Five Ways To Add Value When Building A Custom Home

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For many people in the process of building a custom home on their land, the question of how to add value to your new home isn’t the first question that comes to mind. 

Things like the cost of building a new home, how to find land to build on, and how to finance a custom home build are usually topics that come to mind first. However, once you’ve answered these questions and are in the process of designing a custom home, understanding how you can add value to your home while you are building is well worth considering. 

Why Think About Adding Value When Building

Thinking about adding value to your home while you are designing & building gives you the benefit of incorporating many of these items at a lower cost than if you were to build a home without these value adds and then make updates or renovate your home in the future. Simply put – it can save you money to think about value while building a custom home.

In addition to the long-term savings, incorporating many of these items can make your home more comfortable while also saving you money short-term on things like utility costs. 

Additionally, when your home value is higher, you can take advantage of additional home equity when applying for other types of financing in the future. Adding value to your home can open new opportunities. 

All these benefits of adding value come before you are even thinking about reselling your home (and why would you? You just built it!) Even if it isn’t your plan to resell your new home right away, consider these five ways to add value when building a custom home for additional long-term and short-term benefits.

5 Ways To Add Value When Building A Custom Home

These five items are not only ways to add value to your home, but they also include inexpensive options that are easy to incorporate when building a custom home. Several may be something that your custom home builder already includes in their standard offerings, others may be considered upgrades. If you are currently choosing a custom home builder, it’s worth asking if any of these value adds are included in their standard offerings or what the cost would be to upgrade as this initial cost can far outweigh the value you’ll add when incorporating many of these features.

1. Add Usable Square Footage

Adding usable square footage to your home is one of the easiest ways you can add value to your home while building. It also represents one of the highest cost savings for you to add this square footage during your initial build versus renovating or building an addition at a later date.

When you add more square footage to your home, you not only take advantage of the extra living space, but you’ll also end up with a house that is worth more than it would be if it didn’t have the extra space. Building a custom home gives you the option to take advantage of the cost savings of adding the square footage all at once.

At Pathway Builders, we offer several Premier home plans created specifically to take advantage of this value-added feature. Each plan uses the space above the garage to add a bonus room increasing the square footage of the home at a lower cost per square foot than expanding the foundation to add more square feet would. This provides our customers with even more value when adding space to their homes. 

See our Pacific Crest Premier and Palouse Premier home plans for two great examples of how to add living space at a lower cost per square foot when building a custom home.

These bonus rooms can also be customized with a bathroom or half bath to add both value and functionality to this additional space.

2. Incorporate Energy Efficient Features

Energy-efficient features are some of the most desired home features for today’s buyers. In Ada County, homes certified as energy efficient have also been shown to have 4.8% higher average sale prices.(Source: The Market Valuation Of Energy Efficient and Green Certified Northwest Homes).

Energy efficiency can include windows, energy-efficient appliances, and HVAC systems. The good news is that incorporating energy-efficient elements when building a custom home translates to immediate savings on utilities and energy costs for you as the homeowner.

When it comes to windows, 83% of home buyers say they want Energy Star qualified windows in their home (source: Kiplinger). At Pathway Builders, we include vinyl double pane low-e windows as our standard window in every home. This allows all of our customers to take advantage of the higher energy efficiency of these windows, adding value to their homes and saving on energy costs.

Bedroom 3 with window and closet - Payette 4 bedroom house plan - Pathway Builders Idaho

Energy efficiency doesn’t stop at windows, appliances are also important. According to information published by Kiplinger about the home features most homebuyers want, every home buyer surveyed wanted energy-efficient appliances.

Beyond appliances and windows, HVAC systems are also important when it comes to home values. A survey done by the Journal of Light Construction in 2023 measuring how much of the cost was recouped from various home upgrades, found that an HVAC conversion from a fossil fuel system to an electric heat pump recouped 114.5% of the cost on average of the conversion when the home was resold. Drilled down to the Boise market, the average cost recouped on this HVAC conversion when the home was sold was 133%. 

At Pathway Builders we offer a heat pump system as a standard inclusion in all of our homes, providing our customers with this added value in the future and the additional energy savings a heat pump provides no matter the size or style of their custom home. 

Bonus: Pre Wire for Ceiling Fans

If you’ve decided you don’t want a ceiling fan in every room of your home, that’s okay. You are building a custom home. You can have exactly what you want. However, even if you don’t want fans now, we do recommend considering pre-wiring for ceiling fans when building your home as a way to add value. 

