Housing 2.0 creator Sam Rashkin makes the case that chasing design trends is a trap, and that builders should instead design around user experience. He walks through specific design moves, including lot and window orientation, shading, daylighting and thermal mass for cozy comfort, that make homes more desirable without raising cost.
00:00:00:02 - 00:00:31:24
Mike Collignon: We're focused on housing. And on today's webinar we're going to talk about design trends, specifically about not trying to track them because as a wise admiral once said, it's a trap. Instead, let's stop following and start leading by putting user experience at the center of the design process. Companies that dominate user experience outperform the market by three fold, and we're going to unveil a comprehensive framework for designing homes that anticipate and delight, making your projects more desirable.
00:00:31:26 - 00:00:59:24
Mike Collignon: Resilience and future ready. Now I say we, but I really mean Sam Raskin. He's considered the father of such wonderful programs as the Energy Star and Zero Energy Ready Home Program. Sam is also the creator and teacher of the housing 2.0 content, which is based largely on Sam's latest book, housing 2.0 Disruption Survival Guide. The full program was established to help empower you, our building professionals, to design and construct higher performance, healthier, more sustainable homes and a fraction of the cost.
00:00:59:26 - 00:01:24:23
Mike Collignon: Sam is going to lead to the seminar and also address your questions at the end. Now sandwiched in this intro is some information about our main sponsor, Panasonic. Healthy Indoor Living Solutions is helping builders across the country differentiate themselves with powerful, code compliant and cost effective indoor air quality solutions that provide a safer environment for home buyers. Now, during the course of today's presentation, you can submit questions for sale.
00:01:24:26 - 00:01:35:22
Mike Collignon: Simply use the Q&A function located in the menu bar at the bottom of the zoom window. I'll review those questions and post them to Sam after his presentation. Sam, take it away.
00:01:35:24 - 00:02:07:07
Sam Rashkin: Okay. Thank you so much, Mike, and welcome to everyone like Mike. I'm incredibly grateful to our sponsor Panasonic. So we can bring you today the seminar on homebuyer expectations or the uncertainty surrounding that. And I'm a recovering architect so design matters. And you know with all the work we've done with above code certification programs, energy storage already, it always is so important to me to make sure we don't lose track of why people buy homes in the first place.
00:02:07:10 - 00:02:35:04
Sam Rashkin: How they live is critical. So we're going to talk today about how we meet buyers where they are. And if you attach this to what you do with high performance, you'll be an industry leader. So let's start by, telling you this is the last, seminar in the Managing Uncertainty series for 2025. This year, we've been attacking high performance home certification uncertainty and the likely changes in how to adapt.
00:02:35:06 - 00:03:02:18
Sam Rashkin: We looked at housing affordability, including six pillars for how you can tremendously address affordability challenges. We looked at housing, workforce and survival strategies for you, tremendously shrinking. Trade the sets out in the marketplace. And then last week we looked at home buyer sales and had ten science based strategies for translating value. So today we move into home buyer expectations.
00:03:02:20 - 00:03:36:16
Sam Rashkin: And what we will cover is again the usual housing 2.0 background. We'll look at the housing user experience optimization imperative. We'll look at the UX optimization by design solutions. You can deploy and then discussion with any questions you may have. So that's kind of the usual agenda. Let's jump right in with the background for housing 2.0. And I always start with just making sure we realize how important what we do is for any professional involved in housing.
00:03:36:18 - 00:04:10:03
Sam Rashkin: The research data tells us that where we spend time each day is dominated by the time we spend in our homes, nearly 70% compared to work, time at work, other indoor locations, vehicle outdoors in our cars. So this is where we spend our time. Home is where life happens and happens more and more as we see some trends towards, increasing telework, even with some reduction following, the Covid virus, stretch.
00:04:10:03 - 00:04:37:00
Sam Rashkin: We want to work. So why do we do housing 2.0? The reason we exist is homes for life happens better. What we do is we recognize that performance is a must have, but it's only part of a series of requirements for optimizing the user experience in housing. In fact, we also have to optimize community design, quality and sales to deliver a better user experience.
00:04:37:03 - 00:05:06:29
Sam Rashkin: And the focus of this whole set of fundamentals is how to get there at lower cost, how what we do specifically to get it lower cost is a look at the community, user experience. And we have three strategies and 24 best practices. Then we look at design with five strategies and 60 best practices, performance with five strategies and 48 best practices, quality with four strategies and 24 best practices.
00:05:07:02 - 00:05:35:24
Sam Rashkin: And finally sales of three strategies and 20 best practices. And again, a framework is a consistent process to get a desired outcome. In this case, better homes at lower cost. And if all you're focused on is performance, there's a huge lost opportunity to really take it so much further and be how we do. This is basically moving from a first cost business model to a housing two parallel business model.
00:05:35:24 - 00:06:03:25
Sam Rashkin: Focus on user experience. So in the housing 2.0 business model, that's more than user experiences that we know virtually. For sure thing. They're all in fact often transformative. So we make those investments. So we're spending more. They're the experts and special features that get us that experience. But we use these six strategies for price optimization to result in significant cost savings.
00:06:03:27 - 00:06:28:22
Sam Rashkin: With all the strategies, both in terms of the user experience and lower ownership cost. The net is basically tens of thousands of dollars of cost advantage, available with this new business model. And so the resource for doing this is housing two part of our disruption survival guide. It's loaded with content and graphics from our extensive citation.
00:06:28:22 - 00:06:57:07
Sam Rashkin: Some of my favorite expert, friends contributed essays that really help the narrative. But the goal is just to help high performance professionals be the industry leaders. So let's start right with the first, look at the housing user experience optimization imperative. And that begins with the recognition that housing is the ultimate consumer product. There's just no other purchase we make in our lifetime.
00:06:57:07 - 00:07:29:24
Sam Rashkin: That's close to use. Size, cost, emotion, impact, aspirations, financial obligation over time, and a transaction burden. This is one you want to get right. And so this is a this is like so important why user experience really makes a difference in housing. And the other realization we have to also understand is that our home buyers are exponentially more informed than they used to be.
00:07:29:26 - 00:08:01:03
Sam Rashkin: 95% of the consumers are using the internet to search for homes, and now they're going to AI and doing searches and ChatGPT and other queries to really find out more and more insights before they come to buy it from you. Now, the, other issue, like I think you have to recognize because the more informed is consumers, more and more look to reviews for any purchase to make millions of purchase decisions every day are made with five star ratings.
00:08:01:05 - 00:08:24:26
Sam Rashkin: And the research will suggest you need a 3.4 star rating as a as what has kind of the lowest you should be for consideration by a consumer to engage with you as a business. I know personally, even when my wife and I travel, you all consider restaurants and hotels that are less than four stars. So this seems even a little bit low to me.
00:08:24:26 - 00:08:54:08
Sam Rashkin: But this this is a benchmark. And then when I go to, what I think is, for me, one of my most reliable peer reviewed, sites for housing consumer affairs, I, I'll go and put on the spreadsheet all the reviews for all the production builders, that are rated and, the latest time I did this last year, the average score, number of stars for the builders, about 120 different builders was the last than two stars.
00:08:54:10 - 00:09:23:03
Sam Rashkin: So we have a gap problem between consumer expectation and the, and the user experience ratings that they're getting. So this is a real significant challenge for the industry. And my key message to my friends who are sustainability builders and architects and program managers is that I always want to recognize that zero and sustainability are a must have, but they're not enough.
00:09:23:04 - 00:09:52:14
Sam Rashkin: So your energy's great, but you have to deliver a growing number of expectations. Health, open space. Day. Light pressure. Outdoor living. Storage. Smart work at home. Fitness at home. Advanced lighting. Color there. Just growing. Growing number of expectations. So we have to be really diligent in the sustainability space to really recognize the importance of design and not shortcut it, but in fact enhance it.
00:09:52:17 - 00:10:21:27
Sam Rashkin: So let's jump in by looking at how we can optimize user experience by design. So begins first by sharing with you kind of the bottom line, details about the framework and housing. Two part of the community design. We talk about how important it is and why it's so important because place matters. You know, your connection, your environment, your investment and what we do to address that.
00:10:21:27 - 00:10:57:08
Sam Rashkin: Why is we optimize interaction availability for the amount each homeowner wants. We optimize appearance of the community. We optimize persistence of its value and the strategies that we present in housing two point our open spaces quality features, and strategies for ensuring value over time, and that these communities really perform well as an investment strategy. And the key thing that I always address in housing to point out is that a lot of the value that results from doing all that optimization is hidden.
