The Power of Floor Plans
Photos allow potential buyers to picture where they will live. Floor Plans show potential buyers how they will live. We live in a world where photos are not as cut and dry as they used to be. Any photo can be edited to enhance the raw version of reality. However, there is no embellishment when it comes to floor plans. The above view of living spaces shows both the potential and limitations of listings. Floor plans have the power to get your listings sold faster, why? Because they are real.
When marketing a home, you may believe that having stunning photographs paired with an elegant description is enough to set yours apart in a competitive real estate market. Despite what you may think, recently completed research shows that floor plans are also at the top of the list for what buyers look for when hunting for their ideal home. If you are in the market to sell, is getting a floor plan a necessity? Yes, and Twist Tours is happy to tell you why.
According to a recent National Association of Realtor’s (NAR) survey, buyers think that floor plans are very useful as part of a website’s listing content. Of course at Twist Tours, we have always believed that floor plans assist in the home selling process and provide a vital piece of the complex marketing puzzle for listings. After all, photos show that the seller lives in the home; a floor plan shows how the buyer can live in it. We spoke with the NAR research team to get floor plans included in their annual survey for homebuyers and sellers and the results we have all been waiting for are in:
55% of buyers stated that floor plans were very helpful as part of a website’s content features.
As a matter of fact, they were right behind photos and detailed property info! The top 5 items ranked upon how useful they are were:
- Property photos
- Detailed property information
- Floor plans
- Virtual tours
- Recently sold home data
Given this information, it is clear that in today’s market that floor plans increase the chances of selling your property! Now it is time for another important question:
Why do buyers want to see a floor plan?
When purchasing a home, many buyers like to have the opportunity to visualize the room layout to see where rooms fit in relation to other rooms and to understand the flow of the property. Since each home is unique, a floor plan will offer more than just a simple photograph. Dimensions are also important in this process. Clear dimensions will allow buyers to see if a specific property meets their needs, which in certain cases can be tricky to meet. On the floor plan itself, dimensions can be noted or beside the room descriptions, which make the floor plan easier to understand.
A floor plan presents the buyer with the opportunity to picture a property as their very own, rather than someone else’s property. They can see how their furniture would fit into space and how they would live in a specific layout. It is possible that in a property there is a wall in between a kitchen and a dining room where the buyer can knock it down in order to create a more open floor plan to allow for easier communication between those that reside in the home and guests. Alternatively, if a buyer is purchasing new furniture, they can use the floor plan as a template for designing a new layout that properly reflects their interior taste.
When buying a home, boosting efficiency is so important because no one likes living in a home they aren’t thrilled to reside in! Using a floor plan saves time for both sellers and buyers. From a seller’s perspective, they don’t want to waste time showing their property to people that will lose interest the second that they walk through the front door and buyers don’t want to view properties where they layout will not provide the space that they require.
Are floor plans useful after a viewing?
Not only are floor plans a great asset for buyers before a viewing, but they can also help buyers visualize a property after they have viewed it. When the potential buyer is considering making structural alterations to the property such as adding an addition or knocking down a wall, a floor plan is a big help. A floor plan on a printed schedule can even allow a potential buyer to make notes when they are in a property and then refer back to them, which will increase the “buy in!” Floor plans can also make a property seem a bit larger. It is possible to forget certain parts of a property following a viewing, especially when that property features a box room, pantry, or basement where a potential buyer may use space differently. When showing all of the potential space on a floor plan, this will reinforce the overall size and unlimited potential that a house has and will result in the perceived value increases.
Floor plans and your strategy
Floor plans can even tie into a strategy for how to be seen throughout the web on places like Zillow, Realtor.com, and other websites that offer users the ability to learn about homes on the market. By incorporating our content in smart ways you can leverage those sites and the millions of people that venture to them every month. Ultimately, you will get people coming to you and the virtual tour by marketing the fact that you offer floor plans tied to the listing.
It is very clear that floor plans are becoming increasingly important when it comes to marketing your property and provide a real upper hand to sellers. The opportunity to increase interest, encourage viewing, and sales mean that floor plans are a must when placing your home on the market.
