do after you show one of these properties, especially if you're representing the seller, is turn off all the lights in the home in a, you know, 4 or 5 6000 square foot home. There are a lot of lights, a lot of lights.

00;04;36;15 - 00;04;46;12

Joe Reitzug

And you want to, you know, you want to get them all on, make the place presentable and look its best in that type of thing. So when I saw that one switch, I thought of you and I was like, oh yeah, Mac would love.

00;04;46;16 - 00;05;00;13

Makayla Mast

It. Totally. Would I like timing myself? We were listing out in Hillsboro that I absolutely love to show, but like you said, Trillion Lights. Yeah. And so I like to see how long it takes me. Yeah, usually sweating by the end, but.

00;05;00;16 - 00;05;22;01

Joe Reitzug

Racing around trying to get that done. Get out the door. Yeah. But this, this home had a panel that controlled all the lights. All of the blinds in the home. Wow. Yeah. And you could program it so that there was a sunny day button where just the south facing windows would come down, obviously had all the Hvac system.

00;05;22;02 - 00;05;26;16

Joe Reitzug

So the air conditioning, the heat, all of that. It also had the stereo in it.

00;05;26;22 - 00;05;27;26

Makayla Mast

So lovely.

00;05;27;29 - 00;05;33;00

Joe Reitzug

And it was compact. It was half the size of a shoe box cover. Oh, right.

00;05;33;00 - 00;05;37;08

Makayla Mast

So nice that our buyer ended up offering on this one I can't remember didn't come together.

00;05;37;11 - 00;05;41;00

Joe Reitzug

We did offer, but it did not come together for all sorts of different reasons.

00;05;41;00 - 00;05;42;05

Makayla Mast

Sorry to hear that.

00;05;42;05 - 00;05;59;23

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, some of the other stuff is biometric security. Have you seen this? So facial recognition and fingerprint stuff. That's insane. It is insane. But you know that is actually affordable. You can put biometric security into your home at almost any price point right now.

00;05;59;24 - 00;06;03;10

Makayla Mast

Really? Is it like on the front door? Is it a part of that.

00;06;03;13 - 00;06;08;10

Joe Reitzug

Front door is where it started. But you can do any door in the house for that cheese.

00;06;08;12 - 00;06;09;05

Makayla Mast

Fancy.

00;06;09;08 - 00;06;31;25

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, I'm thinking about putting it on my bedroom door. I get a lot of kids coming in. Dad. So, that's a cool one. But yeah, interior features in general. I think bringing it all together in one spot has been really a key development with things. There are companies dedicated to that now. Yes. In Portland you've seen that?

00;06;31;27 - 00;06;32;25

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;06;32;27 - 00;06;33;20

Makayla Mast

Pretty impressive.

00;06;33;23 - 00;06;39;25

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Shop around people though, because prices vary. What's next?

00;06;39;27 - 00;06;42;08

Makayla Mast

Spa like bathrooms.

00;06;42;08 - 00;06;43;26

Joe Reitzug

Oh so.

00;06;43;26 - 00;06;50;18

Makayla Mast

Good. Things like heated floors or like multi-head added showers, shower.

00;06;50;20 - 00;06;55;04

Joe Reitzug

And like the rain head showers. You know, I don't. You don't like those?

00;06;55;07 - 00;07;06;21

Makayla Mast

I like the look of them, but I don't like physically taking a shower in one because I don't always want to get my hair wet. As a girl, we don't wash our hair every day, every day. So you have to like to keep your hair out of it.

00;07;06;25 - 00;07;07;08

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;07;07;08 - 00;07;08;28

Makayla Mast

First world problems for sure.

00;07;08;28 - 00;07;09;29

Joe Reitzug

But yeah.

00;07;10;06 - 00;07;11;22

Makayla Mast

The look of it is beautiful.

00;07;11;29 - 00;07;35;00

Joe Reitzug

It is beautiful. I enjoy it immensely and I tried to install one at my house with the DIY and it did. I failed, So that that went sideways. But you know, I've seen the ones now that have the vertical shower pulses. Have you seen so crazy? Oh my gosh. And they're programable now.

00;07;35;02 - 00;07;35;27

Makayla Mast

Of course they are.

00;07;35;28 - 00;07;44;03

Joe Reitzug

So I can have them stronger than my wife or have them, you know, just do my back and all that sort of stuff.

00;07;44;03 - 00;07;45;14

Makayla Mast

So it's a lot of water.

00;07;45;15 - 00;07;46;24

Joe Reitzug

It has a lot of water.

00;07;46;27 - 00;08;07;23

Makayla Mast

That reminds me of our, again, our listing in Hillsboro, which we are going to do a new video about. So watch out for that coming soon. We're super excited to put that together for you. But this bathroom has the steam shower, so it's the the glass door is floor to ceiling, so it truly turns into a little steam room.