00:10:57:10 - 00:11:24:20
Sam Rashkin: So, for instance, if we follow a lot of the best practices with, optimizing community design, we'll want it with lower cost because we have free heating and cooling. If we do sharing sheds, we don't have to buy as many things. If, and if we do, other measures for connection, we have social connection and open space and farm to table food, which all in wellness.
00:11:24:22 - 00:11:57:21
Sam Rashkin: And then we get on top of that added future value. That enduring value goal with open spaces are tremendously significant. Correlating to increased value, homeowner association, maintenance and good governance programs help ensure neighborhoods are maintained and therefore have higher desirability. South orientation is a much more desirable feature that has value. Tree lined streets, optimized use, optimized town centers, landscaping quality features, and amenities.
00:11:57:24 - 00:12:26:03
Sam Rashkin: All these things are significant. And we'll Gartner. We go through the research and results in the longer workshops on each of these. User experiences like community. So zero is wrong number. And so often that's the number we attribute when we start planning and designing communities. And you know, the the numbers that we show in housing 2.0 show a wide range and tens of thousands of dollars of value that these each represent can.
00:12:26:03 - 00:12:55:21
Sam Rashkin: So for, real conservative estimate, this is about 100 to 200,000 cost dollar cost advantage package just for optimizing community. That's so significant. Same thing with design. And when it comes to design, the home space matters. And not just the home itself. The outdoor property we bought a piece of land. Should that land deliver value, not just a house, shouldn't the property give you the most value it can?
00:12:55:24 - 00:13:23:23
Sam Rashkin: Then the home itself inside and the details. And what we do to help you get an optimized home design is we optimize location, we optimize nature, optimize space, optimize form and optimize function. And the strategies, to do those are fit to site natural comfort, right sizing, simple integrated systems. Many of you may recognize this from the workshops, but the key point is the outcomes are so impressive.
00:13:23:25 - 00:13:49:27
Sam Rashkin: We lower the cost of construction with right sizing, with simple, with mass customization, an integrated system significantly lower the cost, and we lower ownership costs with significant utility bill savings and reduced maintenance. And we had all this, value with increasing wellness, with social connection, outdoor living, using daylight, natural comfort and fresh air and clutter free living.
00:13:49:29 - 00:14:18:19
Sam Rashkin: And then we increase future value with timeless designs and durable materials. So again, thousands of dollars of value are hidden, but add up to a huge number. Again, 100 to $200,000 cost advantage. Conservatively taking portions of each of these are saying they all don't apply. So you know this is what we want to make sure we we do is we we demonstrate that we are delivering and exceeding expectations.
00:14:18:19 - 00:14:52:21
Sam Rashkin: Consumers have. Okay. So what are the six strategies for how do we do that. Well first we go from excessive waste to optimizing. We go from excessive complexity to optimized simple. We go from excessive systems as an afterthought to optimized systems integration. We go from excessive quality assurance expenses to our customer service and warranty. To optimize quality. We go from excessive customization to mass customization in excess of time and process to optimize productivity.
00:14:52:24 - 00:15:25:22
Sam Rashkin: Rigorously integrating all six optimization strategies all across the planning and designing of projects. And that's what I'm going to show you how we do that today with key examples of how this applies. And the outcome is optimize user experience homes that cost less to, live better, live healthier, protect better, and last better. So let's begin, going through, these really important examples where by design, we can leverage all this cost advantage.
00:15:25:25 - 00:15:53:05
Sam Rashkin: Let's start with open space. And, let's just suggest that, you know, these kinds of massive track developments we do, with completely inadequate open space or really sub optimized. We're almost warehousing. People are having creating lives that having special. And let me give you example, where just open space can be transformative. And this will be a very highly urban example.
00:15:53:05 - 00:16:15:24
Sam Rashkin: New York City, this red line shows you something, shows you the elevated tracks that used to run from the Hudson Yards near Penn Station to the Meatpacking District in New York City. And this is, you know, an early part of the 20th century. That's how we would get, a lot of goods across to the lower part of Manhattan.
00:16:15:26 - 00:16:46:05
Sam Rashkin: And of course, over time, those weren't needed. But we had this big elevated track for the freight trains that go back and forth. The subway system per passengers was a separate system. So over time it was it was no longer use, and then it just became a decaying, infrastructure piece just sitting in New York City. So it just sat there and it became more and more decayed and, and just an eyesore for people who lived adjacent to it.
00:16:46:08 - 00:17:27:26
Sam Rashkin: And so it became a liability. All these elevated tracks just were an eyesore. And then it became this, the Highline, a vision to convert this. This was the same. This liability is in fact an incredible open space opportunity above all the traffic and truck, all the track and car traffic below. And with so much less noise. It's an amazing piece of open space we can basically take just by using the assets that's there, so that if you go visit the Highline in New York, it will blow your mind.
00:17:27:27 - 00:17:59:29
Sam Rashkin: And guess how beautiful it is? It just gives you a view. Manhattan that's enhanced by being above grade. It has beautiful designs. In sections. So leave the old tracks as an esthetic feature of it's beautiful, great hard scaping, great landscaping. It's just astounding how special open space it is. And the project costs about $273 million. It avoided tens of millions of dollars of demolition cost.
00:18:00:01 - 00:18:27:15
Sam Rashkin: Okay, so that was just a cost savings. By leveraging the asset, it's generated billions of dollars of economic development activity and just renovations apart some yards alone is like six, $7 billion going there. And it's so far projected to deliver $1 billion in New York City tax revenues over the next 20 years. What an amazing investment to provide open space.
00:18:27:18 - 00:18:48:18
Sam Rashkin: And everyone in New York gets an opportunity to live better. This is the kind of thing we can give the open space. You know, we you know, it's like, oh my God, what do we do? Do we give up space? That could be another house that we can sell and just keep getting as many people buying homes crammed together, what are the real lives of long term value is better for business.
00:18:48:21 - 00:19:19:21
Sam Rashkin: And, all the time. So here's an example where we just have no regard for optimizing user experience. The traditional strip shopping center is bad by design. It's just a lot of wood cars in front. It's unattractive, but the stores have less value compared to the least desirable shopping. And it's because this design, where you have a big parking lot in front of stores, ultimately at no extra cost, we can put the parking in the rear and put the stores up to the front.
00:19:19:23 - 00:19:45:07
Sam Rashkin: If it's a pedestrian friendly street. So now you create this kind of exposure to the parking, the rear. You create this beautiful shopping pedestrian environment. Here's an actual example where it shows in Oregon parking's in the rear pockets. And then you have a streetscape like this instead. So desirable again that restaurants actually can have outdoor seating, which you wouldn't want to have in a strip shopping parking lot.
00:19:45:10 - 00:20:12:08
Sam Rashkin: It's great landscaping. It's kind of hard scaping that increase the value. The rents and the tax revenue for the city by not skimping on all this outdoor design. We give up such a huge amount of revenue over time and value for the owners and reputation for us as developers and builders. Here's another concept by Gensler for how to do strip shopping.
00:20:12:10 - 00:20:43:18
Sam Rashkin: That's good design again, just is the same thing. Create a pedestrian log that's away from the traffic, away from the parking. And just like A5X greater value for all the spaces over time. Okay, parks, you know, again, do we leave open space for parks or not leave open space to give up the land? You know, it's you just need all you need to do is go back to on the very first, developments in the country from the revolutionary or Savannah Savannah, Georgia.
00:20:43:20 - 00:21:08:06
Sam Rashkin: And on the right you see an aerial shot showing all the pop pocket parks and the big parks that were integrated into the community. Great, incredible community planning back in the 1780s, provision to say, let's leave these pockets of parks every F block. I think it was seventh or eighth block. There was a there was a park. And this is what they looked like today.
00:21:08:09 - 00:21:39:02
Sam Rashkin: The you know, the additional value by having the inside to leave open space is just, epic. And even smaller pocket parks that just had less trees are so much add so much value to the neighborhood and all the adjoining properties right next to it and close to it. Having these parks is a massive advantage for Savannah, so much so that they have 45% greater value for the property sold in the historic district.
00:21:39:05 - 00:22:07:04
Sam Rashkin: But the homes in the larger city. So it's just we know these are decisions that if we don't make at the initial planning for the community, will be locked in perpetuity. Suboptimal. So important to get this right. And the other part of, optimizing community by design is the ability to create connection by design. Front porches are a great way to do that.
00:22:07:06 - 00:22:44:11
Sam Rashkin: Putting car parking in the rear. There's this amazing number of things that create community connection, interest in walking in neighborhood streets. And the research will show that the social connectedness created contributes to disease prevention, lower rates of anxiety, stronger immune systems, improve cognitive function. It's just a direct correlation. And the other part about community connection is, another study found a 50% better chance of staying healthy and increase longevity with connection.