When you pre-wire during your home build it will cost much less than if you were to make this change in the future. It gives you the flexibility to easily add a fan in the future if you change your mind without the added cost and if you do add a fan, it can help reduce energy costs.

If you are considering this option, you can use our instant quote tool to determine how much it would cost to pre-wire for ceiling fans on any house plan you are considering. 

3. Opt For Hard Surface Flooring Types

Flooring can be a great way to add value when building a home. In the same Kiplinger article about what homebuyers want that we referenced before, hardwood flooring in the main living areas was desired by 81% of homebuyers. This is also one type of flooring that has more value long term because, with some care, it can last a lifetime.

If the cost of hardwood flooring at the start is prohibitive, you can achieve a similar look and style with other flooring options like luxury vinyl flooring. With a focus on building the most affordable custom homes, we include luxury vinyl flooring in high traffic areas like the entry way, kitchen, dining area, bathrooms, and laundry area as a standard inclusion for our custom home projects. 

Living Area With Fireplace - Pacific Crest Ranch Style House Plan - Pathway Builders Idaho

See choosing flooring for a custom home for more detailed information on how to choose flooring considering cost, value, and your lifestyle.

4. Add A Second Ensuite (aka Junior Suite or Mother-In-Law Suite)

With multigenerational living on the rise, adding a second ensuite, also known as a junior suite or mother-in-law suite, can be a great way to add value to your home at a lower cost while you are building. If you were to add this on at a later date, the cost to renovate would be much higher than if you elect to build this feature into your custom home from the start.

This second bedroom with en suite bathroom isn’t currently that common in many existing homes. Having this unique, desirable feature in your home is a way for your home to stand out in the market when it comes time to sell, and at the same time, you’ll enjoy the benefits of a junior suite while living in your home.

Our Panorama home plan is a great example of a multigenerational house plan built with features like additional bathrooms, additional storage, and two junior suites.

If multigenerational living is something you are interested in for your family, you can also get our tips on building a multigenerational home.

5. Consider An ADU

If you haven’t heard, ADUs are booming, across the U.S. and in southwestern Idaho. With recently updated ADU laws in Boise and other towns and municipalities in the area, allowing for more ADUs in larger sizes, now is a great time to think about an ADU. There are many benefits of building an ADU, including multigenerational living; however, not least among them is the added value of an ADU.

This is another home feature that is more cost-effective to build at the start rather than it is to add on in the future. At a minimum when you build your home and ADU at the same time, you’ll save on labor to build. Instead of having all contractors come out twice, at two different times for two different projects, when you build the ADU at the same time as your main home, the two together are one project, with one schedule. 

ADU Trends 2024 - Garage Attached ADU built by Pathway Builders Eagle Idaho
Garage Attached ADU

As an added benefit, according to an article on Renofi, “…homes that have them [ADUs] are priced 35% more than homes without.” That’s staggering. Part of this value increase is simply the additional living space they add to your property (see number one above). But this is just one reason an ADU can add value among many others. 

For more information on ADUs, check out our ADU design tips or view some of our past ADU projects for more inspiration. 

6. Bonus: Landscaping, Specifically Trees

Landscaping isn’t something you need to do right after you’ve built your new home, but for long term value and an appealing outdoor environment, landscaping is a low cost feature that can have a large impact on the value of your home. 

When building a custom home the biggest thing to consider is trees. A well-placed, mature tree has the potential to add significant value to your property. The value varies by location, tree type, and other factors, but according to the Arbor Day Foundation “homes with trees in their yard enjoy property value increases of more than $30 billion, annually, in the U.S.” [Source: Arbor Day Foundation]

If your property has mature trees, it’s worth weighing the value of keeping your trees and maybe making accommodations while building versus replanting new trees after your new home is built.

Once your home is finished, strategically planting trees sooner gives you the benefit of time for them to mature as well as take advantage of all the benefits trees provide. 

Conclusion

Many things that can improve the value of an existing home, like kitchen updates or bathroom upgrades, are already included when you are building a custom home. This is one of the benefits of building vs buying a home. It’s new – new appliances, new fixtures, and kitchen and bathrooms are naturally new! 

Outside of those standard value adds when building a new home, consider incorporating these five features to add even more value when building a custom home, make your space more comfortable, and start saving yourself money from the moment you move in.
If you are looking for a custom home builder in Boise area or southwestern Idaho, we’d love to work with you. Pathway Builders is a locally owned and operated custom home builder focused on building quality homes at an affordable price. Learn more about us and our construction process, or contact us today to talk about building a home on your land in Idaho.