00;08;07;27 - 00;08;17;01

Joe Reitzug

I love that so much. I love that so much. The freestanding tub. Are you a fan? Yes. Are you beefy? I feel like that's a lady's thing.

00;08;17;04 - 00;08;18;05

Makayla Mast

I think so too.

00;08;18;05 - 00;08;19;09

Joe Reitzug

I'm not down with that.

00;08;19;09 - 00;08;34;25

Makayla Mast

It's funny, when I walk with a new buyer through a house, and I don't know whether the tub is going to be exciting or something they want to rip out. And I'm always like, yeah, the tub and, you know, 5050. But a lot of times people are like, oh, I would take that out in a heartbeat. I don't like it.

00;08;34;26 - 00;08;41;16

Makayla Mast

So it's such a personal preference thing, but I think it definitely adds to the overall look, especially of a primary bathroom.

00;08;41;22 - 00;09;01;08

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. The other thing is bathrooms high in bathrooms that I've noticed is the fixtures. They are all extremely well done and it makes such a difference. That's actually one of those things that all of us can really kind of take care of is new fixtures, matching fixtures.

00;09;01;15 - 00;09;24;10

Makayla Mast

That's the hardest part, though, is I'm literally remodeling my bathroom right now, and it's really hard to match all the metals, because if the plumbing in your shower is like the original silver chrome, I think it's called, then you want to go up to gold. You know, you got to make sure it matches. And then the gold's right now there's like there used to be two shades of gold that they manufacture.

00;09;24;10 - 00;09;33;15

Makayla Mast

Now they're up to four and we accidentally mix some and it looks fine. But I agree having that, like cohesive look with the metals right in the bathroom is important.

00;09;33;20 - 00;09;55;05

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. One other thing I want to add. It's not really a bathroom thing, but it's a trend that I'm seeing and I absolutely love is to walk in closets. A lot of builders, a lot of, designers, architects are making that just standard now where you have to walk in closets. And I think that is just so fantastic.

00;09;55;12 - 00;09;55;28

Makayla Mast

Is.

00;09;55;29 - 00;10;01;08

Joe Reitzug

Okay, let's move on. Something near and dear to my heart. Gourmet kitchens.

00;10;01;10 - 00;10;04;16

Makayla Mast

You have a gourmet kitchen. It is lovely.

00;10;04;19 - 00;10;25;10

Joe Reitzug

You're sweet. Thank you. I am the cook in the family. And when a remodel was proposed for my home right after Covid, my only thing was as long as the kitchen is completely dialed, I don't care with what you do with the rest of it. And, we had a nice trade off with that. So yeah, it turned out it turned out really super.

00;10;25;10 - 00;10;43;09

Joe Reitzug

Well, we had an island. We took the island out. So there's lots and lots of space between the range and the counter, the sink, all of it. And the thing that I love in high end homes with fantastic kitchens is the amount of light. Right?

00;10;43;12 - 00;10;44;04

Makayla Mast

That's a good one.

00;10;44;04 - 00;11;07;08

Joe Reitzug

The old kitchens that were galley or had all the cabinets surrounding around the outside of the kitchen, a lot of that's gone by the wayside and just big huge windows. Which means you got to have a pantry somewhere or, you know, a butler's pantry or something like that to make it happen. But getting all that big light in the kitchen I think is just a fantastic touch.

00;11;07;10 - 00;11;10;05

Makayla Mast

I couldn't agree more. It makes such a difference.

00;11;10;10 - 00;11;30;18

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, the high end appliances are a must to. I got to give a shout out to, my good friend Derek Berg over at East Bank appliance. Look me up. It's worth it if you're a cook or if you enjoy someone else cooking and they're good at it, go get that high end range. Or, you know, the really nice refrigerator.

00;11;30;18 - 00;11;32;06

Joe Reitzug

It does make a huge difference in.

00;11;32;10 - 00;11;36;25

Makayla Mast

The range of something I will definitely splurge on next time. It does make a difference.

00;11;36;25 - 00;11;57;20

Joe Reitzug

And if you're doing the range type, I love seeing, the big hoods. Yeah, gotta have a hood because if you're cooking, I used to not cook certain things in my home because I didn't have a hood. Oh yeah, at least a fan that worked on it just didn't work. I have a big, huge, powerful fan now, and I can cook fish.

00;11;57;22 - 00;12;05;23

Joe Reitzug

I can do pepper steaks. Yeah, I can do bacon without everyone upstairs smelling what I'm doing. It's fantastic.

00;12;05;23 - 00;12;08;19

Makayla Mast

Can I come over tonight for dinner? I'm hungry. Yeah.

00;12;08;24 - 00;12;11;01

Joe Reitzug

Tacos. Taco Tuesday.

00;12;11;03 - 00;12;34;09

Makayla Mast

One of my favorite things about a high end kitchen is a butler's pantry or even just a walk in pantry. I think that makes so much difference. My mother in law is a home designer and builder. She has so much talent and something that she always tries to do is hide like your countertop appliances, like, you know, your microwave or your coffee pot.