00:22:44:16 - 00:23:14:14
Sam Rashkin: And that looked at over 300,000 participants in that study to make these, research findings. So community corrections just huge. And you can just see in this picture again, this is a street you want to walk in. So we want to go from communities are building like on the left in a garage dominated to ones where you can actually create a neighborhood community, connection and ambiance for walking and landscaping.
00:23:14:16 - 00:23:35:02
Sam Rashkin: These investments are just off the charts from the return. They provide. So let me give an example how I personally will know have work with clients. This is one builder I've worked with where here's a project, an incredibly Busy Streets program or, on the one on the right and low one on the bottom, very busy streets and they can cram.
00:23:35:06 - 00:24:01:00
Sam Rashkin: These are these townhouse units basically, or apartment units, or as of ten units each. So you have 40 units, and they'll, they'll sell at market value. 50% of the units will have a view to this one central space, which is no reason that doesn't look like have significant landscaping and 50% of these homes. So 50% of the homes will also have a little bit of connection.
00:24:01:03 - 00:24:29:28
Sam Rashkin: But these outer blocks will be completely bifurcated by the, parking alleys. I mean, you won't have visual connection to that little open space in the middle and also this entire row here and all these units on the bottom, 33% of the units are right, adjourning the busy street with the noise and so forth. So that was the original design and recommended fix that I gave to them was why don't we just create this central space?
00:24:29:28 - 00:24:50:25
Sam Rashkin: The courage total community connection. So go from 50 to 100%, connection 50% to 100% with views. This, you know, beautiful courtyard station and best landscaping it. And now we only have 5% of the units near the busy street. These two in the end. Now we have this buffer in the bottom with these units away from the busy street.
00:24:50:27 - 00:25:21:22
Sam Rashkin: And that's a garage side anyway. And and it's just in every way a better community design. You give up two units, you go from 40 to 2, but you have a, I believe, a substantial increased market value that will generate even more revenue with less units and a greater reputation for the developer. So it's a choice between not having this is the dominant experience on the left, or this is the dominant experience on the right.
00:25:21:24 - 00:25:47:00
Sam Rashkin: And you tell me how much more value would you pay for a project on the right versus the left, where that's the dominant experience? I mean, this is common sense for all of us. And so we just have to start figuring how do we apply common sense to be more successful? Okay. Next, optimization by design topic when I talk about is views user are crazy important.
00:25:47:00 - 00:26:12:06
Sam Rashkin: So I'll give you an example. That's an extreme example. I have a big apartment or a condo unit on a, on the ocean, like here, you know, and again, often the lots, when you allow a narrow profile, I have half the units facing the ocean, the other half facing a busy street, looking at the apartments and the car as the traffic does so half with a great view, but I have half with a bad view.
00:26:12:08 - 00:26:36:08
Sam Rashkin: So is there a solution? If I'm focused on optimizing views by design, I can give better. And so this is the current layout of this unit. We have performance on the back facing the street apartment space in the ocean. So when you flip from this double loaded card of design with 50% on the ocean, 50% on the street is to go with egg two story design.
00:26:36:10 - 00:26:56:24
Sam Rashkin: We have a step design here, the one story apartments here. So every apartment faces the ocean 100% with the ocean view. And the way you do that is you have your first one story apartments facing the ocean off the corner. You go into these two story apartments on their first floor, and on the second floor they go all the way across.
00:26:56:27 - 00:27:39:01
Sam Rashkin: And now you have a full view across, those who are architects, students might see the street. Examples are the La La Rue Corbusier was, design. He did in Paris for an apartment complex. But again, design can really just transform outcomes if you really work at it. And here's another example where the apartments in the ocean, if you have more depth, you might find a U-shape apartment building, but you have a, you know, you have like 38 units with bad views, and then the other units facing the way can grab a view of the ocean, but are usually looking at a building next door, in contrast.
00:27:39:08 - 00:28:04:22
Sam Rashkin: And then you have these units with front with some great views. In contrast, we get everyone with a great view just by design, by figuring out how with angles we get a incredible ability to capture views so much more effectively. So this is just the power of design, and we can take it down to a more to a smaller design example like a townhouse.
00:28:04:24 - 00:28:29:09
Sam Rashkin: And it still works the same way. The solution will be different, but the outcome is transformative in terms of how it moves and the value of the home you're building. So this is a typical townhouse, and a typical townhouse has got very long, narrow, aspect ratio user, usually a small pocket, you know, right in the back. And what that means is you have very limited views from the back to the yard.
00:28:29:09 - 00:28:58:09
Sam Rashkin: So whatever rooms off the back adjoining that yard has access and that's it. And it's because of the long narrow configuration. It's a small part of the floor plan. Then, the second story, neighbors can look into each other yard on either side of them. So you have no privacy in yards. And you're also less linkage in the spaces inside to that space, less actual access to daylight, less access physically to getting to the space.
00:28:58:11 - 00:29:43:17
Sam Rashkin: And so this is just what we typically do and say it's okay, but design can be transformed. So instead of this as your only outdoor space which almost has no value, it's just because it's no privacy and very little access. And it it's just it's often, not a valued space by the homeowners. And this is a picture I took of a number of townhouse projects that surround me where I live now, a partial solution could be just to do some expert landscape design so that what you do have is a better view for the small access point you have, but you're still left with minimal leakage, minimal linkage, because you have very few spaces
00:29:43:17 - 00:30:09:15
Sam Rashkin: adjoining it and the access is harder, the daylight still limited, the privacy is still not good. So what I recommend is rethinking the whole design concept. This is an L-shaped townhouse and the yards we just get rid of and repurpose that land so we can hopefully gain the same number of units we lost. We've gone from 6 to 4 with the L-shaped, and so that's a fair amount of land to grab two more units.
00:30:09:15 - 00:30:33:16
Sam Rashkin: By design. But the courtyard concept works completely different now. Everything's optimize the outdoor linkage, the access daylight and the privacy. So let me show you why. First we have a quiet side so your neighbors can't look into your courtyard. So you have fully private outdoor space and it's all useful space for the whole lot. You paid for. Now you're getting value.
00:30:33:18 - 00:31:01:29
Sam Rashkin: Then all the key rooms have access to that outdoor view and visual visibility and sliding doors and French doors. You have access to your outdoor space, and you have so much more daylight coming in and you have full privacy. So you completely resolve all the design flaws with the traditional way we just assumed built panels. Now the secret sauce is to put in a center entry, so you get a full room in the front so you don't come in the front.
00:31:01:29 - 00:31:23:24
Sam Rashkin: You have to walk through spaces to get to the back, and that gives you an opportunity for a full front porch community connection. So all these things kind of work together. So this was a concept, which is actually one of my, senior year, design products in an architectural school. And then I did a lot of research and found an actual project executing this.
00:31:23:26 - 00:31:51:08
Sam Rashkin: This is the waters, Pike Road, Alabama. Architectural team came up with a really nice design, just almost exactly as I'm showing you. And so this is the project where, again, you walk into the courtyard, you have the side entry, the full front porch, pool, front room, all the things we talked about. Now, my big disappointment there was when I went to Zillow and grabbed some screenshots of a property for sale to get a sense of the courtyard.
00:31:51:11 - 00:32:27:19
Sam Rashkin: It's pretty disappointing to invest a lot, in the architectural design to incorporate good landscaping expertise and a courteous look. Pretty basic. And let me show you by design what an expert landscaper can be. Transformed. Transformative career on the left for a courtyard on the right. And just as you know, there's no, substitute for expert landscape design, art scaping and landscaping and trees and shrubs and just all the outdoor living concepts, you know, it's just so worth investing.
00:32:27:21 - 00:32:52:23
Sam Rashkin: I just think, what how what's the value of this unit versus that? You know? Okay, now moving on to outdoor living. And we're going to be building this concept about investing in landscaping and trees and hard scaping with our good friend, Charlie Munger, who is Warren Buffett's partner. Both retired right now, but, Charlie Munger said it best.
00:32:52:25 - 00:33:24:19
Sam Rashkin: You said if you spend money on trees, you get it back tripled. And this is the part I love about what he says. Stenting on landscaping and scaping is building malpractice, and then the loss of value and the exponential benefits over time that the greater appreciation and value contributes to is such a huge, loss not to include so that I love, very incredible investment.
00:33:24:21 - 00:33:49:12
Sam Rashkin: Billionaire recognizes this. It just helps validate some of my my preachings to the industry. And I like to have some validation. So just some of the data to back up why this all makes a difference. These are just some numbers from one study about the added value for various tree features bordering some preserves, 20 to 35%.
