Last updated: September 4, 2026
What Buyers Actually Pay More For
Every spring Zillow publishes research on which home features show up in listings that sell for more than expected. Sellers love the list, because it feels like a shortcut. It is a useful list. It is also routinely misread, and the way it gets misread costs people money on renovations they did not need.
Here is the current version, what it actually measures, and how to use it if you are selling in Flower Mound, Southlake, Argyle, or anywhere else in North Texas.
What the Research Measures, and What It Does Not
Zillow analyzed more than 2 million homes listed for sale in 2025, looking at more than 600 common phrases used in listing descriptions. For each home it estimated a likely sale price from location, size, home type, bed and bath count, and listing date, then compared that estimate to what the home actually sold for.
So "sells for 5.4% more" means the home sold for more than similar homes without that feature. It does not mean it sold above its Zestimate, above asking, or faster. That distinction matters, because most of what gets repeated from these reports quietly converts a price finding into a speed promise, and those are different claims.
Source: Zillow, "Cottagecore, customization & quartzite: Zillow's 2026 home features that sell for more," published March 24, 2026, read 2026-09-04.
The Features Carrying the Biggest Premiums
Outdoor living, priced like a destination
The largest premiums in the current research sit outside the house.
Feature mentioned in the listing | Sale premium versus expected |
|---|---|
Dock | 5.4% |
Outdoor kitchen | 4.4% |
Outdoor shower | 4.3% |
The word "cottage" in the description | 3.2% |
Waterfront | 3.0% |
Outdoor fireplace | 2.8% |
On a typical home, the top of that range is worth roughly $19,500. In North Texas this reads better than it does in most of the country, because outdoor living here is a nine-month season rather than a three-month one. An outdoor kitchen in Lantana or Argyle is not a novelty line in the description, it is the room the house is actually used in from March through November.
Quartzite took the crown from quartz
This is the single most useful change from the previous version of this list. Quartz was the countertop story a year ago. It is not any more.
Countertop material | Sale premium versus expected |
|---|---|
Quartzite | 5.3% |
Quartz | 3.0% |
Soapstone | 2.7% |
Marble | 1.9% |
Onyx | 1.6% |
Quartzite is a natural stone, not the engineered material quartz is, and the two get confused constantly. If your kitchen has quartzite, the listing description needs to say quartzite and not quartz. That is a free 2.3 percentage points of positioning and it costs nothing but accuracy.
Personalization stopped being a liability
The old advice was to strip a home back to beige before listing. The data no longer supports doing that everywhere.
- Listings highlighting custom features: 3.2% premium
- Bespoke finishes: 3.0%
- A gourmet kitchen built for a home cook: 3.0%
- A golf simulator: 2.7%
Purpose-built rooms are resonating, especially when they are already finished and usable. Note the boundary though. A well-executed custom space reads as quality. An unfinished half-idea reads as a project, which lands in the next section.
Nobody wants a project
This is the finding with the most money attached, and it points in the opposite direction from the fun ones.
- Turnkey homes: 2.9% premium
- Remodeled homes: 2.2% premium
- Fixer-uppers: 14% discount
Read that last row again. The penalty for looking like a project is roughly five times the reward for any single desirable feature. When affordability is tight, buyers price in the renovation they would have to fund out of pocket after closing, rather than roll into the mortgage. Which means the highest-return work before listing is almost never adding a showpiece. It is removing the reasons a buyer would file your home under "project."
How to Use This If You Are Selling in North Texas
Describe what you already have, correctly
The cheapest lever in this entire report is the listing description. Every premium above attaches to a phrase a buyer searched for. If your home has an outdoor kitchen, a dock, quartzite, or a genuinely custom finish, those exact words belong in the remarks. "4 beds, 3 baths, great location" surfaces for nobody.
Do not renovate on the strength of a percentage
A 4.4% premium on an outdoor kitchen is not a case for building one. It is a case for photographing and naming the one you have. Premiums measure what buyers pay for a feature that exists, not the return on installing it, and installation cost routinely exceeds the premium. Zillow's own guidance to sellers is the same: there is no need to rush into renovations right before listing.
Fix the project signals first
Given a 14% fixer-upper discount, deferred maintenance, dated mechanicals, and visible unfinished work are worth more attention than any upgrade on the list. That work is sequencing, not decorating, and we keep the actual sequence in a separate guide.
Work through the room-by-room checklist
Then stage what you have
Staging is a different job from feature selection. This page is about which attributes buyers pay for. How to present them once you know is its own discipline, and we cover it separately.