00;12;34;09 - 00;12;44;15

Makayla Mast

And so she can't tuck it in a butler's pantry. So create like a custom cabinet with power where you can hide those. And I just think it adds that special touch.

00;12;44;15 - 00;12;45;00

Joe Reitzug

Fantastic.

00;12;45;00 - 00;12;49;24

Makayla Mast

And it's not really that much more expensive to do something like that. It's just it takes planning.

00;12;49;26 - 00;13;12;26

Joe Reitzug

So we have a, a high end home in, brand new build brand new construction in McMinnville, home across loop if you're looking. Want to look that up. Fantastic kitchen. And it's really it's a you know I said that you know I took out the island and my kitchen mainly because I just didn't have enough room to have an island.

00;13;12;29 - 00;13;23;21

Joe Reitzug

But if you have the big, you know, kitchen, family room, dining room, big open floor plan and you have a ton of room having that big island and then having the.

00;13;23;22 - 00;13;25;20

Makayla Mast

So like a peninsula.

00;13;25;22 - 00;13;26;28

Joe Reitzug

Mine is a peninsula.

00;13;26;28 - 00;13;27;15

Makayla Mast

Yeah. Okay.

00;13;27;15 - 00;13;31;21

Joe Reitzug

Right. The home down in McMinnville also has the Big Island.

00;13;31;21 - 00;13;32;15

Makayla Mast

Oh, okay.

00;13;32;15 - 00;13;59;03

Joe Reitzug

And it has the comfortable chairs on one side of it with plenty of space. I mean, it's a huge island. You can cook. There's a vegetable, a vegetable sink there for cleaning and all that sort of stuff. And it's just fantastic. I mean, think about the way people live now. You want to live around where the action is, and cooking dinner is where the action is up until you sit down for dinner.

00;13;59;04 - 00;14;03;07

Joe Reitzug

Right? Right. I think that's a bit, that's it for custom kitchens.

00;14;03;07 - 00;14;04;19

Makayla Mast

I could talk about kitchens all day.

00;14;04;20 - 00;14;05;09

Joe Reitzug

I love kitchen.

00;14;05;09 - 00;14;06;04

Makayla Mast

Cabinets.

00;14;06;06 - 00;14;07;01

Joe Reitzug

Oh, cabinets.

00;14;07;01 - 00;14;25;28

Makayla Mast

Cabinets go such a long way. You know, even if you're thinking about listing your home, spending some time either touching up your cabinets if they're painted, or just making sure all the hinges are tight and, they're in good shape. That goes a really long way. Wood cabinets are coming back design wise. Those are so much more expensive though.

00;14;25;28 - 00;14;30;07

Makayla Mast

So I think, you know, just in, I guess, a trend. Your paint goes a long way too.

00;14;30;08 - 00;14;48;26

Joe Reitzug

But yeah, for sure. And if you if you are splurging and getting the new cabinets, get the soft clothes right. For those of you that don't know, soft closes when you close the cabinet and it comes around instead of slamming at the last second, it just loses all the momentum and then just softly closes. It's wonderful.

00;14;48;28 - 00;14;51;23

Makayla Mast

It's genius, and it's so much better on the cabinets.

00;14;51;26 - 00;14;55;18

Joe Reitzug

A lot of quartz and granite too, for countertops is what I'm saying.

00;14;55;20 - 00;14;56;15

Makayla Mast

A lot of quartz.

00;14;56;19 - 00;15;13;12

Joe Reitzug

A lot of quartz. I love quartz, we have quartz and it is absolutely the best. Easy to clean, hard to. I mean, we don't have a chip. We've had our new kitchen for through two and a half, three years now. Not one chip knock on wood. That's great I know, I know, I like.

00;15;13;12 - 00;15;17;20

Makayla Mast

We have quartz too and it's white. And I was so worried about staining it at work.

00;15;17;20 - 00;15;18;08

Joe Reitzug

So doesn't it.

00;15;18;12 - 00;15;27;19

Makayla Mast

All the red wine when you drink tomato sauce. But no it comes up pretty good. I mean it comes up all the way. It just it will take some scrubbing if you leave it too long.

00;15;27;21 - 00;15;38;24

Joe Reitzug

Tell me about entertainment spaces. This is one that I'm continually amazed by what some people put in their homes. You know, it's just like, oh my gosh, this is fantastic.

00;15;39;01 - 00;15;45;13

Makayla Mast

Yeah, something that actually hasn't gone out of style, which I kind of thought it was going to is a home theater.

00;15;45;15 - 00;15;46;26

Joe Reitzug

You thought that was going to go out of style?

00;15;46;26 - 00;16;10;15

Makayla Mast

Yeah. And then just because of the open concept living that we all love so much, I just thought people would be feel like it was irrelevant. But for, you know, cozy days at home, game days, kids sleepovers, whatever the heck it is. I think it's such an amazing overflow space, especially for, entertainment or even having like a theater game room, bonus room type space.

