hello@acme-re.com
323.274.4332
Schedule a discovery call
EAGLE ROCK
4516 Eagle Rock Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041
WEST ADAMS
4772 1/2 W Adams Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90016
hello@acme-re.com
323.274.4332
Schedule a discovery call
EAGLE ROCK
4516 Eagle Rock Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041
WEST ADAMS
4772 1/2 W Adams Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90016
By Courtney Poulos, CEO, ACME Real Estate
The Stepford Wives era of housing has met its fortunate end.
When I walk through those identical suburban developments, I see houses built for an era of conformity we’ve long since abandoned. Row after row of the same beige boxes, each one a monument to a fundamental misunderstanding of what people actually want.
After working in real estate markets from Los Angeles to Florida, I’ve witnessed a seismic shift in buyer behavior. We’ve moved past the bologna sandwich approach to homebuilding. Yet developers keep serving up the same bland, predictable product while buyers are starving for something that actually reflects who they are.
This isn’t just a trend—it’s a transformation that will determine which real estate players thrive and which become obsolete.
Here’s what drives me crazy about this industry. When mainstream media covers real estate, they interview economists and new construction builders. Never the agents. Never the flippers. Never the people who actually have their ear to the ground.
I’ve been in this business long enough to hear the “ooohs and ahhs” when buyers find something special. I’ve also heard their disappointment when they encounter another cookie-cutter finish package.
Ask any Los Angeles agent and they’ll tell you the same thing. Cookie-cutter finishes have the lowest buyer appeal. Period.
Yet suburban developers keep making the same choices, driven by their need for predictable outcomes and economies of scale. They’re like mathematicians, obsessing over price per square foot while completely missing what buyers actually value.
The real estate industry is experiencing something I call the “vibe per square foot” revolution.
Buyers are choosing smaller houses with higher design finish over larger cookie-cutter homes. The data backs this up. Home buyers now want a median of 2,067 square feet compared to 2,260 square feet two decades ago. That’s 200 square feet less, but they want those square feet to matter more.
I see this constantly. A buyer will choose a large three-bedroom over a four-bedroom with no backyard. They’ll get excited about a freestanding bathtub in the master suite over an oversized shower. A simple pot-filler can cause quite a bit of buyer excitement (I mean, it’s a sign of a thoughtful kitchen design and makes a cook’s life easier).
These aren’t random preferences. They’re signals of a deeper psychological shift that’s reshaping the entire industry.
Key insight: Buyers are consistently choosing quality over quantity, experience over square footage, and personalization over standardization.
The post-Covid home is now an expression, what I’m calling an “experience.”
When I launched ACME Florida in 2021, I started seeing buyers from New York and California buying up cookie-cutter suburban McMansions just to transform them into modern, customized spaces. I coined the term “Transformansion” because the demand kept growing.
Think about what this means. Buyers are willing to pay premium prices to undo what developers thought they wanted. They’re essentially paying twice for the same house because the first version was so fundamentally wrong.
In Los Angeles, certain flippers with high design sensibility are making huge profits simply by understanding what buyers truly want. They’re not adding square footage. They’re adding personality.
The customized furniture market is exploding from $36.2 billion in 2024 to an expected $104.7 billion by 2034. People want their living spaces to reflect their individual values and lifestyle choices.
Some developers are already figuring this out. Look at House of Rolison or Omedezin. They’re producing the experience of home rather than just houses.
When we worked with Nelavida, we introduced something revolutionary for northeast LA. We offered buyers choices in cabinet colors and countertop finishes during the purchase phase. This had never been done in new construction there before.
The ACME team consulted with Comstock on everything from exterior design to hardware finishes. We learned that buyers value choice above almost everything else. 75% of Gen Z will likely purchase if a product can be customized, and they’re willing to wait longer for it.
But most developers are still stuck in the old model. They’re going to face a reckoning when the market recovers and buyers have real choices again.
In almost every city I’ve worked in, land is a commodity. The real innovation happens with existing structures. Warehouses become lofts. Rowhouses become condos. Rental bungalows become TIC projects.
We brought this renovation mindset into new construction.
The traditional development model treats customization as an expensive add-on. But what if personalization actually reduces waste and increases value? What if giving buyers choices from the beginning is more efficient than building generic boxes they’ll want to change later?
The cookie-cutter model might get a temporary reprieve when desperation kicks in and people take what they can get. But the underlying shift toward re-humanizing the home building process is irreversible.
Agents are already becoming identity creators, bringing stylistic staging and marketing to give personality to bland spaces. But that’s just a band-aid on a flawed product.
Five years from now, when the industry has fully embraced “vibe per square foot,” we’ll see smaller houses with higher design, better flow, bigger backyards, and more individuality. The surprising casualty will be the developers who thought they could keep selling bologna sandwiches in a world demanding personal expression.
The smart money is already moving. Developers who want to get ahead of this curve need to partner with teams that have their ear to the ground. They need to pull in designers who understand that customization isn’t a luxury feature anymore.
It’s the baseline expectation of a generation that refuses to live in someone else’s idea of home.
The question is whether the industry will adapt or get left behind selling empty boxes to an increasingly discerning market.
For developers, the path forward is clear:
For agents, the opportunity is massive. Become identity creators who bring personality to spaces. Master the art of “vibe per square foot” staging and marketing.
For buyers, the message is simple: Don’t settle for someone else’s idea of home. The industry is finally catching up to what you’ve wanted all along.