00:33:49:14 - 00:34:17:21
Sam Rashkin: Just, if you have tree covering a lot, almost 20% if you're chasing to a greenbelt or open space again, think back to, savanna. That's over 30%. And just if you if you plant trees in the neighborhoods, you have good tree cover to automatically increase in the neighborhood's value, 6 to 9%. I think even more personally and mature trees in high income neighborhoods contribute 10 to 15% greater value.
00:34:17:24 - 00:34:46:10
Sam Rashkin: Just a huge difference. And it's such a small investment of prime. And then there's a wellness benefits. Louisville, Kentucky did a project where they really did a serious amount of, effort to plant trees in lower income neighborhoods, and they found 13 to 20% lower levels of general inflammation, blood marker in underserved neighborhoods for trees, compared to those with no greenery.
00:34:46:12 - 00:35:14:16
Sam Rashkin: So it was it? No. But, you know, we can do these studies to prove the obvious. We all know just intrinsically that green space and trees and, and landscaping just Marisha say they just nurture our wellness. So here's some data to help back up what we can help. And most importantly, it's preferred. You know, people want outdoor living.
00:35:14:16 - 00:35:46:22
Sam Rashkin: They want outdoor areas. Okay. This is one study that was done a couple of years ago. Almost 90% of homeowners surveyed, want more outdoor living. So and you know what? I want to shock here is a trend that people want outdoor living. You know, with housing 2.0 and retooling the U.S. housing industry for, you know, for the past 15 years, I've been pleading with the industry to integrate more outdoor living just because we know we don't have to ask the survey questions.
00:35:46:25 - 00:36:08:26
Sam Rashkin: It's so funny that we need this to prove the obvious. So but with that understanding that really affects how do we optimize by design. So if we do not one narrow lots, we have a very small again access to the that small daylight coming in limited views. That just is what happens. So more and more we can build square lots.
00:36:08:28 - 00:36:49:18
Sam Rashkin: We get double the views more daylight and but also happens is a square shape brush is a rectangular shape has about, you know, 15% less walls. And so, you know, that's about $2,000 lower cost to build. That's a cost savings to build. Geometrically square versus long rectangular designs. So it's about $2,000 in cost, plus more views, plus more daylight, and then about 10% lower energy savings because we have less walls that are getting heat gain and contributing to heat loss.
00:36:49:20 - 00:37:13:10
Sam Rashkin: So in every way it's better. If we from a community planning perspective, start with this experience that we want to provide, we realize we can get the same number of blocks by shrinking the back pocket so it's narrower, but more work and we'll talk more later by example, how even narrow your roads can be beautiful. But so this is just, huge opportunity.
00:37:13:10 - 00:37:47:07
Sam Rashkin: Just from starting with the community, planning to make sure we get right the geometry. So let me show you an example how this concept worked against an actual project. Just because I wasn't the actual projects, just help validate some of the, recommendations, just conceptually. So this is another client I had, this is a duplex concept they were building where they had a garage in front, and then the duplex, first floor and second floor built around the garage.
00:37:47:09 - 00:38:11:13
Sam Rashkin: So you have right blade. It's completely wasted property and paying for the share. And the only value is the living space. Living space? The duplex itself. I believe this year I will have hardly any junk. I'll show you why. So then. So the concept for me is recognizing with clients that look for a minimal view, access to your right functionality, outdoor linkage, daylight connection, privacy.
00:38:11:17 - 00:38:36:07
Sam Rashkin: And there's almost no place to park this space between this garage and this garage. Isn't it enough to park a car so people come visit? You're going to have to have long walks from some remote parking, spaces that can be, provided up in plan. So can we do better by design and get value from the entire lot and better experience.
00:38:36:09 - 00:38:58:03
Sam Rashkin: So this was the recommendation to to the developer, builder wise. Put the garage in back and use half of the backyard for an alley for this unit, and half of the backyard of the other for the alleyway to the adjoining on the back. So I have the garage in the back. I can now get the portion of front again.
00:38:58:03 - 00:39:25:02
Sam Rashkin: Thank optimized connection. And I want to put a slider that adjoins all all the major rooms for view, axis, daylight and everything else. So you want to do and here's how it works in plan. So here's an existing plan with a side yard that's completely just there to provide a buffer space and probably become esthetically challenged that snap maintain while in the background we have not very much value.
00:39:25:09 - 00:39:52:09
Sam Rashkin: So and then optimizing the rear your other side yard, those are almost no value. The property itself, it's just a unit. I have minimal views. I have no minimal outdoor and indoor outdoor linkage. No community connection or garage is in front. The entry is a long slog to get to the main spaces on the back of the floor plan, but a lot of wasted space, trash and cars are going to be in the front to really affect the esthetics of the street.
00:39:52:11 - 00:40:13:24
Sam Rashkin: A pretty complex floor plan footprint with about eight corners, no drop zone when I come in, and about a 20ft walk to the closet where I come in every day, and if I have a wet, shoes and bellows, whatever gets a long way to go before I can drop. And then, so, and the kitchen floor, this is way too tight.
00:40:13:27 - 00:40:34:00
Sam Rashkin: Counter to the seating. This, this and the chairs are pulled out. This is going to be really tight. So this is the space we had. And what I do to improve designs is first create block spaces and then I create a new strategy. So here's where we go. We have the alley in the back to this garage.
00:40:34:06 - 00:40:56:06
Sam Rashkin: All trash cans in the back. We have a front porch, great room, kitchen dining entry all off a courtyard and the back side of the plan. We have the stairs, half bath, mechanical room that was on the second floor I brought downstairs so I had a contractor can come in the garage, fix what's wrong and leave and not in the current plan that to come in the house.
00:40:56:06 - 00:41:31:17
Sam Rashkin: Go upstairs to the second floor mechanical closet and I added a drop zone and all these spaces in the same or less square footage of the same size and all the flow and everything should work better. But notice when you put in here a long, narrow, beautiful side yard that's desirable. And I would hire expert, expert landscape architects to really lay this out, either as a concept for the buyers, showing what to do for the home, or some builders, if they're really innovative, might think about offering landscaping, but you see, this is a completely different experience living here.
00:41:31:19 - 00:41:56:09
Sam Rashkin: Again, this is the actual project. All cars and trash cans, right? That's your living. That's your experience everyday versus this comparable project built with the design I just showed you, completely transformed it by design. And then here's the back of that project that we showed you here, the back, the trash cans, the garage there. And he developer was smart enough portrays that over time.
00:41:56:09 - 00:42:20:26
Sam Rashkin: Really even making the back alley, esthetically pleasing. This is just by design, not by any extra cost that we get these outcomes. And again, here's a side yard that's a complete waste. Properly maintained. It's just a buffer between the next house next door. Here's the back yards again. There have so little access and or so little privacy that they don't really get much use.
00:42:20:29 - 00:42:50:21
Sam Rashkin: So they're it's all wasted space. All your property except the house versus these kinds of opportunities. Even though it's long and narrow. Look how beautiful the outdoor living can be if designed with expert landscaping and hardscape. So again, if you kind of make certain investments upfront to realize all the benefits, both for you financially and for your buyers and for your reputation.
00:42:50:23 - 00:42:54:27
Sam Rashkin: Okay, let's jump to natural comfort by right.
00:42:54:29 - 00:43:18:14
Sam Rashkin: These are pretty good experiences to have in a house. There are free views, rigid and cooling, superior cozy comfort, natural light, natural cooling, natural fresh air, fresh air, and resilience. How much will you spend for that? Would you spend zero? I would, but I think it's tens of thousands of dollars of value. So how do I get that?
00:43:18:14 - 00:43:44:28
Sam Rashkin: By design? Well, we do it by optimizing a segment and we think about things from the very beginning. We lay out the community. We don't wait till we get a lot and try to solve it from the community planning. We optimize orientation opportunities for solar shading. Once we have orientation leveraged, we integrate thermal mass. Chorus, prevailing breeze capture and orientation.
00:43:45:01 - 00:44:06:08
Sam Rashkin: And it's a really missed opportunity to give up these free natural resources. Every site has access to the sun rink. You can either throw them away or use them. So here's your choice. Know if you ignore them, you have a house on the right, the blinds down all the time. If you address them, you have beautiful glare of glare.
00:44:06:08 - 00:44:33:24
Sam Rashkin: If you look three views with daylight and 98% of homeowners, homebuilders, designers and architects scored natural light the top home feature in 2022 and then you probably should consider this for 15 years. So again, encouraging to see the surveys finally show. Of course we they like it's it's like no surprise it edging out other usable outdoor area by 92%.
