I'm amazed how many home sellers and their representatives do not provide a property floor-plan on line (including $500,000 and up properties). I think the majority of properties on the MLS do not have a floor plan to view.
Let's just say a floor plan would be helpful. No?
As part of my listing package I have a professional floor-plan measured and converted to photo file and Pdf file (unless for some specific reason). These are put on the property brochure and uploaded to the MLS.
8 comments:
Floor plans are a nice plus, Eric, and they're often available from a broker's floor plan library or from the seller.
It's been my experience that many people have difficulty understanding floor plans.
Everyone, however, can get a good feel for a home from a video walk-through with commentary from the agent.
How would you see the relative utility of a video vs a floor plan if the marketing budget doesn't permit investing in both?
The post can be attributed to my frustration while searching properties today on the MLS. There were some homes that I could not tell how they lay-out from the photos...and there was no 360 degree tour or floor-plan.
The utility is in a floor-plan if I had a choice. It's just simply faster to flip through good photos and take a look at a floor-plan to see the layout. Video tours are great, but are time consuming when looking through properties online.
I think if I narrowed down some places, then I'd take a look at a video tour.
You know I have to play nice so I'll only address my situation. I find it a minimum to make a floor-plan and provide the 360 degree tour for my listed properties.
It's inexpensive and really helps to view properties online. I also feel I should try and use the alloted sixteen photos for the MLS. It's such an improvement over the nine we used to get. Yet, there will be three plus bedroom condos/town homes and even single family homes with only seven to nine photos.
Eric, you and other agents have free access to 13,000+ condo floor plans, and building plates, at ChicagoCondosOnline.com. You can also access them from connectMLS.
Right... Regardless of how you get a floor plan, or whatever tool available, someone viewing the property online should be able to tell what the place looks like. There are lots of properties listed without good photos or floor-plans easily accessible for buyers and agents.
It is much easier if the floor- plan and max amount of photos are made availble by the agent or seller for their specific property (without having to take more steps to search them if they even exist).
Somewhat off topic or at least side topic. I've looked at a lot of listings and there are two tendencies I've noticed that bug me.
1) Multiple shots of the same room/side of a room. For example, a shot of the kitchen with the stove and the fridge. Then the next one shows the same two applicances just shifted ever so slightly to the right. The next shifted ever so slightly to the left. As if they just couldn't decide which shot shows the stove's good side.
2) Virtual tours that are really just still shots set to music. I've seen a few good ones that pan up and down in a room to show high ceilings and all the open space, or include a room or hallway not shown in the picture album, but if all you are doing is showing a slideshow of the 6 pictures of your kitchen, you kinda deserve to have your home on the market for 6 months.
There is a difference between 360 degree tours and the "Virtual Tours" posted with most listings that use the professional photography company VHT.
I use the 360s (camera circles the whole room) when it makes sense to show the entire room (and you can see how halls, kitchens, other rooms etc...are adjacent to the room).
The VHT "Virtual Tour" is a still photo that pans side to side or up and down to show the entire wide angle of the photo.
Joe above was wondering what I thought about actual video tours. I think these can be good, but they can be more time consuming to watch versus lots of good photos and then a quick check of a floor plan.
I do like taking different angle still-shots in large rooms as well.
I always find floor plans useful, but what if the property has an undesirable floor plan? For example really small bedrooms or a quirky layout. Then is it better to show the property and get people in the door before they realize the property's faults.
Matt, Matt, Matt...
Most people get upset with Realtors when they provide misleading marketing.
The best policy is to represent the property accurately. Additionally, the room dimensions are given on the MLS listing, so if you don't want a 9X8 beroom, you'll already be able to figure that out.
The property is what it is and "hiding" the floor plan will waste people's time. If priced accurately, quirky or not, the right buyers will look at the information provided and make a decision to view it.
I have a ton of examples of people coming into a listing for a showing and immediately rejecting the property becuase it doesn't have a deck or because it has a separate kitchen from the living room... even when tons of photos and floor-plan are available.
So, if the choices are limited in their price point and a desired location, they may come and look anyway, small bedrooms or not.
Oh, and sorry about your quirky layout with small bedrooms! Just kidding.
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