Heated shed ramblings

I want to talk sheds. I’m at that point in my life where I want a nice sized heated shed… but my wife and I feel like this isn’t our “forever home”. We would love to get a larger lot and build our dream home before we get too much older. Our wealth manager gave us the green light. Unfortunately, with the price of land and a 2.5% mortgage… who knows? We could build in 3 years or we may never take the leap. My wife is onboard with a shed and I’m out there doing my research. My daughter is huge into softball, so we’d put in a batting cage until she moves out for college. I’m thinking a 40×64. I received an estimate from one steel on wood builder which about blew my socks off. I see there are also steel on steel buildings which are substantially less expensive… but at this point I don’t know all of the pros and cons.

I’m thinking in-floor heat with a propane boiler to keep the temperatures moderate at all times… and then a forced air unit to up the heat quickly when we want to spend time out there and it’s real cold out.

Is a shed a good investment when we may sell in a few years? Obviously it does increase the overall value of the property… but to what extent? Could a person expect to get 50% of the build price back in value? More? Less?

Open to hearing opinions on steel frame versus wood frame and also valuation.

Thanks!

I think a lot of people are in that same boat. I think you’d get 30-50% back on it. I’d rough in utilities so if you ever wanted they were there. Some day I’d like to do the same with the back being a studio apartment with a five foot garage door to drive my golf cart next to the couch when I’m too old to walk.

sipple31 wrote:

I want to talk sheds. I’m at that point in my life where I want a nice sized heated shed… but my wife and I feel like this isn’t our “forever home”. We would love to get a larger lot and build our dream home before we get too much older. Our wealth manager gave us the green light. Unfortunately, with the price of land and a 2.5% mortgage… who knows? We could build in 3 years or we may never take the leap. My wife is onboard with a shed and I’m out there doing my research. My daughter is huge into softball, so we’d put in a batting cage until she moves out for college. I’m thinking a 40×64. I received an estimate from one steel on wood builder which about blew my socks off. I see there are also steel on steel buildings which are substantially less expensive… but at this point I don’t know all of the pros and cons.

I’m thinking in-floor heat with a propane boiler to keep the temperatures moderate at all times… and then a forced air unit to up the heat quickly when we want to spend time out there and it’s real cold out.

Is a shed a good investment when we may sell in a few years? Obviously it does increase the overall value of the property… but to what extent? Could a person expect to get 50% of the build price back in value? More? Less?

Open to hearing opinions on steel frame versus wood frame and also valuation.

Thanks!

Good? No. I’d not categorize anything that you lose half or more of your money on in a few years as a “good” investment.

If it was me, I’d get a more specific/serious plan about building my forever home first. Once you have that decision made then I would make the corresponding decision about a shed.

If you know you aren’t going to stay there I wouldn’t build one there. I’m in the same boat. What I plan on doing is buying a lot but in my case that lot already has a shed on it. If I were you find a lot where you want to build buy it and build shed there. That way you won’t have to build another one. You can use it until you build and move. Inconvenience yes but smart I think.

The ROI is a huge variable based on where you are at, who are your prospective buyers, and so on.

Here at my farm, land cost is getting crazy, but buildings (houses) are more reasonable. However, Barns/sheds are extremely desirable. The likely hood of of getting the vast majority of the structure cost back on a sale is pretty good. Its all the other gingerbread that will lower the ROI. If your seriously looking to sell in a couple years, just do power, insulate, and furnace. Infloor heat is awesome, but costs$$$$ that you won’t recover on.

CaptainMusky wrote:

If you know you aren’t going to stay there I wouldn’t build one there. I’m in the same boat. What I plan on doing is buying a lot but in my case that lot already has a shed on it. If I were you find a lot where you want to build buy it and build shed there. That way you won’t have to build another one. You can use it until you build and move. Inconvenience yes but smart I think.

verify local ordinances first. Many will not let you do this if its under a residential zoning

I hope my next home has one already built.

sipple31 wrote:

Is a shed a good investment when we may sell in a few years? Obviously it does increase the overall value of the property… but to what extent? Could a person expect to get 50% of the build price back in value? More? Less?

No, like Bucky wrote, any investment where you lose 20, 30, or 50%+ over a few years is a terrible investment IMO.

I built my dream garage a few years ago and it was well over $100k, which shocks a lot of people for a 3 car garage with office loft but that’s what things cost these days. My wife’s friend is a real estate agent and she said that the new garage added about 40-50k to our market value and that you never really recover the full value of these add-on structures.

Hard question to ask, but here it goes: Do you have a realistic idea of what your dream build would actually cost in today’s market? Is that anywhere close to attainable for you either now or in the near future?