00:44:33:26 - 00:45:03:09
Sam Rashkin: So we still now over 90% want the outdoor space. But give us a single goal. One natural like so we go from this to this. By design. It's what you do and how you integrate those key features. I just showed you and the wellness that results is you get boosts and vitamin D, you ward off seasonal depression, you have better sleep and you enhance productivity all by research and advanced studies.
00:45:03:11 - 00:45:31:12
Sam Rashkin: Looking at different homes with or without daylight. And then it's said I should have a discount on the heating and cooling or 25% discount because you by design captioned natural resources. One California study looking at both coastal minimum enrollment locations, ran the analytics and collected models and found 25% free natural heating and cooling for us. With south orientation.
00:45:31:14 - 00:45:43:13
Sam Rashkin: You throw in solar shading, you throw in some thermal mass and you get 3,033% or more free heating and cooling.
00:45:43:15 - 00:46:15:13
Sam Rashkin: And then cozy by design. I know from a mass, sometimes, let's say may be more expensive than just a veneer floor, but you get 40% greater impact or perceived comfort with enhanced mean radiant. We mean radiant surface temperatures made possible from a mass than what you're seeing being air temperature spaces. When you're you always feel that you probably aren't like me, a nerd when you're walking spaces looking at the design features.
00:46:15:13 - 00:46:49:24
Sam Rashkin: But every time I'm in a high thermal mask is always seeing the correlation to far superior cozy comfort. It's natural. So again, really important. One of the point with solar design you can overheat in the winter, even just with the natural sunlight coming through. So it's really important if thermal mass is a battery to store the heat that's coming through so it doesn't overheat and then release it later at nighttime when there is no solar, he can come through.
00:46:49:27 - 00:47:15:28
Sam Rashkin: So we can completely ignore the sun and wind as we do over and over again. Project after project in really hot climates with a lot of solar resources in cold climates as well. And then an outcome. This is Barstow, California. That's almost like a desert six months, a year over 90 degrees and essentially all you need to know that this building is failing is to look at the windows and scaling.
00:47:15:28 - 00:47:42:26
Sam Rashkin: By design, every window blinds is closed during the day. If I if I'm clear on this, the reason we have a window in the first place is for three reasons. It is for daylight, fresh air and a view. And now we get none of those purposes from a window if we don't design for orientation and shading and so forth.
00:47:42:29 - 00:48:13:19
Sam Rashkin: And it's so simple to Duke. And here's another example. Orlando I get I could drive through streets of Orlando and I see this all the time. The blinds are drawn all completely all day long. And all the homes. So it's very simple and just east west streets. If your home's going to be windows on the north south, if you're going to do a design like I showed you earlier, where the side yard is, your main, main open space, then you do want north south streets.
00:48:13:26 - 00:48:41:06
Sam Rashkin: So you have to go in by design, integrate your planning to get the best orientation. And then if your front yard faces south, then a good way to get the sunlight back might be a sawtooth design that gets all the free solar heating in the winter, or all the way through the space and and all the sun shading with an overhang in the summer that you want to block unwanted heat.
00:48:41:08 - 00:49:03:23
Sam Rashkin: And again, very simple to do as you see example on the right. And then if you have a south facing backyard, your design may have a higher profile there. So you have more daylight going deeper into the space. And then you can use trellises to create the training that you need, along with a roof overhang. So we have all the design concepts, two story designs.
00:49:03:23 - 00:49:25:00
Sam Rashkin: We can just come up with solutions for that as well, but work with the same tools to provide free heating and cooling and more daylight and more comfort. So here's a friend of mine, Paul Trussell, senior works with the National Noble Energy Lab. Let me use his pictures in my book. But his house, all the livings on the second floor, on the left is winter.
00:49:25:00 - 00:49:48:06
Sam Rashkin: All the light, all the heating, all the comfort coming through. When you shift to the summer, all the unwanted solar heat can completely block. Plus, while surface temperature might be 2030 degrees cooler than if the sun was hitting it, so you have less, higher mean radiant temperatures coming through the wall because of that shading. So better comfort.
00:49:48:08 - 00:50:13:15
Sam Rashkin: So just just better by design. So again, I'm getting this this summer. I'm using a lot of personal projects just to show you that this works in real life. This is another client. This was the subdivision layout they had. You see, South is facing down, and, 100% of the units were facing east west, 0% of units up and optimize for natural cover.
00:50:13:18 - 00:50:52:20
Sam Rashkin: So had 29 units and a little playground. The corner 85% of glazing oriented east west. Just a huge opportunity to do better. So the alternative I provided was, this layout on the right. Now I get actually more units from 29 to 33 and almost three fourths of the units are optimized for natural comfort. And I even will sometimes do things like change out a playground because it's a running a really busy street noise and so forth for pickleball courts, just because I think would add more value to the developer to offer their buyers.
00:50:52:23 - 00:51:19:06
Sam Rashkin: So, but again, just as just try to at the beginning before in perpetuity, you're locked out of and lifetime, far superior living experiences get it right in the planning process. So again, sticking some projects I worked on, this is again, a because that, duplex unit, 85% of windows north, north and south. And this is the layout for the homes.
00:51:19:13 - 00:51:46:29
Sam Rashkin: So what you see is that, the 180 yard lots here, only 37% were facing north south, and there was no open spaces in this subdivision plan. So I just again recommended how it could be revised with, more. Now 72% of units facing yourself, double the units north south with 85% of glazing. You get on the back of the home.
00:51:47:01 - 00:52:11:11
Sam Rashkin: Plus I put a little dog park here and a recreational park here, and I'll give up two units for that because I can sell the value and I think a much higher revenue for the builder, better reputation, all the homes living better now, we just we could just start being, thoughtful about in the planning stage how we can now design better homes for each other.
00:52:11:13 - 00:52:33:02
Sam Rashkin: So it's just really important by design to get this right. And then for sure, it can be really important. I lived in Sacramento working for the California Energy Commission for almost 14 years, and it was bankable every night. Clockwork, you had this cool Delta breezes coming in from the grizzly Bay, from, San Francisco through into the Valley.
00:52:33:09 - 00:52:55:04
Sam Rashkin: And you had 55 degree air conditioning just for the taking. Just open the windows and let it flow through the house. Amazing what an asset that is. You know, up and down California and a lot of markets and tropical climate. Sweet breezes can provide tremendous cooling. So you know you have these strategies minimal good better best. The best is cross ventilation.
00:52:55:07 - 00:53:19:18
Sam Rashkin: You know, two openings on opposite walls. Better is two openings in the adjacent walls. Good. Two openings separated if all you have is one wall exposed and the least pressure you get is just one opening. So you know how to do this. And by far, this is best you go to Charleston, South Carolina, and it's a revolutionary era.
00:53:19:20 - 00:53:46:14
Sam Rashkin: City. So much of the Stark Area preserve and you see this incredible design just to capture breezes. It's oriented to the freezing breezes coming off the ocean. Now, you want a long, narrow shape, because when these homes were built, there was no mechanical cooling. So you wanted as much cross ventilation as you could possibly get. So a long, narrow home all across, ventilation and tall windows.
00:53:46:17 - 00:54:16:17
Sam Rashkin: And it was incredibly effective. Natural cooling, of course, today, now everything is mechanical cooling. But there are long swinging seasons in Charleston, where the free cooling wood could supplant the mechanical cooling by good design. At this. Now, if we don't have personalization possible, then next step is the apertures on adjacent walls. So by design you can really optimize a strategy.
00:54:16:19 - 00:54:40:02
Sam Rashkin: You can use wing walls or use casement windows that open in the right direction. And you get traumatically different outcomes in terms of fresh air. Best. I'm not going to go through the details of this because we're taking much time, but look at the amount of air you capture with the best good design layouts and poor placement of the wing walls or casement window opening directions.
00:54:40:04 - 00:55:10:05
Sam Rashkin: So and it doesn't cost you any more to have a case for window face left or right. And now your strategy, at no extra cost, has all this capture potential for fresh air. And if you only have windows on one wall available to you, again, your best thing is to separate them. And again, where you look at the casement window or wing wall has very substantial different from best to good to poor.
00:55:10:08 - 00:55:36:26
Sam Rashkin: And again it costs no more let's say casement windows. Is your strategy here having a casement windows left or right is completely a no cost factor for you. For better user experience. And when you see great designs in the right design for a climate, again, tropical climate capture a lot of natural free cooling. It looks beautiful because it's naturally embracing the resources available.