00;16;10;15 - 00;16;13;02

Makayla Mast

Anything for. Yeah, extra space.

00;16;13;07 - 00;16;44;15

Joe Reitzug

It's pretty cool. I mean, the really, really good ones have, you know, either blackout shades or just no windows, right? Makes it really, really dark. They also have tiered levels for the seating. So, you know, if you have 2 or 3 level or 2 or 3 levels of, of sofas or, you know, theater chairs or something like that, raising them up by six inches or a foot or whatever, so that the people behind can see getting that platform like is really, really cool, really cool.

00;16;44;18 - 00;16;48;00

Joe Reitzug

And then there's also the people that have the popcorn machines.

00;16;48;00 - 00;16;49;05

Makayla Mast

The bar, a.

00;16;49;05 - 00;16;53;18

Joe Reitzug

Bar in the back. Oh my gosh, so fancy.

00;16;53;20 - 00;17;12;08

Makayla Mast

I love that listing in Hillsboro again on Brennan Lane or showing that out a lot because it really is that great. It has a wine cellar connected to the theater room, so it's like this unassuming door that you would think was like a closet. And they turned it into like, first it's like a tiled hallway and you feel the temperature drop.

00;17;12;08 - 00;17;20;25

Makayla Mast

It's amazing. And then in front of the wine cellar is a little seating area where they made into a cigar lounge with extra age to.

00;17;20;25 - 00;17;26;10

Joe Reitzug

Say, I thought, you're going to bury the lead on that. It's actually a cigar lounge in there with all ventilation.

00;17;26;10 - 00;17;27;07

Makayla Mast

Crazy.

00;17;27;07 - 00;17;37;02

Joe Reitzug

Outside of the. So that's that's the main room. And then from there it's all glass and you step into the thousand bottle wine cellar.

00;17;37;04 - 00;17;47;17

Makayla Mast

I love that thing so much. Yeah. And that ventilation is amazing. Remember, we were there, and it was really warm out and that it was probably 60 in there, like a refrigerator.

00;17;47;20 - 00;18;10;28

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah. And the ventilation pulls it all the way outside. It's it's really well done. What other entertainments bases like you know I know we're going to talk about outdoor features next, but the way that people are converting garages. Great barns. Right now is really really cool and really cool. And we sold a place just outside of Forest Grove.

00;18;10;28 - 00;18;31;21

Joe Reitzug

There was a old, old shop out there. Some of the people that were looking at buying it, you know, I was kind of eavesdropping as they were looking around out there and they were going to have the shop and have one half of the shop be a basketball court, a half court basketball court with, an upstairs so that they could.

00;18;31;23 - 00;18;35;19

Joe Reitzug

Oh, cool. Yeah. And have a, my guard up there and the whole thing.

00;18;35;21 - 00;18;40;17

Makayla Mast

Yeah. That would be amazing. And if you have the space for it, why not just takes the vision?

00;18;40;19 - 00;19;03;01

Joe Reitzug

I've seen a few places out in Helvetia that have these, like Barnum, any, huge entertainment spaces. You know, they'll have 2 or 3 bays for a car. They'll have a little indoor pop, a shot or basketball thing, and then one little corner has a big, huge, massive TV with seating and everything, and then a bar in the other corner.

00;19;03;01 - 00;19;04;26

Joe Reitzug

So it's like from multi-purpose.

00;19;04;26 - 00;19;05;22

Makayla Mast

Yeah, yeah.

00;19;05;25 - 00;19;12;23

Joe Reitzug

Just have people over watch the game. Some people can be shooting hoops, playing pool, whatever. It's it's just really cool.

00;19;12;23 - 00;19;30;00

Makayla Mast

That is really cool. I love when people do that with like an Adu. Also, because an HBO is an amazing feature to have on a property or also called mother in Law suite, if you're not familiar with that. But I like when they make it into something more like more of a hang because you're only using an 80 or so often.

00;19;30;04 - 00;19;41;25

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah for sure. Just a little personal note. You know, the detached garage that we have behind our house, Nick and his brothers are converting that into a pool room.

00;19;41;26 - 00;19;42;09

Makayla Mast

Oh, my.

00;19;42;12 - 00;19;45;14

Joe Reitzug

It's currently a woodworking shop. They have all this woodworking. And.

00;19;45;16 - 00;19;50;28

Makayla Mast

So what are they done with woodworking now? That's sad. Oh, are they just like the poor am idea more?

00;19;51;04 - 00;19;59;26

Joe Reitzug

They play pool a lot right now we're looking at pool tables for them. And they're going to put a pool table in there and a bar in the back with a couch and the whole thing.

00;19;59;26 - 00;20;02;23

Makayla Mast

Oh my gosh, that is going to be the hang.

00;20;02;27 - 00;20;04;27

Joe Reitzug

I know, I know, I'm pretty excited.

00;20;04;27 - 00;20;06;20

Makayla Mast

But they better get on there. That's pretty cool.

