Edwin Custom Home: Designing for Return on Investment in Winter Park
Designing a custom home is often about creating a highly personalized place for a family to live. The Edwin Custom Home in Winter Park, Florida, has a different objective: create a thoughtfully designed home that also performs as a real estate investment.
Currently in the design phase, the project is being approached with three priorities in mind—design, budget, and schedule.
A Custom Home Designed as an Investment
When a home is being built for resale, every design decision has to be considered differently. The goal isn't simply to add more features or more square footage. It's to understand where good architecture creates value and where additional spending may not translate into a higher return.
For the Edwin Custom Home, Markle + Diaz Architects is focusing on creating a residence that feels distinctive and appropriate for Winter Park while remaining disciplined about construction costs.
The exterior architecture uses strong proportions, simple forms, and carefully considered details to create character without relying on unnecessary complexity. Inside, the same philosophy carries through to the layout: spaces are designed around how future homeowners are likely to live, entertain, and use the home every day.
Keeping Design, Budget, and Schedule Connected
One of the easiest ways for a custom home to become more expensive is through decisions made without considering their impact on the rest of the project.
A seemingly small architectural change can affect structure, engineering, materials, labor, permitting, and ultimately the construction schedule.
Because the Edwin Custom Home is an investment project, budget and schedule aren't secondary considerations—they're part of the design process from the beginning.
Rather than designing first and addressing cost later, we're evaluating decisions as the project develops. That means looking for opportunities to simplify construction, avoiding unnecessary complexity, and prioritizing the features that will have the greatest impact on the finished home.
Designing for the Winter Park Market
Winter Park has a strong architectural identity, with established neighborhoods, mature landscaping, and homes ranging from traditional residences to more contemporary interpretations of Florida architecture.
Our goal isn't to replicate a particular historic style. Instead, the Edwin Custom Home takes cues from that context while creating something that feels current.
The result is intended to feel established rather than trendy—a home with enough architectural character to stand out in the market without becoming so specific that it limits its appeal to future buyers.
Where Architecture Can Create Value
For an investment property, some of the most valuable design decisions aren't necessarily the most expensive ones.
Proportion, natural light, ceiling heights, circulation, window placement, indoor-outdoor relationships, and curb appeal can dramatically change how a home feels without requiring extravagant materials.
That's where we believe architecture can have an especially important role in development.
A well-designed home can make the construction budget work harder.
Instead of adding cost everywhere, the goal is to spend intentionally—creating moments that buyers notice while simplifying areas where additional investment provides little return.
Currently in Design
The Edwin Custom Home is currently progressing through the architectural design phase. As the project develops, Markle + Diaz Architects will continue coordinating the design around the project's budget, schedule, construction requirements, and ultimate resale goals.
For us, the project represents an approach we're increasingly interested in: bringing architectural design and real estate investment strategy together.
A successful investment home shouldn't have to choose between good design and financial performance. With the right decisions made early, the two can support each other.
Markle + Diaz Architects provides custom residential architecture, renovations, additions, and design services throughout Winter Park and Central Florida.