See the Southlake seller preparation checklist
And price it right, which outranks all of this
A 5% feature premium does not survive a 10% pricing mistake. Features move a correctly priced home. They do not rescue an incorrectly priced one. Timing matters too: Zillow's companion analysis found homes listed in late May sold for about 1.7% more, roughly $6,000 on a typical home.
Get a current valuation on your home
What Did Not Survive from Last Year's List
Worth saying plainly, because this page previously ran the older list. Steam ovens, pizza ovens, wine fridges, and professional appliance brands were the headline features a year ago. They are not in the current top findings. That is not proof they stopped mattering, but it is a good reason not to spend money chasing them, and a good reminder that a feature list is a snapshot rather than a law. Walk-in pantries, laundry rooms, curbless showers, smart home technology, and HVAC upgrades all remain genuinely desirable to North Texas buyers. They are just no longer the things carrying measurable price premiums in the national data.
The Market Changes, Buyer Psychology Does Not
Styles rotate. Quartz gave way to quartzite in a single year, and something will displace quartzite. What holds is simpler: buyers pay more for a home that feels finished, feels considered, and does not hand them a to-do list on move-in day. Comfort, customization, and cost certainty. Everything above is a variation on those three.
Frequently Asked Questions
What home features help a house sell for more in 2026?
Per Zillow's March 2026 research, the largest premiums attach to docks (5.4%), quartzite countertops (5.3%), outdoor kitchens (4.4%), outdoor showers (4.3%), listings using the word "cottage" (3.2%), custom features (3.2%), waterfront (3.0%), bespoke finishes (3.0%), gourmet kitchens (3.0%), turnkey condition (2.9%), outdoor fireplaces (2.8%), and golf simulators (2.7%).
Do these features make a home sell faster or just for more money?
For more money. The 2026 research measures sale price against what a similar home was expected to sell for, not days on market. Speed and price are related but they are not the same measurement, and a premium figure should not be repeated as a speed claim.
Is quartz or quartzite better for resale?
Quartzite, by a wide margin in the current data. Quartzite carries a 5.3% premium against 3.0% for quartz. They are different materials, quartzite being natural stone and quartz engineered, and they are frequently confused in listing descriptions. If your counters are quartzite, say quartzite.
How much less does a fixer-upper sell for?
About 14% less than comparable homes. That penalty is several times larger than the reward for any individual desirable feature, which is why addressing deferred maintenance and unfinished work generally returns more than adding an upgrade before listing.
Should I renovate before selling my home?
Usually not for the sake of a feature premium. The percentages describe what buyers pay for a feature that already exists, and installation cost commonly exceeds the premium. Correcting condition issues, presenting the home well, and pricing accurately reliably beat a pre-listing renovation. If a specific upgrade is on the table, price it against your actual local comparables before committing.
What is the best month to list a home?
Zillow's 2026 Best Time to List analysis found homes listed in late May sold for about 1.7% more, roughly $6,000 on a typical home. That is a national pattern. Local inventory and your own timeline usually matter more than hitting a specific week.
Do outdoor features matter more in Texas?
The premiums in this research are national, so treat any local read as reasoning rather than data. That said, outdoor living space is usable here for a much longer share of the year than in most of the country, and outdoor kitchens and fireplaces are standard expectations rather than novelties in a number of North Texas communities. The reasonable conclusion is that describing outdoor space carefully is at least as worthwhile here as anywhere.
How do I know which features to highlight in my listing?
Start from what the home genuinely has, then check how those features are searched for and described. Accuracy is the whole game, since a premium attaches to a phrase buyers are actually looking for. This is one of the specific things we work through with sellers before a home goes live, alongside pricing and preparation.
Thinking About Selling?
At BlueFuse Group at eXp Realty we do not put a sign in the yard and hope. Pricing strategy, preparation sequence, professional marketing, and negotiation all get worked before your home goes live, so the features you already have are doing the work they should.
Schedule a no-obligation strategy session
Explore the Signature Sales Strategy to see how we position a home, or the BlueFuse Buyer Blueprint if your next move includes a purchase.
About the Author
Brian White is the founder of BlueFuse Group at eXp Realty and a licensed, full-time Texas agent since 2014. He has closed more than $200M in career sales volume, serves 50+ families each year, and has served 300+ families over his career. He is an eXp ICON agent, was ranked among the Top 20 eXp agents in Texas (2024), and his team was voted Top Real Estate Team in Denton County (2023). He and his wife Tisha built BlueFuse Group to glorify God by giving, serving, and loving their community with excellence. REALationship Focused. Results Driven. Faith-Led.
Brian White, eXp Realty. License #0665878. Designated Broker Karen E. Richards. 5605 N MacArthur Blvd, Floor 10, Irving TX 75038. (817) 646-4244. Equal Housing Opportunity.