00;20;06;21 - 00;20;22;29

Joe Reitzug

The beautiful thing is I was consulted and say, can we do it? And I was like, absolutely. And now I don't have to touch it until it's done. That is that's the thing with having handy kids. My kids are extremely good with construction, woodworking, all that type of stuff.

00;20;22;29 - 00;20;23;18

Makayla Mast

They are.

00;20;23;20 - 00;20;24;10

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;20;24;12 - 00;20;26;07

Makayla Mast

They're very resourceful. Those ones.

00;20;26;09 - 00;20;27;17

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, they are.

00;20;27;19 - 00;20;30;00

Makayla Mast

Should we just move right into outdoor features?

00;20;30;00 - 00;20;34;01

Joe Reitzug

My second favorite feature and luxury properties is the Outdoor living.

00;20;34;01 - 00;20;35;07

Makayla Mast

So nice.

00;20;35;07 - 00;20;36;00

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;20;36;02 - 00;20;54;02

Makayla Mast

I love the covered patios with the when and people are doing fans in them right now. Just an extra space to hang out. And then you can even do heaters. Yeah. You know, here in the Pacific Northwest you can't hang out outside too much. But if you have a covered area and you get creative with some heaters, you really can.

00;20;54;05 - 00;20;55;11

Makayla Mast

Yeah, hang out most of the year.

00;20;55;15 - 00;21;14;20

Joe Reitzug

We have a property coming up in Hillsborough and, a Renko gardens that doesn't have a backyard, but it has this big patio on the back overlooking a green space. Beautiful home, and they put an awning over it. And then they actually have these heavy curtains that are not like curtains.

00;21;14;20 - 00;21;16;10

Makayla Mast

Curtains, but they're like an outdoor.

00;21;16;12 - 00;21;26;05

Joe Reitzug

Like an outdoor curtain that they can enclose the whole thing. And they have heaters there, and there's a big screen TV, little bar. It's just really, really well done.

00;21;26;07 - 00;21;26;27

Makayla Mast

Fancy.

00;21;26;29 - 00;21;39;10

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. And I mean, it's a $700,000 home. It's not a million multimillion dollar place. But they created this luxury space out there. Right. That will absolutely have value.

00;21;39;16 - 00;22;00;28

Makayla Mast

I think any time you can spend money on outdoor features, it's going to go such a long way. I mean, it's a you can't call it an additional square footage, obviously, but people think of it that way. You know, if I'm comparing a home that has a nice patio area versus one that doesn't or, you know, one that I have to invest in, I'm easily going with the one that's already there.

00;22;01;04 - 00;22;06;24

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, for sure, for sure. You know, the fire pits love the fire pits.

00;22;06;24 - 00;22;10;06

Makayla Mast

Are those still allowed in?

00;22;10;08 - 00;22;12;03

Joe Reitzug

I hope so, I had one.

00;22;12;05 - 00;22;22;28

Makayla Mast

We moved to an electric one because we had big trees and we've since cut those trees down. But I, I guess the fire ban we'll hear about. But those scares.

00;22;22;28 - 00;22;28;10

Joe Reitzug

Me. You're city of Portland though, right? No you're not. No. Are you Beaverton?

00;22;28;12 - 00;22;31;12

Makayla Mast

I don't really know what I am, but I'm 970.

00;22;31;14 - 00;22;37;22

Joe Reitzug

You're unincorporated. Don't bother me. No.

00;22;37;25 - 00;22;50;01

Joe Reitzug

I like that I haven't heard of Hillsboro. I'm a Hillsboro resident. I don't know, but we built one during Covid. Actually, my oldest son did, and it's got built in wood benches.

00;22;50;01 - 00;22;51;13

Makayla Mast

That thing is so nice.

00;22;51;13 - 00;22;53;26

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, it's pretty bad. Ours.

00;22;53;28 - 00;23;08;18

Makayla Mast

He did a good job. My parents have not the biggest yard in the world, but it's a nice space. But they had a tool shed that they built like an awning over. And then dad made a bar out of, like a big piece of cedar.

00;23;08;21 - 00;23;09;07

Joe Reitzug

Oh.

00;23;09;10 - 00;23;26;24

Makayla Mast

But they like, you know, we're finished. And then there was already a power in the shed. And so they just fished it there, and they have a flat screen and cute signs out there. So that is the hot spot in the summer. And, you know, it was relatively inexpensive. And it's always the wow factor when people come over.

00;23;26;27 - 00;23;37;09

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, I have a friend who just redid his bat. He has a huge backyard, and he redid it with like 3000ft² of covered patio.

00;23;37;09 - 00;23;38;23

Makayla Mast

Now that's insane.

00;23;38;23 - 00;23;45;17

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah, it was huge. It was huge. But it's extremely well done. And he's got outdoor living space.

00;23;45;23 - 00;23;53;20

Makayla Mast

What about, pools? We don't deal with too many pools. How do you feel about them personally?

