In Adopt Me, two players can own the exact same house — same shell, same furniture, nearly identical appearance — and yet one house is worth meaningfully more than the other. The difference isn't the shell (that's the same) and it isn't even the furniture cost (that could be identical too). It's who designed the interior and whether that person's creative work is being represented honestly.
The Adopt Me trading community has settled on a clear hierarchy of build value that tracks with how much original creative work went into a house. At the top: builds that one person designed themselves from scratch, with no reference. At the bottom: builds copied from someone else without permission or disclosure. Between those extremes sits a range of legitimate arrangements — commissioned designs, builds inspired by a style or theme, iterative redesigns of older work.
Ask the right question before any trade: not "what house is it?" but "who built the interior, and how?" Buyers who skip that question overpay. Sellers who can't answer it — or who answer it dishonestly — burn their trading reputation, fast.
An original build is one where the current seller (or someone in the direct chain of ownership they can document) designed the interior from their own imagination — no YouTube tutorial to recreate, no other player's house to copy, no builder hired. They opened the furniture catalog, thought about what they wanted, and made something that hadn't existed before.
Original builds command the highest premiums because buyers are paying for three things at once:
That last point is what the community has agreed to protect. When a design gets cloned, the exclusivity erodes — copies circulate, the "one of a kind" status is gone, and the original's premium partially evaporates. This is why original builders are increasingly protective of their designs and why the community has rallied behind registry tools and the norm of demanding disclosure.
When a seller says "OG build" or "original design," they're making a claim that deserves scrutiny — not because sellers are dishonest, but because it's a high-value claim that's easy to assert and hard to disprove without evidence. The questions to ask:
An OG builder who has invested real creative energy into a house usually has at least some of this. A lack of any documentation doesn't automatically mean they're lying, but it reduces your ability to verify — and that uncertainty should be factored into what you pay.
A commissioned build is one where the owner paid a professional builder — typically in pets, though sometimes in items or in-game currency — to design a custom interior for them. The commissioner provided direction ("I want a fairy-garden theme with a purple palette"), and the builder executed it. The result is a unique design created on request.
Commissioned builds occupy a respectable position in the market, generally just below true originals:
Where commissioned builds rank below originals is in the "exclusivity" dimension. The commissioner didn't generate the creative vision — the builder did. Some buyers care about this; others don't. The premium for a commissioned build is real, but it's typically smaller than for a verified original.
A "failed comm" is a commissioned build the original commissioner never received — either because they ghosted the builder after the work was done, couldn't afford the agreed price, or the deal fell through for some other reason. The builder ends up with a fully custom house design and no buyer, so they sell it on the open market.
Failed comms are a legitimate category of house and can be excellent value — you're getting a professionally designed, fully custom build at a price the builder needs to recoup quickly. The key disclosures to look for:
The last point matters occasionally. If a commissioner paid pets for a design and the builder then sells it out from under them, that's a dispute the community will take sides on. Most reputable builders include a "failed comm" clause in their process — if the commissioner doesn't pay within a time window, the builder can sell the house. If that clause is explicit and documented, the sale is clean.
A cloned build is one that was copied from another player's design — either manually (recreated by watching a video or visiting the original in-game) or via script (duplicated exactly using a Roblox exploit). See the full guide to cloned houses for more on the mechanics. What matters for pricing is how the discount gets calculated.
The community's consensus is that a cloned house should trade for:
In practice, furniture costs are hard to verify independently — you're relying on the seller's claim about what they spent. Buyers negotiating on a disclosed clone can reasonably ask for some evidence (screenshots of the furniture catalog prices, for example) or simply apply a standard discount on whatever the seller quotes. The key point is that no creative premium applies. The design isn't yours; you're selling the shell and the items, nothing more.
What if you bought a house that looked original, paid a full premium, and later found out the previous owner had cloned it? This happens. The community's view is generally sympathetic to buyers in this situation — you were deceived, not you doing the deceiving. But it does mean you now own a clone, and reselling it as original would pass the deception forward. The right move is to disclose what you know and adjust your asking price accordingly. You can note in the trade post that you bought in good faith and have since discovered the build's provenance.
The most useful thing you can do before agreeing to a premium is ask the seller a direct question about build type. Most sellers will answer honestly; those who don't are telling you something important.
A seller who gets defensive or evasive about any of these is showing you they don't have clean answers. A seller who responds with links, screenshots, or a Registry entry is showing you exactly the opposite.
These are community norms, not official rules. Actual trades land wherever two players agree, but these benchmarks reflect what experienced traders consider fair:
The Adopt Me house trading community expects sellers to lead with build type information in every trade post. This isn't a legal requirement — it's a community norm that has evolved because deceptive practices were common enough to create real harm. Sellers who disclose clearly and early build better reputations, attract more serious buyers, and tend to get fairer offers because buyers can evaluate without guessing.
You don't need to write an essay. A single line in a trade post can cover it: "Original build (registered), ~60k furniture, WIP screenshots available." That line does a lot of work — it signals honesty, sets realistic expectations, and immediately separates your listing from lower-quality alternatives.
Copy and adapt these for your own trade posts. Fill in the details in [brackets].
Original build:
Commissioned build:
Inspired-by / themed build:
Disclosed clone:
Register your design in the Build Registry before you post it publicly — a timestamped entry is the strongest proof of originality you can show a buyer.
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