Shopping for a new home is the perfect time to look for all those upgraded features you've been daydreaming about. If you live in a part of the country with harsh winters, why not use this as an opportunity to find a warmer, more comfortable home? Here are five great heating features to tell your real estate agent to keep an eye out for:

Heated Driveway

Winter would be a lot more enjoyable if it weren't for all those brutal hours spent shoveling your driveway. Well, with a heated driveway you may never have to shovel again. With a heated driveway, warm panels or tubes radiate heat underneath your driveway. This melts the snow upon contact so it never has a chance to accumulate or turn icy.

Not only is this incredibly convenient, but it makes getting to your car in the morning much safer since you won't need to worry about slipping on ice.

Heated Toilet Seats

Getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night in winter can be a little torturous. With heated toilet seats even this discomfort is eliminated from your life. Some heated toilet seats even come with LED lighting to help guide your way in the dark, an especially helpful feature if you have young children who get up in the night a lot.

Heated Bathroom Floors

The bathroom is the perfect place for radiant floor heating, since it's the one place you usually spend some time barefoot in the winter. Rather than dreading getting ready on cold winter mornings, you may find yourself looking forward to it since your feet will be kept comfortably warm the whole time.

Radiant Heating Panels

Radiant heating panels are an innovative way to get extra heat in specific rooms of the house, with minimal impact on heating bills. This can be a practical solution to an otherwise drafty living room, for example. Best of all, radiant heating panels have a sleek, stylish appearance.

Heated Towel Racks

Whoa, is this a new home or a luxury hotel? With heated towel racks you will experience comfort and a feeling of being pampered every time you get out of the shower. Cold mornings are a lot more bearable when they're an opportunity to wrap yourself in a toasty warm bath towel.

While these innovative heating features may be more luxury than necessity, buying a new home can a great time to start enjoying them. For help finding the home of your dreams, consult with a real estate agency such as The Gresham Group.