00;23;53;22 - 00;24;01;18

Joe Reitzug

Personally, I like getting wet in the pool. I mean, I really enjoy it. How do you find me in the pool? If I had a pool, sure.

00;24;01;18 - 00;24;03;10

Makayla Mast

I forget you're a swimmer. No.

00;24;03;13 - 00;24;10;07

Joe Reitzug

I'm swimmer. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got to have my my water wings and everything, but, you know, I don't.

00;24;10;07 - 00;24;11;08

Makayla Mast

Know what that means.

00;24;11;11 - 00;24;12;26

Joe Reitzug

Little inflatables around your arm.

00;24;12;26 - 00;24;20;16

Makayla Mast

Oh, you do? Too. You actually, you know.

00;24;20;18 - 00;24;21;10

Joe Reitzug

But see.

00;24;21;13 - 00;24;21;18

Makayla Mast

The.

00;24;21;20 - 00;24;25;04

Joe Reitzug

Spider man and.

00;24;25;06 - 00;24;34;01

Makayla Mast

I was like, you told me in the knees when, like, 40 laps. I wouldn't be as impressed if you had water wings. Yeah. No worries. Sorry.

00;24;34;04 - 00;24;37;06

Joe Reitzug

No, I like pools. A lot of people don't, though.

00;24;37;06 - 00;24;39;06

Makayla Mast

Yeah. People feel very strongly current.

00;24;39;06 - 00;24;43;08

Joe Reitzug

Clients that are like, don't show me anything with a pool. I don't want to deal with that.

00;24;43;12 - 00;24;44;14

Makayla Mast

It's expensive.

00;24;44;19 - 00;24;59;19

Joe Reitzug

And even hot tubs, too. Some people are like, I mean, it's expensive. I wouldn't not buy a home because of it, but it's got to be gone before closing type thing. I love we have a hot tub and it is therapeutically wonderful.

00;24;59;21 - 00;25;03;07

Makayla Mast

Yeah. I would jump at the opportunity to have a hot tub.

00;25;03;09 - 00;25;05;15

Joe Reitzug

Well, you guys went cold tub, didn't you?

00;25;05;18 - 00;25;12;11

Makayla Mast

We did for a minute. And then that thing went in the trash. Yeah, that was a fun trend.

00;25;12;14 - 00;25;18;03

Joe Reitzug

That trend was painful. I tried that once and was like, I'm going to stick to the hot, hot tub.

00;25;18;03 - 00;25;24;13

Makayla Mast

Yeah. I'm good. I don't need to torture myself for, you know, potential health care.

00;25;24;15 - 00;25;32;08

Joe Reitzug

My body made threats like you do that again and we might shut the whole thing down.

00;25;32;11 - 00;25;32;28

Joe Reitzug

But some people.

00;25;33;00 - 00;25;36;12

Makayla Mast

It's not normal. Some people swear by it. Good for them. Yeah.

00;25;36;15 - 00;26;00;27

Joe Reitzug

There are some really cool pools. And we sold a place, 20 years ago that had a pool and a slide. Fun. Yeah. Super fun. And it was all rock and around the back there was a little entrance to, you know, there was little, a little mountain that you there were stairs that you would go up and do your little slide underneath the mountain.

00;26;00;27 - 00;26;03;18

Joe Reitzug

It was a little grotto hot tub thing.

00;26;03;18 - 00;26;05;07

Makayla Mast

Cheese. Fancy.

00;26;05;07 - 00;26;14;14

Joe Reitzug

Super fancy. But why not? Yeah. I mean, if you're going to build a slide like that, use that space. And it was really, really cool that things are in there with lights.

00;26;14;16 - 00;26;17;26

Makayla Mast

Oh my gosh, that sounds like something you dream up as a kid.

00;26;17;27 - 00;26;20;14

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. The guy that we sold it for was a big kid.

00;26;20;21 - 00;26;23;10

Makayla Mast

Oh, super fun experience guy.

00;26;23;12 - 00;26;33;23

Joe Reitzug

He did it for his kids. He said he did the pool on the slide for his kids, and he did the little, grotto hot tub with the lights and a little mini bar for him and his wife to have a quiet little place.

00;26;33;24 - 00;26;35;15

Makayla Mast

Oh, that's so sweet.

00;26;35;16 - 00;26;50;00

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So, but professionally designed landscaping is absolutely a luxurious amenity. First of all, you got to have a large enough floor to have something like that and.

00;26;50;06 - 00;26;51;00

Makayla Mast

Irrigation.

00;26;51;00 - 00;27;17;21

Joe Reitzug

And irrigation. But it's also so much time and effort getting that done. It is. You know what I mean? But I love it. We've seen some homes recently. I showed where not too long ago that had these hedges that surrounded the property, and it was in a nice neighborhood. I mean, this is a $2.5 million property, but it was completely private because of these hedges that had grown up over the past, you know, 20, 30 years or whatever it was really, really cool.