Some people will still buy the bologna sandwich. But it’s going to become much harder to differentiate value when everyone else is offering something that actually tastes good.
The transformation is already underway. The only question is whether you’ll be part of the solution or part of the problem.
When I walk through those identical suburban developments, I see houses built for an era of conformity we’ve long since abandoned. Row after row of the same beige boxes, each one a monument to a fundamental misunderstanding of what people actually want.
After working in real estate markets from Los Angeles to Florida, I’ve witnessed a seismic shift in buyer behavior. We’ve moved past the bologna sandwich approach to homebuilding. Yet developers keep serving up the same bland, predictable product while buyers are starving for something that actually reflects who they are.
This isn’t just a trend—it’s a transformation that will determine which real estate players thrive and which become obsolete.
Here’s what drives me crazy about this industry. When mainstream media covers real estate, they interview economists and new construction builders. Never the agents. Never the flippers. Never the people who actually have their ear to the ground.
I’ve been in this business long enough to hear the “ooohs and ahhs” when buyers find something special. I’ve also heard their disappointment when they encounter another cookie-cutter finish package.
Ask any Los Angeles agent and they’ll tell you the same thing. Cookie-cutter finishes have the lowest buyer appeal. Period.
Yet suburban developers keep making the same choices, driven by their need for predictable outcomes and economies of scale. They’re like mathematicians, obsessing over price per square foot while completely missing what buyers actually value.
The real estate industry is experiencing something I call the “vibe per square foot” revolution.
Buyers are choosing smaller houses with higher design finish over larger cookie-cutter homes. The data backs this up. Home buyers now want a median of 2,067 square feet compared to 2,260 square feet two decades ago. That’s 200 square feet less, but they want those square feet to matter more.
I see this constantly. A buyer will choose a large three-bedroom over a four-bedroom with no backyard. They’ll get excited about a freestanding bathtub in the master suite over an oversized shower. A simple pot-filler can cause quite a bit of buyer excitement (I mean, it’s a sign of a thoughtful kitchen design and makes a cook’s life easier).
These aren’t random preferences. They’re signals of a deeper psychological shift that’s reshaping the entire industry.
Key insight: Buyers are consistently choosing quality over quantity, experience over square footage, and personalization over standardization.
The post-Covid home is now an expression, what I’m calling an “experience.”
When I launched ACME Florida in 2021, I started seeing buyers from New York and California buying up cookie-cutter suburban McMansions just to transform them into modern, customized spaces. I coined the term “Transformansion” because the demand kept growing.
Think about what this means. Buyers are willing to pay premium prices to undo what developers thought they wanted. They’re essentially paying twice for the same house because the first version was so fundamentally wrong.
In Los Angeles, certain flippers with high design sensibility are making huge profits simply by understanding what buyers truly want. They’re not adding square footage. They’re adding personality.
The customized furniture market is exploding from $36.2 billion in 2024 to an expected $104.7 billion by 2034. People want their living spaces to reflect their individual values and lifestyle choices.
Some developers are already figuring this out. Look at House of Rolison or Omedezin. They’re producing the experience of home rather than just houses.
When we worked with Nelavida, we introduced something revolutionary for northeast LA. We offered buyers choices in cabinet colors and countertop finishes during the purchase phase. This had never been done in new construction there before.
The ACME team consulted with Comstock on everything from exterior design to hardware finishes. We learned that buyers value choice above almost everything else. 75% of Gen Z will likely purchase if a product can be customized, and they’re willing to wait longer for it.
But most developers are still stuck in the old model. They’re going to face a reckoning when the market recovers and buyers have real choices again.
In almost every city I’ve worked in, land is a commodity. The real innovation happens with existing structures. Warehouses become lofts. Rowhouses become condos. Rental bungalows become TIC projects.
We brought this renovation mindset into new construction.
The traditional development model treats customization as an expensive add-on. But what if personalization actually reduces waste and increases value? What if giving buyers choices from the beginning is more efficient than building generic boxes they’ll want to change later?
The cookie-cutter model might get a temporary reprieve when desperation kicks in and people take what they can get. But the underlying shift toward re-humanizing the home building process is irreversible.
Agents are already becoming identity creators, bringing stylistic staging and marketing to give personality to bland spaces. But that’s just a band-aid on a flawed product.
Five years from now, when the industry has fully embraced “vibe per square foot,” we’ll see smaller houses with higher design, better flow, bigger backyards, and more individuality. The surprising casualty will be the developers who thought they could keep selling bologna sandwiches in a world demanding personal expression.
The smart money is already moving. Developers who want to get ahead of this curve need to partner with teams that have their ear to the ground. They need to pull in designers who understand that customization isn’t a luxury feature anymore.
It’s the baseline expectation of a generation that refuses to live in someone else’s idea of home.
The question is whether the industry will adapt or get left behind selling empty boxes to an increasingly discerning market.
For developers, the path forward is clear:
For agents, the opportunity is massive. Become identity creators who bring personality to spaces. Master the art of “vibe per square foot” staging and marketing.
For buyers, the message is simple: Don’t settle for someone else’s idea of home. The industry is finally catching up to what you’ve wanted all along.
Some people will still buy the bologna sandwich. But it’s going to become much harder to differentiate value when everyone else is offering something that actually tastes good.
The transformation is already underway. The only question is whether you’ll be part of the solution or part of the problem.
ACME Real Estate | Los Angeles Boutique Real Estate Brokerage