Single-family rental homes are enjoying robust investment and development as they offer the benefits of living in a detached home without most of the hassles. A factor that is often overlooked in SFR’s appeal to renters is design, whether of an individual home or an entire planned community. SFR developers and architects are taking stock of how to select design elements that contribute to the category’s broader appeal.
A balancing act
For the exterior design of the homes, developers seek to balance uniformity and brand identity with a sense of uniqueness, a goal that may seem contradictory at first. Some firms prefer to sacrifice variety in favor of efficiency, while others want to make their developments seem similar to a traditional neighborhood. One firm taking the former approach is ARK Homes for Rent, a developer that focuses on communities in the Sun Belt.
“We are taking a Black Model T approach to our general architectural design, meaning that we are trying to be efficient, irrespective of the markets that we try to invest in,” said Jordan Kavana, the firm’s founder and CEO.
In practice, this translates to roughly four to six different home designs, available as either townhouses or as traditional two-story single-family units with garages. The strategy emerged from observation of design trends from some of the nation’s most prolific homebuilders. “After looking at hundreds of different designs (from) national public builders, what we realized is that there is an 80 percent crossover on the most important features,” Kavana said. These include window frames and treatments and doorways, as well as floor and garage configurations.
Other firms place more of an emphasis on variety. Quinn Residences has general contours for the way it designs exteriors and surroundings but strives for variety within the communities.
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The homes may have the same structure, but “(we) alternate the facia—one might have siding that is pale blue, and the other is vertical and a different color, and one might have shutters and the other might not,” Richard Ross, Quinn’s CEO, told Multi-Housing News. These ideas extend to exterior and landscaping variations; every home features a fenced backyard and trees in front and back, but the placement of these elements varies. Also differing from home to home is the siting of the houses in relation to the street.
Some firms design communities specific to a given neighborhood’s architectural motifs. RangeWater Real Estate follows this strategy for its exterior designs and material compositions, which can vary between brick, stone or hardwood, depending on what’s typical for each neighborhood.
Such choices are based on extensive research into an area’s building aesthetics. For Carl Walton, the company’s senior director of innovation and design, the goal is to blend into an established neighborhood while offering renters the benefits that come with single-family homes. As he put it, “We don’t want them to make them seem like an outlier to what is already there.”
Such considerations were factored into the development of Lakeside at Trappe, a master-planned mixed-use community in Trappe, Md. The developer, Allen & Rocks, balanced the region’s neoclassical-influenced architecture with modern window frames and other design elements. “Mixing modern design elements such as black window frames and multi-textured exteriors with classic elements like porches and columns adds visual flair to the homes,” said Bob Turner, a vice president at the firm.
Similar questions are relevant to landscaping and amenity spaces. Communal green space at ARK’s communities in Florida and Georgia is used for gardens and walking trails, while in the Carolinas they may be used as activity spaces.
Specificity and versatility
For SFR interiors, designers and developers combine uniform designs with features that anticipate the needs of specific tenants. As with its home and exterior designs, RangeWater accounts for prospective and likely renters in its single-family rental projects. “Who are our renters, and where will they be working?” is a key question, said Walton.
Homes that are likely to house families often have smaller bedrooms with larger living areas and kitchens, and RangeWater includes built-in desks suitable for office work or schoolwork. For the same units, the kitchens often have larger center islands to provide “ample room to entertain or for children to do their homework while their parents may be cooking,” according to Walton. On the flipside, homes with roommate arrangements include larger bedrooms.
While it is important to design the home with who will be living there, attention must also be paid to how residents will be living. To Ross, versatility is a must, in giving residents spaces to customize as they see fit. Larger fourth bedrooms and garages are often the elements designed to provide the most versatility.
“Typically, people want a fourth bedroom, not so much to put a child in or to house a roommate, but to use as an office or workout room,” Ross said. Often, these rooms do not have closets. Instead, Quinn designs nooks to accommodate chairs, desks or other items that a resident has in mind.
Similarly, garages are rarely used for parking cars. “When you drive past (our) homes on an afternoon, you will notice that there’s a gym, there’s workout equipment, storage and, in some cases, it’s a workshop. A guy could have a ’62 Mustang in there that he may be tinkering with,” Ross said.
Whatever the design choices may be, they should contribute to the original goal: giving residents the benefits of living in a single-family home with none of the headaches of ownership. As Walton noted: “Even though these are rentals, we want people to feel like they are the owner there.”