00;27;17;22 - 00;27;32;22

Makayla Mast

That is cool. It can do so much for the home. Like our sellers out on River Road and Hillsborough, they just found themselves in love with gardening. One day and just kind of snowballed. And before you know it, that property was pristine.

00;27;32;23 - 00;27;36;11

Joe Reitzug

70 acre manicured garden.

00;27;36;13 - 00;27;45;02

Makayla Mast

Yeah, it's I was going to say, can you imagine? But I can because I've seen it, but I can't imagine keeping it up. Yes, I have to say.

00;27;45;04 - 00;27;51;25

Joe Reitzug

We're going to go back to the thing that I love, which is the kitchen, and then throw that baby outside, have an outdoor kitchen.

00;27;51;25 - 00;27;52;26

Makayla Mast

Oh my goodness.

00;27;52;28 - 00;28;16;04

Joe Reitzug

Right. I love that so much. And I'm a little torn when I see these built ins, because you can almost get the same thing done with like a Traeger or a barbecue that just moves around wherever you want it. But there are the outdoor kitchens where it's built in refrigerator, built in wine cooler.

00;28;16;07 - 00;28;17;13

Makayla Mast

Those are legit.

00;28;17;15 - 00;28;31;14

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah. And then the cooktop and the whole thing is just absolutely incredible. So I'm a huge, huge fan of that. I'd love to get some pictures of that to show people too. I think that's really, really cool.

00;28;31;17 - 00;28;35;02

Makayla Mast

We should. I love the River road outdoor kitchen.

00;28;35;04 - 00;28;37;17

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, it's a really, really good setup, isn't it?

00;28;37;20 - 00;28;50;29

Makayla Mast

It is. But it's funny when triggers are not triggers. What's the other a Blackstone when those became popular and you have these beautiful outdoor kitchens that are built on any of black stone. Right. Next year I just had out of the black. Yeah.

00;28;51;01 - 00;28;52;22

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. But I think those are awesome.

00;28;52;22 - 00;28;55;13

Makayla Mast

Yeah, I think it's very elegant.

00;28;55;15 - 00;29;10;15

Joe Reitzug

So those are the main ones that we wanted to talk about. But there's a couple of other nice little amenities that we see once in a while that don't necessarily need to be in a multi-million dollar home can be in any home if you have the space. And I'll start it out. Okay.

00;29;10;22 - 00;29;11;23

Makayla Mast

Okay. Let's hear the.

00;29;11;26 - 00;29;13;24

Joe Reitzug

The home gym.

00;29;13;27 - 00;29;15;13

Makayla Mast

That is the thing that's the.

00;29;15;13 - 00;29;16;01

Joe Reitzug

Dream is.

00;29;16;01 - 00;29;17;22

Makayla Mast

So badly, right? Oh, yeah.

00;29;17;26 - 00;29;43;03

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. I feel like I would ignore the workout more if I had the home gym. Now, getting in the car, driving my four minutes to my gym is almost kind of like, okay, I'm going. I got to get it done. If I had the home gym with the kids and the computer and the phone and the things that I have to get done around the house, I feel like I'd be making all sorts of excuses to not get it done.

00;29;43;05 - 00;29;49;29

Makayla Mast

Yeah, I could see that. I think it's definitely a personal preference thing for me. I would love to have like a sauna in the gym.

00;29;49;29 - 00;29;51;21

Joe Reitzug

Would you go Pilates studio?

00;29;51;23 - 00;29;54;23

Makayla Mast

Oh, I would still go for it. Wait, like an home studio?

00;29;54;23 - 00;29;55;16

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;29;55;18 - 00;30;00;20

Makayla Mast

No, no, that's a group. That's a that's a class experience that I love.

00;30;00;25 - 00;30;01;19

Joe Reitzug

Got it. Okay.

00;30;01;19 - 00;30;09;26

Makayla Mast

But, a lot of people love that. They like doing it more of the Zen way. I like, you know, blasting music and people screaming at me.

00;30;10;01 - 00;30;11;09

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah.

00;30;11;11 - 00;30;20;08

Makayla Mast

But I think I get that having, like, some kind of spa, like feature in the gym would really entice me to go out there and run on the treadmill first.

00;30;20;08 - 00;30;45;00

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, we had a property that we sold ten years ago or so down in Oregon City. That was a daylight ranch. And the bottom level, the area half of the downstairs was a dedicated gym, and it had the four that had the nano doors. Nano doors. People are there, you know, the sliders that just keep opening and opening and opening and opening and so they could do.

00;30;45;00 - 00;30;52;07

Joe Reitzug

And it had a view of Mount Hood, the whole thing. But they could have their workout going on like they were outside almost.

00;30;52;11 - 00;30;54;27

Makayla Mast

Oh my gosh, that is amazing.

00;30;54;28 - 00;30;56;25

Joe Reitzug

Really really cool. Yeah.

