Pick any community being built in the Las Vegas Valley and chances are the homes are loaded with energy-efficient and high-tech features.

A smart home can be as simple as one equipped with a Ring camera and alarm system, said George Kypreos, president of the Las Vegas Realtors trade group. It could also be a luxury home prewired for doors to open and unlock, and lights to turn on when someone walks in.

Potential home buyers often question real estate agents about a home’s technological features, which can be a significant selling point.

“When people invest in technology, it’s likely that they’re thinking about efficient components,” Kypreos said. “You wouldn’t go down the road of investing in technology and then wanting to overpay for antiquated older machines.”

Local builder Blue Heron is constructing 300 multimillion-dollar homes in Henderson’s mountainside Ascaya community.

They include features like blinds that adjust automatically by time of day and automatic lighting adjustments triggered when someone enters the room.

There is also technology to remind people when to take out the trash or when to adjust the watering system, said Chris Beucler, the chief expansion officer for Blue Heron.

Sustainability is also becoming a bigger part of the home-building process, Beucler said. That includes everything from using sustainable building materials to installing drought-tolerant landscaping, he said.

The builder also conducts a wind and sun study to determine how the elements will affect the property.

Blue Heron, for instance, looks at weather data to help influence the design of the home to shield entryways and backyards from wind, officials said.

They aren’t the only builders with this mentality.

“We are going to continue to see more and more smart features and innovation in the homes of tomorrow,” said Tina Frias, CEO of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association.

Frias said builders in general have become more focused on sustainability and energy efficiency, incorporating technology in new homes to increase functionality.

The high-tech features “will also be opportunities to attract the interests of our younger generation of future home buyers,” she said.

For instance, products that have more efficient water utilization will create stronger insulation of homes and reduce the tension of a heating, ventilating and air conditioning system. That enables the house to run in a more efficient manner and is a cost saving, Frias said.

“We are going to continue to see more and more smart features and innovation in the homes of tomorrow,” Frias said. “These will also be opportunities to attract the interests of our younger generation of future home buyers.”

The Voltex Max Water Heater, a residential water heater that can hold 80 gallons of water and was shown during the International Builder Show last week at the Las Vegas Convention Center, reduces water heating costs by 72%, the manufacturer said.

It refills more efficiently to deliver 40% more hot water than a standard product, said Lee Holmes, brand marketing manager for the heater’s manufacturing company, A.O. Smith.

The device, like most on the market, includes a vacation mode that makes the water heater go dormant so it’s not heating water when someone is out of the house, Holmes said. There’s also an app for homeowners to monitor water levels.

Beazer Homes, with more than three decades of homebuilding experience in Las Vegas, is focused on building energy-efficient houses.

As of December, 98% of its newly constructed homes met the standards of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home Program, said Allan Merrill, the company’s CEO.

A home built to those standards is so energy efficient that a renewable energy system could offset most or all of the homes’ annual energy use, according to the Energy Department.

The homes meet rigorous efficiency and performance criteria, verified by a third party, as part of the certification process, the agency says. Certified homes are eligible to receive a tax credit of up to $5,000.

To meet the Energy Department’s high-performance home standards, Beazer takes steps such as framing homes with 2-by-6 instead of 2-by-4 lumber to create a larger void in the walls for extra insulation.

“You can get the home of the future, today,” Merrill said.