I think knowing whether a future move is even feasible is a key part of the decision here.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I built my dream garage a few years ago and it was well over $100k, which shocks a lot of people for a 3 car garage with office loft but that’s what things cost these days. My wife’s friend is a real estate agent and she said that the new garage added about 40-50k to our market value and that you never really recover the full value of these add-on structures.

^ That’s exactly the kind of data I’m looking for. The problem that I’m going to have is that the vast majority of the demographic where I live can’t afford the more expensive houses in the area. The pool of potential buyers for a $500K+ house in this area is extremely slim. We’re talking small town Wisconsin.

I think we have a rough idea of what the new home structure would cost… but the big variable is finding the right piece of land and how many acres it ends up being is the big driving factor.

Less than 50% return seems like a horrible investment.

I don’t know anything about sheds…I’m a city slicker. But, my $.02 about the idea of “investment” when building something you want. We just did a massive renovation and feedback from everyone was “you’ll never get the money back.”

Well, I don’t give a crap about the money. We will be in this house another 10 years and I get immense use and enjoyment out of what we did on the renovation. That’s value in my book. My point being, there is a lot of value out side of the dollars and cents.

How much enjoyment would you get out of your batting cage with your daughter before she leaves for college? That would be a priceless investment to me.

If you get half your money back at some point in the future, can enjoy it the shed now, and it’s financially feasible, I’d build it in a heartbeat.

Id never invest in a shed build in a home that I’m not likely to be in for a real long period of time. What you want and what the next buyer of your current home want in a shed is most likely going to be vastly different. I just don’t see you getting the ROI back when you sell. Depending on the distance from your current home to where you want your future home to be build, I like the idea of building the shed on the land where your future home is going to be built.

sipple31 wrote:

The problem that I’m going to have is that the vast majority of the demographic where I live can’t afford the more expensive houses in the area. The pool of potential buyers for a $500K+ house in this area is extremely slim. We’re talking small town Wisconsin.

This can be a big problem, especially in rural areas. My parents had a similar situation, they had far and away the best and most expensive house in a small northeastern Minnesota town. They managed to sell the house after only a few weeks on the market because there just happened to be a buyer that had been waiting years for this type of property to come up for sale and there just hadn’t been anything like their house on the market.

But fast forward four years and the guy that bought my parents house had to sell due to a job transfer. The thing sat on the market for over two years and finally he ended up taking a huge bath on it. There just was not a buyer at anything near the price he paid for it.

If you’re at the top end of the market already Then I would have to ask would you get any return out of a shed?

Matt Moen wrote:

But, my $.02 about the idea of “investment” when building something you want. We just did a massive renovation and feedback from everyone was “you’ll never get the money back.”

Well, I don’t give a crap about the money. We will be in this house another 10 years and I get immense use and enjoyment out of what we did on the renovation. That’s value in my book. My point being, there is a lot of value out side of the dollars and cents.

I agree and I often wonder where this idea of a house as an investment even comes from?

Houses are expenses, NOT investments. You get people that say they bought a house for X and sold it for Y, therefore X-Y = profit of Z. Bullsh!t.

If people really kept track of EVERY expense related to owning a home and deducted that number from their alleged “profit” (purchase price – sale price), then there isn’t one person in a million who actually makes money on a home. The biggest one people forget to account for is the hundreds of thousands of dollars the average home buyer will pay in interest. So much for that profit then, eh?

Mrs. Grouse and I have always looked at our house as an expense and it’s just a matter of what we want to spend on it. It’s never been about “making” money because we both agree that’s a false concept.

Years back I was in somewhat of a similar situation in that the bank-owned house I bought at 23 fresh out of college was 4 beds, 2 baths, and only 10 years old…but wasn’t my forever home. I put in a bar and made it a pretty cool bachelor pad, but then my wife came into the picture and quickly realized we wanted kids. I wanted to add a lean-to style structure for the tritoon and whatnot but the numbers got absurd for sticking $$$ into a place my wife didn’t love and I can’t stand being near town. There were many urges to epoxy the garage, upgrade siding and windows, build a big garden shed, etc etc. but in the end I opted to go the “flip” route and make the place nice with moderate finishings and sell it.

In hindsight I’m very glad I didn’t start expanding the financial footprint of that home and opted to stick those funds into land to then build on later. If you have the urge to move now, I doubt that goes away. The best time to build was yesterday, and the best time to buy land was before that. I’d definitely stick the money from a potential shed into your next place.

buckybadger wrote:

The best time to build was yesterday, and the best time to buy land was before that.

Well said. Reminds me of a quote I reference from time to time…

“The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.”

“We may take 3 years or never make the leap”

If there’s ANY chance you’d won’t move soon, I’d start setting posts tomorrow.

In 3 or 30 years you’ll get some money out of it.

In 3 or 30 years the building WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE to build.

If it’s a dream of yours and the missus is on board- DO IT

Heated garages and shops are priceless, expensive, but priceless