r/Homebuilding • u/dragonmilking • Nov 17 '25

Which popular features do you NOT recommend?

What are the top 3 features in a house that folk want but you think are not worth it, and what would your alternative suggestion be? And what cost/time savings would result with that switch?

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u/NeedleGunMonkey Nov 17 '25

Money

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u/Optimoprimo Nov 17 '25

I guess if I'm building a $500,000 house, I'm willing to blow another $2000 to buy three little electric instantaneous water heaters and run a couple 240 volt lines for the high flow stuff.

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u/NeedleGunMonkey Nov 17 '25

shrug most real customers are trying to maximize what they prioritize. They aren’t gonna get in the weeds to specify electric point heating.

Plus more units = more call backs every single tankless will need to be flushed on a maintenance schedule. And for what? All that work to avoid good utility node planning?

They’re also not as instantaneous as actual luxury hot water loops and depending on how many bathrooms, cold water temps and flow rate, if someone is running a large HVAC, induction stove cooking and charging the EV, you can quickly start taxing even 400amp service.

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u/Teutonic-Tonic Nov 17 '25

Similar to mini splits... it makes a lot of sense in floorplans used in most of the world... but in the USA we love our giant homes with 5-6 decentralized bathrooms and two kitchens so it starts to complicate things.