00;30;56;28 - 00;30;58;03

Makayla Mast

I oh.

00;30;58;06 - 00;31;03;29

Joe Reitzug

Energy efficiency I sometimes I'm I'm starting to hear people say.

00;31;04;02 - 00;31;13;07

Makayla Mast

Well it's I feel like it's sorry not to interrupt you. It's kind of like the, bathtub thing. It's like people love it or they hate it.

00;31;13;10 - 00;31;14;13

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;31;14;16 - 00;31;36;05

Makayla Mast

And I think around here, it's a safer bet. People love their solar panels. They can be a little more hesitant to, go after a home with solar panels if they're, you know, visible from the front, kind of ruining your curb appeal. Yeah, but, hey, if it means that you're not paying an electric bill or even making money on it, I think that's extremely attractive.

00;31;36;08 - 00;31;53;23

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah. The thing I want to throw out there is we have people, you know, call us every now and again and say, hey, I want you to come over. I'm not really thinking about moving, but I want to do some improvements. I want to get your take on how that affects my value. This is a good thing, a bad thing, you know what I mean?

00;31;53;23 - 00;32;07;04

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. And, happy to help with that. If anyone you know has that need. It's always cool to hear what people are thinking about doing. You know, it is. And 99% of the time it's, oh, that's cool. You should do that.

00;32;07;06 - 00;32;07;17

Makayla Mast

Right?

00;32;07;17 - 00;32;12;01

Joe Reitzug

That'll help your value. Every now and again, it's like, well.

00;32;12;03 - 00;32;15;20

Makayla Mast

That's going to end up costing you $20,000. And please don't get into that.

00;32;15;26 - 00;32;16;24

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, yeah.

00;32;16;24 - 00;32;22;16

Makayla Mast

But you always say, like, you know, your own home, you know, what features are going to enhance it or not.

00;32;22;16 - 00;32;27;25

Joe Reitzug

So, and if you think you're really going to enjoy it, chances are when you go to sell, someone else will too.

00;32;27;28 - 00;32;30;14

Makayla Mast

Exactly. Yeah. Good advice.

00;32;30;16 - 00;32;50;28

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So to wrap this whole thing up in a bow, I think luxury amenities don't really have to do with the price point. Certainly it's great if you have 5000ft² and you've got room for the home gym and you got an acre lot where you can have outdoor entertainment, or you're out in the country and you have a big barn, you can convert to this or that or whatever, awesome.

00;32;50;28 - 00;33;20;04

Joe Reitzug

That's fantastic. But for a lot of us, for most of us who don't have that room or this or that or whatever, creating small luxuries in your home is not that hard. You know, sometimes you got to save up for it. Sometimes you got to, you know, make some sacrifices. But if you want that spectacular primary bathroom or if you really want to get that new kitchen, or you want to create a space in your backyard that is really super fun, it's doable.

00;33;20;09 - 00;33;25;09

Joe Reitzug

Right? And all it takes is a little vision, a little dreaming, little saving.

00;33;25;14 - 00;33;27;29

Makayla Mast

A little DIY, and sometimes.

00;33;28;01 - 00;33;28;27

Joe Reitzug

Not for this kid.

00;33;28;27 - 00;33;32;17

Makayla Mast

I'm a big DIY DIYer and I constantly regret it.

00;33;32;19 - 00;33;41;10

Joe Reitzug

I'm a die, I fail, I just I don't have that my kids do. I don't know where they got it from. They can DIY that the heck out of could.

00;33;41;15 - 00;33;42;05

Makayla Mast

00;33;42;08 - 00;33;49;20

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. But that's you know, I'm desperately trying to keep them in the house and DIY the rest of the things I need done.

00;33;49;23 - 00;33;56;27

Makayla Mast

Well, I can't wait to come to your new pool room. I'm sure that'll be. I mean, weeks if not days before. That's.

00;33;56;29 - 00;33;59;00

Joe Reitzug

They're calling it the Speakeasy.

00;33;59;02 - 00;34;00;02

Makayla Mast

That's really cool.

00;34;00;03 - 00;34;02;24

Joe Reitzug

Well, they're not, but I am.

00;34;02;27 - 00;34;03;23

Makayla Mast

They are now.

00;34;03;25 - 00;34;05;14

Joe Reitzug

They are now.

00;34;05;17 - 00;34;07;03

Makayla Mast

Well, thank you for listening.

00;34;07;03 - 00;34;14;24

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Thank you everyone. We really appreciate you joining us in the new LivPortland Off the Record podcast Studios.

00;34;14;26 - 00;34;16;12

Makayla Mast

Let us know what you think.

00;34;16;15 - 00;34;17;17

Joe Reitzug

Thanks, guys.

00;34;17;19 - 00;38;51;16

Makayla Mast

Thanks for joining us today. If you're interested in finding out more about Joe, myself or the LivPortland team, you can go to LivPortland.com. Thanks for giving us a listen and see you next time on the Off the Record podcast.