00:55:36:28 - 00:56:03:24
Sam Rashkin: By design, also by design, you can just specify roofing materials that work better for your climate. If you have a hot climate, you can reduce attic temperatures 40 degrees just by using a cool roof material that could be asphalt shingles, or it can be other, last coating paint finishes or flat roofs. It could be any number of, design choices you make.
00:56:03:26 - 00:56:33:26
Sam Rashkin: And that's a 40 degree savings with huge benefits, both in terms of comfort and energy cost. So you can look at Melbourne on the left. That's not optimized in a super hot climate from, late spring to early fall. It's just brutal heat versus Bermuda with a similar hot climate using white roofs. And but the beauty of Bermuda, to me, maybe just because I'm a nerd and I'm a geek is when I see this roofs, it just enhances beauty.
00:56:33:26 - 00:56:59:07
Sam Rashkin: I know it's working with nature, but you don't have to go like to white. You can use, any conventional, material can often come with a, with a reflective coating to improve the, cool roof performance. Okay. Now, optimization by design with better spaces. Key. A key strategy with better spaces. Get rid of waste.
00:56:59:14 - 00:57:28:09
Sam Rashkin: Why pay for any square foot? It doesn't add value. And at today's retail cost per square foot, getting to five six, eight, $900,000, $1,500 a square foot, you don't want to pay for extra square feet. And so a good definition from start to them, that you not, quality expert in the industry use waste as any resource that doesn't have value in the eyes of the customer.
00:57:28:11 - 00:57:53:08
Sam Rashkin: I kind of like to build on scratch good words here with or could add value at no additional or lower cost. I think it's a real waste. If you didn't make a design decision that doesn't cost any more, or that costs less and adds value, and getting rid of wasted space costs a lot less. So here's a design.
00:57:53:11 - 00:58:23:06
Sam Rashkin: I put together a project when I was in Sacramento. But the key thing I want to do without going into too much detail is to say, you know, you can see when it's simple, has six corners, but more importantly, in 1400 square feet, by getting rid of every wasted square foot I could possibly do and leveraging things like buildings and storage, I get an amazing user experience and a very small amount of square feet, and I will submit the 1400 square foot floor plan looks like 1800.
00:58:23:08 - 00:58:58:10
Sam Rashkin: It has a really large amount of kitchen counters and island. It has an ample eating space and a bowl. A great room space has a really substantial master suite with walk in closets, compartmentalize bathroom and two sinks and and nice private view to the back. But the whole bath is cramped, compartmentalized, as well as full laundry bedrooms by virtue of built ins, even though they're small, live incredibly big, and either a desk work at home space or a drop zone with bench, you would go in the front and a private entry.
00:58:58:15 - 00:59:22:00
Sam Rashkin: This is an incredibly generous floor plan for 1400 square feet, and if I'm saving 400ft² of construction because it moves like 1800 square feet, that's about $40,000 of savings at a 100 square foot hard cost for a builder. Let's say that would be even amplified at the retail level. And I have a full front porch for community connection.
00:59:22:02 - 00:59:46:22
Sam Rashkin: So it's really important to realize that you've got to be like a, almost militant about looking at where waste is and extracting as much as you can. So here's a builder we work with. We love Tim O'Brien. Eight homes is the biggest production builder in Wisconsin. And now he came in with this project that we worked on to optimize him.
00:59:46:25 - 01:00:14:05
Sam Rashkin: You know, within the constraints of this way, we work together. We just kind of try to get the floor plan really tightened up. So it really bother us that the valuable real estate in this corner for View in Daylight was used for bathroom, no windows. So Lincoln Shelter, if you wanted to get more rooms off the outdoors, including the kitchen which was blocked by the dining room group, and then the stair to the lower level was like a dark, long, narrow stair.
01:00:14:07 - 01:00:44:19
Sam Rashkin: It was that you killed the value of the lower level. So we moved that over here. So it flowed off the upper level and was like a continual experience to the downstairs and tremendous. And by doing that, we moved the laundry from, where it was any, over. It was in the corner over here as far from the bedrooms as it could be, to right next to the master bedroom, accessed through the closet or accessed through the hallway from these other bedrooms.
01:00:44:21 - 01:01:12:14
Sam Rashkin: We the head master bedroom was, No, the right. When you need to go use a half bath. It's a gas. You walk right next to the master bath. So I thought that was a real significant privacy concern. So we got a half bath. Much better located over here. We had, the bathrooms in the master only had one sink, which which is now and no compartmentalization.
01:01:12:16 - 01:01:36:11
Sam Rashkin: And the whole bath had no compartmentalization. So we compartmentalized the whole bath. We got two sinks in. The master compartmentalized it with a room for the commode. We added a drop zone when it came in with benches and, and a walk in closet. We had a much simpler kitchen in this, L-shaped kitchen over here was just straight counters, much savings.
01:01:36:11 - 01:02:00:00
Sam Rashkin: So talk about in a moment and an extended kitchen area and pantry, all in less square footage and a water heater was just down, over here somewhere and in the basement. We moved it right here. Central to all these bathrooms actually had about $1,000 of plumbing. And then we have just a much simpler footprint from 12 corners to eight corners and a much better entry.
01:02:00:00 - 01:02:28:18
Sam Rashkin: So walking down this narrow, long space, recessed. The garage actually came in much less narrow, tunnel kind of effect coming in the front door. Similarly, in the lower level, we did about a dozen or 15 different, improvements. But the key thing is we look at when we do these kinds of design optimization improvements, we send the builder back with a spreadsheet, and they do the calculations to figure out how much value you added, how much cost, you said.
01:02:28:20 - 01:02:57:21
Sam Rashkin: And so this is like a kind of an empirical check that we promised tens of thousands of dollars. Cost advantage, just optimizing design. This project realized 72,000 of added value and $46,000 cost savings for net almost $120,000 cost advantage by the builders own spreadsheet calculations using the tool we gave up. So these are yeah, this is by design, huge cost saving opportunity.
01:02:57:23 - 01:03:14:12
Sam Rashkin: And I'll give you another example. Again working with clients. This was a project where, it was two apartments. You could have a garage on the right, one unit, they come in, walk up some stairs and go upstairs to this level. And then you got these stairs and you go to this level for the front and the back unit.
01:03:14:12 - 01:03:32:09
Sam Rashkin: You come in this garage, you go all the way down here up these stairs to this level here. And then you have the upper level here to this stair, and you have this pattern of the kitchen. And then you come up the stairs from here to the upper level with a single bathroom and the laundry. So that's the way it laid out.
01:03:32:09 - 01:03:52:23
Sam Rashkin: So this presents from plan problems for number one was up here. Plan one was you had 100ft from the garage to the bedroom to come home and change your clothes. You come out of the car, go up these stairs and you go these stairs to this stair. And then you get these stairs and finally get to the bedroom.
01:03:52:24 - 01:04:18:06
Sam Rashkin: There was like 120ft. It was a long and warm kind of inconvenient user experience just to get home and get out of your clothes. There's no drop. So when you came in, the kitchen circulation was really bad with this kitchen refrigerator really way too close to the counter. No room for, dining table upstairs in this plan one.
01:04:18:08 - 01:04:41:16
Sam Rashkin: And just, you know, this is I even this is a counter plan, but there's no such thing as what was drawn. And, you know, it's right. Conflicting with the powder room. No privacy for the powder room. And there's no storage on this floor. Putting to main level in plan two, where you come up here, you have, a lot of wasted space here that had nothing to do with because it's all flow.
01:04:41:18 - 01:05:05:17
Sam Rashkin: The kitchen island's too close to this refrigerator. Bathroom number, bedroom number two. There's an awkward location right next to the stair, and there's no dresser space. And bedroom number two. So how do we change my design and fix all these problems? So instead of coming in like this all the way down the stair, we move the stair all the way up here, wait from here to about here.
01:05:05:19 - 01:05:27:21
Sam Rashkin: So now you come in and it's a much less space and there's bump outs. We converted to drop change. So when you came in, you had a place to put your keys, umbrellas, your hats, maybe a bench to sit down. All those kinds of things. Then when you come up, plan number one, you come up here instead of like this.
01:05:27:21 - 01:05:52:23
Sam Rashkin: Now you come up and the secret sauce is moving the stair from this direction to coming up right from here. So you come up the stairs, you can go up the stair right away. That left this private entry to a half bath over here. And storage under the stairs. That was accessible. Now for a closet over here. And because there's no door here for powder room, we can move a table here and have floor.
