Two Paths to a New Home: Understanding Your Options
The rise of barndominiums across the Southeast has given prospective homeowners an intriguing alternative to conventional custom construction. Metal-framed, open-span structures that blend workshop practicality with residential living have captured imaginations, especially among buyers who want acreage and flexibility without a traditional mortgage-sized price tag.
But the decision between a custom-built stick-frame home and a barndominium involves far more than aesthetics and sticker price. Financing, insurance, resale value, long-term comfort, and your actual day-to-day lifestyle all play a role. Here is an honest, side-by-side look at both options to help you figure out which one fits your life.
What Exactly Is a Barndominium?
A barndominium, sometimes shortened to “barndo,” is typically a steel-frame building with metal siding and roofing that includes a finished residential living area alongside open workshop, garage, or storage space. The term covers a wide spectrum, from bare-bones conversions of agricultural buildings to fully finished, architect-designed homes that happen to use steel framing.
The appeal is straightforward. Steel framing allows for large, open interior spans without load-bearing walls. Construction can be faster because the shell goes up quickly. And because the materials are simpler, the base cost per square foot is often lower than conventional construction.
However, “lower base cost” comes with important caveats that deserve a closer look.
Cost Comparison: The Full Picture
The headline number for barndominiums is attractive. Shell costs can run 30 to 50 percent less per square foot than a conventionally framed custom home. But that shell is just the beginning.
The interior finish-out of a barndominium, including insulation, drywall, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, flooring, cabinetry, and fixtures, costs roughly the same as finishing a conventional home. In some cases it costs more, because metal buildings require specialized insulation approaches to manage condensation, and routing plumbing and electrical through steel framing can be more labor-intensive than working with wood.
When you factor in the full cost of a turnkey, move-in-ready barndominium with quality finishes, the price gap narrows considerably. A well-finished barndo might save you 10 to 20 percent compared to a similar-sized custom home, depending on the finishes you select. That is still meaningful savings, but it is not the 50 percent discount the internet sometimes promises.
A custom stick-frame home, on the other hand, gives you complete flexibility in layout, room sizes, ceiling heights, and exterior design. There are no constraints imposed by a metal building’s structural system.
Design Flexibility
Barndominiums offer excellent open-plan flexibility. Those clear-span trusses mean you can create cavernous great rooms, wide-open workshop areas, and dramatic interior spaces that would require engineered beams in conventional framing.
Where barndominiums are more limited is in exterior design variety. Most barndos look like metal buildings, because they are metal buildings. You can add stone veneer, board and batten siding, or covered porches to soften the look, but the fundamental form is a rectangular metal structure. If your vision includes complex rooflines, bay windows, turrets, or the layered architectural detail of a Craftsman or Lowcountry-style home, a conventional custom build is the better vehicle for that design.
Interior layouts in barndominiums can sometimes feel constrained in unexpected ways. Because exterior walls are metal panels on steel girts, adding windows or doors after the shell is erected is expensive and structurally complicated. In a wood-framed home, adding or moving a window during construction is a routine change order.
Financing and Insurance: Potential Hurdles
This is where many barndominium projects hit friction. Traditional mortgage lenders are often hesitant to finance barndominiums because they do not fit neatly into standard appraisal categories. Appraisers struggle to find comparable sales, which makes it difficult to establish fair market value.
Some lenders will finance a barndominium as a construction loan and then convert it to a conventional mortgage, but you may need to work with a portfolio lender or a credit union that holds its own loans rather than selling them on the secondary market. FHA and VA loans are available for barndominiums in some cases, but the property must meet specific requirements, and not all barndos qualify.
Insurance can be similarly tricky. Some homeowner’s insurance providers classify barndominiums as agricultural or commercial structures, which can limit coverage options or increase premiums. Others will insure them as residential properties if the living space meets residential building codes. Shop your insurance before you commit to a barndo build.
Custom stick-frame homes built to residential codes face none of these hurdles. Standard construction loans, conventional mortgages, FHA, VA, and USDA loans all apply. Insurance is straightforward.
Resale Value and Market Appeal
This is a critical consideration that many first-time builders overlook. Barndominiums tend to have narrower resale appeal than conventional homes. Not every buyer is attracted to metal building aesthetics, and the financing challenges that affected your purchase will also affect your future buyer.
In rural areas with larger lots, barndominiums hold their value reasonably well because the buyer pool is already self-selected for that lifestyle. But in suburban settings or areas with conventional neighborhoods, a barndominium can be a harder sell.
Custom homes built with quality materials and thoughtful design tend to appreciate well in the Upstate SC market. The Greenville-Spartanburg corridor has seen steady home value growth, and well-built custom homes in desirable locations have consistently outperformed the broader market.
Comfort, Energy Efficiency, and Longevity
Metal buildings are inherently challenging to insulate and climate-control. Steel conducts heat roughly 400 times more efficiently than wood, which means every steel member in the building envelope is a thermal bridge, a pathway for heat to move in or out. Without careful insulation detailing, barndominiums can be hot in summer, cold in winter, and prone to condensation problems.
Closed-cell spray foam insulation has largely solved the condensation issue in well-built barndos, but it adds significant cost. And the thermal bridging through steel framing is difficult to eliminate completely.
A properly built wood-frame custom home with modern insulation, air sealing, and high-performance windows will typically outperform a barndominium in energy efficiency and occupant comfort. That performance gap translates directly into lower utility bills over the life of the home.
When a Barndominium Makes Sense
Barndominiums are an excellent fit for buyers who want a large workshop, equipment storage, or hobby space integrated with modest living quarters. If you are a car collector, a woodworker, a farmer, or someone who needs 2,000 square feet of shop space attached to 1,500 square feet of living space, a barndo is purpose-built for your lifestyle.
They also work well as secondary residences on rural property, as hunting lodges, or as transitional homes you build quickly while planning a larger conventional home on the same acreage.
When a Custom Home Is the Better Choice
If your priority is a primary residence designed for long-term comfort, energy efficiency, and maximum resale value, a conventional custom home is the stronger investment. Custom homes offer unlimited design flexibility, straightforward financing and insurance, broad market appeal, and the ability to build a true performance envelope that keeps your family comfortable year-round.
At Grander Construction, we build custom homes in Greer and the greater Greenville-Spartanburg area using building science principles that prioritize your comfort and your long-term investment. If you are weighing your options, we are happy to walk through the specifics with you. Call us at (864) 412-9999.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get a traditional mortgage for a barndominium?
It depends on the lender and the specific structure. Some lenders, particularly portfolio lenders and credit unions, will finance barndominiums. However, many conventional lenders are hesitant because comparable sales are difficult to find for appraisals. If you are considering a barndo, talk to your lender early in the process to confirm financing is available before you invest in plans or site work.
Are barndominiums cheaper to maintain than custom homes?
Metal exteriors require less maintenance than wood siding, but other maintenance costs are similar. HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and interior finishes all require the same upkeep regardless of the structural system. One area where barndominiums may require more attention is condensation management, especially in our humid Upstate SC climate.
Which option has better resale value in the Greenville area?
In the current market, conventional custom homes consistently outperform barndominiums in resale value. The buyer pool for custom homes is much larger, financing is more accessible, and appraisals are more straightforward. Barndominiums hold value best in rural settings where the shop-and-living-space combination appeals to a specific buyer demographic.
Can I build a barndominium in a residential subdivision?
Most residential subdivisions with HOAs or architectural review boards will not permit metal building construction. Barndominiums are typically built on rural acreage or in areas without restrictive covenants. If you want the barndo lifestyle but your preferred location has HOA restrictions, a custom home with an attached oversized garage or detached workshop may be a better solution.