01:05:52:26 - 01:06:19:26
Sam Rashkin: And you don't have to walk in front of the TV to get to the stairs. You come right here in the stairs. This space is completely contained unto itself. The great room space, material, all by design, tremendously improve this unit. Number one, plan two. Now you come up. What we did was instead of coming up in a wasted space, we use a space to create privacy for the powder room, a much larger kitchen, and all the space here.
01:06:19:26 - 01:06:44:28
Sam Rashkin: There was a two story wasted space for the stair rate we grab. So this great room got like 15% bigger. It's just incredible just using the same space. How much more value by design could be added. And then upstairs the big thing was we, Now you come up this side, we flip the floor plan. So you come up and the bedrooms on this side.
01:06:45:00 - 01:07:11:17
Sam Rashkin: The big thing we did on the upstairs, on the upstairs is you move the furniture layout. You can now get a dresser in this room. Move the drawer down so it's not next to the steps. Just simple, basic things. Just. There should be no waste. Another way here is attic volume. It's not being used. And so our normal construction, we have an attic and it's wasted volume and and western and southwest and south central.
01:07:11:23 - 01:07:37:06
Sam Rashkin: Your whole stack the Hvac and ductwork up there, which is abysmal for performance. And comfort and for efficiency. And a key thing when we have a vented attic, we have no topside barrier. So the top surface of the ceiling. So the ceiling next to it tends to get hard. So this is just a bad design all around. To go to a vented attic, let's say reception with spray foam.
01:07:37:09 - 01:08:03:10
Sam Rashkin: It's faster, it's quicker to build. It's more more conditioned space, more efficient, more comfort. It's much, much stronger for, in terms of sheer strength and much more resilient to impact and fire, because now I don't have vent, screens for embers to get in from, soffit bench, gable vents from regiments, and the cost savings. I don't need to build those ridge vents for soffit dancer gable bench.
01:08:03:12 - 01:08:25:26
Sam Rashkin: I don't need to build. I don't need to, for the attic to install air barriers and your ceiling, and it's just much faster. So I said cycle time. So this is a huge benefit. And what happens is I go from this kind of spatial audio reduction, wasted space to this. Let's say if I did sets that could be used for space like this.
01:08:25:28 - 01:08:59:25
Sam Rashkin: So how much value is that correct? By leveraging and by design, using all the volume that we're building now, just giving it away as a wasted volume or just venting, that's insane to me. So I'm big advocate for non vented attics. And you know, even it can be part of a bigger strategy for real big cost savings. If I'm building in a cold climate and have a basement, I can offset the basement with a shallow frost protective footing and switch an attic that has, again, let's say sips or spray foam.
01:08:59:28 - 01:09:20:26
Sam Rashkin: But the underside, if I'm using SIPs, I'm going to use Cape Cod configuration because I can use a single ridge beam and get that nice architectural look and all that extra volume. So I have savings on the foundation with a frost protected footing. I don't have to build a basement with egress windows. And all the costs associated with that.
01:09:20:29 - 01:09:45:07
Sam Rashkin: I have no attic air barriers and ceilings and and baffles that you have no venting again. Gable, soffit, Ridge. All the wall framing that we build on each end now is useful for creating condition spaces like free wall framing that we're leveraging. And we have less waste, less time, and the added value of a second floor versus a lower level.
01:09:45:10 - 01:10:13:21
Sam Rashkin: It might be worth another retail $100 a square foot, so may be getting 20 $30,000 of market value. And all the resilience. Well, fire protection, tornado, hurricane protection, this is a lot of cost advantage that we're giving up if we don't think through design optimization on front end. Theater spaces also by minimizing clutter. Clutter creates a lot of psychological effects.
01:10:13:21 - 01:10:46:18
Sam Rashkin: You know, it's stress and increased cortisol levels that can become chronic and ability to focus that kills productivity. So clutter is just a huge, experience killer in homes. And we have this reality that, you know, built ins are a way to mitigate, cut clutter and aligned with so many factors that are changing their value. When we have a sharing economy where buyers don't want to own stuff.
01:10:46:25 - 01:11:11:18
Sam Rashkin: So buildings mitigates the need for them to buy lots and lots of furniture, and the insanity of moving the costs often to move a lot of furniture exceeds the value of the furniture itself, and it can be transformative in terms of the perception of space. Spaces look 20 or 30% bigger when you have buildings that optimize, much like a a boat does.
01:11:11:18 - 01:11:42:08
Sam Rashkin: A small boat creates a lot of perception of space for buildings so small, you know, cabin space is just seems so much bigger and lower cost if we're building less square footage because the space looks bigger again, just like with right sizing, we save all those hard costs for building square footage we don't need. And with lots of options for built ins, window seats, entertainment center shelving, desks, dressers, closets, storage hutches, trap zones, mudroom storage for our storage.
01:11:42:11 - 01:12:03:10
Sam Rashkin: So all that and the concept of buildings just by example. On the left you have a hutch. Let's say that creates that space. On the left, that space on the right. Often, use space above and because it's against the wall, you have this very gap that's kind of awkward sometimes blocking the outlets. And I say collects dust.
01:12:03:12 - 01:12:32:02
Sam Rashkin: It's just so sub optimized in contrast. So I have a built in hutch on the right and a floor to ceiling space being used. Have like 4X3X more storage and I have places for shelving for storage or displays. Now it's like again three, 4 or 5 x more value in that same square footage with the built in plus the perception it's bigger because of all the reduced clutter, and I can do two size rooms to offset the cost to build things this room.
01:12:32:02 - 01:12:56:13
Sam Rashkin: Also notice you say built in one to see for more storage and more value. So by example again how we enhance livability. You have a bedroom on the left. We know built ins and the built ins on the right by design can double the value of that room in less space. And here's a whole office space without a built in and with built ins by design.
01:12:56:13 - 01:13:26:20
Sam Rashkin: Again, I can double the value of that space. And so it's incredible how that shows up on the bottom line for the builder. Here's an example. The space below stairs often wasted space. The best possible use usually save for most times, is just it's a storage space below the stairs. And what we can do is convert that space by design Republicans into work at home space and add 510% more value to the home.
01:13:26:22 - 01:13:53:13
Sam Rashkin: Because now this will never work at home center just by transforming the wasted space or low value space into high value space. If you don't know and there are other options, you can use it. You can transform a low value closet to a really much more, high design, storage and display. So we've got to look at our opportunities to get the most from every square, every square footage.
01:13:53:15 - 01:14:20:27
Sam Rashkin: Okay. Next option. Simple. Simple. Some you must have. Who knew? Over 80% of the nearly 1700 Americans, between the ages of 21, 75, wanted homes that were more simply designed. So this is another Harris Poll outcome that aligns with other studies I've seen. So the simple is really powerful. So I can have a recessed porch in one design in 12ft across 16ft and down 12ft.
01:14:21:00 - 01:14:53:20
Sam Rashkin: And now I have to build me these two 12ft walls that I don't have to build with a square. They are simple shape design. I give up 200ft² and building two, I'm building 12 linear feet of wall and foundation and it's, and it's extra cost for that less square footage, almost $3,000 of extra cost to build the extra complicated, with zero benefit, I can use and repurpose that money for a much nicer, front porch.
01:14:53:20 - 01:15:17:13
Sam Rashkin: A rear porch and enhances your architecture is a much better solution. It looks better. Here's again that design I showed you earlier that, 1400 square foot simple design and have six corners because I recessed the bathroom for a little privacy from the backyard open space, I could have done four corners very easily. And here's one with 15 corners.
01:15:17:13 - 01:15:39:10
Sam Rashkin: Just another three, three bedroom, two bath, two and a half, three bath design. So you're saving the corners is almost $14,000 benefit. Just going simple. So simple is really your friend I mentioned before. I explain why I don't like L-shaped kitchens here. It's because you wind up with a dead corner and more and more I'm saying the builder is just living it dead.
01:15:39:10 - 01:15:59:23
Sam Rashkin: So a dead corner cabinet below and then upper cabinet above that you don't have access to. And so it's wasted space for storage. And then it's really hard to work with that space because it's in a corner. It's hard to position yourself comfortably, get rid of the corners. And that way you don't need a seam in the counter.
01:15:59:25 - 01:16:28:14
Sam Rashkin: So it's other cost savings for the counter that you're installing. So just straight cameras across. So it'll have just as much care space in this design. And more pantry storage, less cost better by going simple. Again, simple by design applies to roofs as well. But it also applies to, making sure we pick the best roof, for protection.
01:16:28:16 - 01:16:55:10
Sam Rashkin: You know, roofs have a basic function, which is to shed whether and which of these roof designs should weather the best. And the ship roof by far, I guess it sheds when it sheds. No rain and snow. It is more impact resistant. It's just a better roof. Now, I don't mind using a gable roof if the design will help, if it helps the design, but you should be in this space more and more.
01:16:55:11 - 01:17:20:10
Sam Rashkin: As I see interesting flat roofs and modern architecture, I go crazy. This is a less effective way. You should rather and so it protection. This is better protection from bulk moisture, wind, wildfire, earthquakes, severe winter weather and also durability with longer lifespans. The shortest lifespan of all these roofs is a flat roof, so, the simple by design.
01:17:20:10 - 01:17:43:22
Sam Rashkin: This is crazy. This is, like, insane. What you have to go through when you replace this roof and the way it drains water from the roof, it's incredibly complicated. Has a really heavy concentration zones, way too much water coming into one corner, like right here and right here. The water is draining against the side wall and just crazy number things happen.
01:17:43:28 - 01:18:13:07
Sam Rashkin: Here's a Cape Cod design I mentioned earlier. I like a lot. Simple. Great drainage. Is it a built okay user experience by design, low maintenance. You know, there are four key damage functions I speak to most people 3 to 3, the freeze thaw cycle, UV light degradation and corrosion I think passes another damage function far too long. There's $1 billion billion dollars of pest repairs for termites every year.
01:18:13:07 - 01:18:32:11
Sam Rashkin: It's $1 billion event every year in Florida. So I think we got to really address these a factor block. So a freeze thaw. You should know that, towers are not your friend in cold climates. Moisture that can wake up when snow melts on these roofs in the winter or freeze at night and create stress that can crack the tiles.
01:18:32:13 - 01:18:55:10
Sam Rashkin: Metal or asphalt shingles, metal roofs or asphalt shingles are much better for cold climates. Flat, which we mentioned just before night. Your friend for the same reason as if snow melts and freezes, it puts more freeze or stress on all the flashing connections and, weak points in the flat roof that really undermine its longevity.
01:18:55:13 - 01:19:17:00
Sam Rashkin: So your slope shingle roof is a portion or metal roof is your friend in terms of roof configuration. And then what is not a good material in really hot climates where the sun beats on it? That's why stucco is such a beautiful design in southwest. And, you know, it's it's kind of, ubiquitous, let's say, in Santa Fe.
01:19:17:04 - 01:19:48:29
Sam Rashkin: See, Adobe Design everywhere. It's such a perfect material for better durability by design. And then in, hot, humid climates where your, saltwater conditions, you got tremendous corrosion, damage function, exposure. So metal details, metal windows, metal railings and so forth are going to really be high maintenance. So nonmetallic railings and and details and windows are your best bet.
01:19:49:01 - 01:20:14:19
Sam Rashkin: And lastly for pest resistance wood frame homes, you know we're going to lock in your buyer with a lifetime of termite control and maintenance. And you can get rid of that wood non wood or boring treated wood design choices for your homes. And then non integrated solar is just attached to roof often with 30 or 40 roof penetrations.
01:20:14:21 - 01:20:46:19
Sam Rashkin: Remember we just said roof has a basic basic function its primary function to shed whether once I stick 30 or 40 roof penetrations not relying on all those 3040 flashing details to be perfect to avoid really costly damage. So if you do this, you've got to be really militant about those details. Or you can use roofing chalks by designs that already have a built in way to install solar, a red product kind of burning standing seam roof.
01:20:46:21 - 01:21:08:10
Sam Rashkin: There are ways just you don't need to penetrate the roof, except with the conduit coming in and out of the attic. So again, by design, you could build more low maintenance homes. And of course, if you really want to get, optimized, just bifurcate the solar where you can as a porch from the house roof is a great way to go.
01:21:08:13 - 01:21:35:20
Sam Rashkin: It will be available in limited circumstances, but it's a great choice where you can integrate it into your design. One it looks better too than having solar as part of a roof. Two it allows light to come through and three and saves tremendous cost. About $3,000 lower cost estimate because I don't need the roof sheathing. I don't need the roof underlayment.
01:21:35:22 - 01:22:02:29
Sam Rashkin: I don't need the roofing material because it's just a solar system on the fringe. So that's about $3,000 a savings plus no mounting rack. When that roof has to be replaced. I do not have to pull a solar system. That would save me $68,000. A cost to remove and reinstall the solar to replace, old roof. It's a better user experience because of the appearance that they like.
01:22:03:01 - 01:22:30:18
Sam Rashkin: And it produces more electricity because it's undersides. Cool compared to the very hot temperatures that accrue in a tight space below or between the the collector and the roof will be much lower temperature. You get about a few percent more output from your solar system, some more electricity, and less risk. You live without worrying about those roof and attractions, all by design.
01:22:30:20 - 01:22:51:01
Sam Rashkin: So my final word here we covered a lot of options. A ways to go is to manage homebuyer. Certain key by delivering a better user experience. By design, you always come out ahead. I hope this makes sense. And Mike, we can open up to any questions.
01:22:51:03 - 01:23:17:11
Mike Collignon: Thank you Sam. Much appreciated there. I'm going to put out the call to everyone, to send in their questions. We do want to thank everyone for joining us today on, on this webinar. You know, every time I see some of those slides about the, the commercial development and the way to design, that I, I just I get so frustrated.
01:23:17:11 - 01:23:43:02
Mike Collignon: Sam, because I see commercial development in my community and, you didn't take a picture of where I live, but it very well could be, you know, that, very car centric, Hey, let's, let's give everybody a parking lot, and make sure that they've got plenty of spaces and, drive thrus and so on and so forth.
01:23:43:02 - 01:24:12:22
Mike Collignon: And they put these outbuildings and just there's so much paved space that, you know, you've got to strain your eye to find a single tree. And I've just, I think to myself, I know there's a better way. We've talked about this for years now. There's a better way to do this. And I'm I just keep counting the days until it sinks in here in the Midwest that, you know, oh, hey, you know, we can build this to be more pedestrian friendly or bike friendly.
01:24:12:22 - 01:24:40:06
Mike Collignon: And the irony of it in in where I live, we have miles and miles of trails that the county, facilitates or manages. And there are some bike trails that are on right by some of this commercial development. And yet we basically ask for bike riders. Hey, hop off the trail, gamble with your life that you're going to get hit by a car and come visit these shopping places.
01:24:40:12 - 01:24:42:08
Mike Collignon: It's really frustrating.
01:24:42:11 - 01:25:08:21
Sam Rashkin: It. Yeah, it's, it's a, perverse cost, problem. You know, it's if you're only thinking first cost and not thinking optimize portability and optimize value, you just don't get to the right answer. So people just have to start realizing to invest in good design.
01:25:08:23 - 01:25:35:27
Mike Collignon: And the design with the view, designed for the view that that to me, has resonated so much because I've talked to some people who were, not looking to build a home, but but looking at existing homes on the marketplace, you know, I want to move. I want to buy a different house. And the interest level that you you see that they have and a certain property, they don't even realize it.
01:25:35:27 - 01:25:48:11
Mike Collignon: It's a subconscious thing. But in fact, what you that that property has really makes a difference in whether they consider maybe, putting an offer in on it or not.
01:25:48:13 - 01:26:11:00
Sam Rashkin: Then and, and building on that same thing if you're, if you're homes for sale and you have to keep all the blinds closed during the day because the glare when people are visiting versus a home that has flooded with daylight, it's a direct value impact, both in terms of price you get and the time on the market. You have to wait before you sell.
01:26:11:02 - 01:26:34:29
Mike Collignon: Yeah, yeah, well, I do not see any questions in from our audience, today, but, those of you who have been, attendees of these events know you can always email me. We can get questions to Sam. Sam's email address is also on the screen there. You can email him directly. We very much appreciate everybody for joining us for these webinars.
01:26:34:29 - 01:26:57:26
Mike Collignon: We really do. That does conclude the housing 2.0 series for 2025. We, want to thank everybody not just for attending today, but throughout the entire year. This is the 10th one we did, I believe. And, we just we really appreciate you being here with us. Thank you also to Panasonic Healthy Indoor Living Solutions for their generous sponsorship as well.
01:26:57:28 - 01:27:21:22
Mike Collignon: You know, our very final webinar, 2025 will take place on Wednesday, December 10th. And sticking with tradition, it will be Sarah Gutterman state of the industry address that will start at our usual time of 2 p.m. eastern, just like we started today. You can register for that webinar at Green Builder media.com. Until next time, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
01:27:21:24 - 01:27:25:21
Mike Collignon: Stay safe, stay healthy and take care everyone.
01:27:25:24 - 01:27:26:11
Sam Rashkin: Bye bye.