USING FLOOR PLANS IN YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
Though high-quality photos and a well-written description of each room in your home are critical components to your marketing, providing a professional floor plan will also help to step up your game when advertising and promoting your home.
The size and overall layout of your home is one of the most, if not the most, important selling feature of your home. In a 2013 survey conducted by Rightmove, it was discovered that 1 in 4 buyers required a floor plan in order to seriously consider a home. Without it, they tended to ignore the listing. Providing a floor plan sends a message to buyers that you are thorough and professional and serious about selling.
You can get a professional floor plan from the architect or builder, but if they aren’t available, you can contact a professional real estate photographer.
3D INTERACTIVE FLOOR PLAN
A floor plan can be so much more than numbers, basic geometry, and legal confirmation for the claimed size of the home. To grab a buyer’s attention, use an interactive 3D floor plan to improve your marketing strategy. This is a creative way to turn a one-dimensional, rote drawing into a beautiful visual experience.
Most people have a difficult time seeing a set of squares and rectangles as a home. 3D floor plans work as models to help potential buyers visualize the property from all possible angles, understand the configuration of rooms, and get a feel for the flow of the property.
Unlike photos, an interactive 3D floor plan literally brings a picture to life and puts everything into an animated perspective.
If the property has tenants living in the space, 3D floor plans are the best way to ensure that the full potential of the home is completely showcased.
FINDING A FLOOR PLAN TECHNICIAN
Before you list your home, you will have to learn the exact square footage of the home. Old school measurements using a tape measure will not suffice, so you will need to find a professional who is certified to create a 3D floor plan.
This professional will ensure that your 3D floor plan is accurate, incorporates all minor and major details, and is an exact replication of your home.
Using a reputable and certified floor plan technician will prevent any legal action that could come out measurement discrepancies after your home has been sold, which can happen when a seller is not careful and inaccurately reports square footage numbers in a listing.
Should the buyer discover through an appraisal that the reported square footage was reported in error, the seller may face a lawsuit. To avoid such situations, it is your responsibility to engage a floor plan technician to accurately calculate and guarantee the correct square footage numbers to ensure that the seller is advertising the correct information within the listing.
If you have completed any renovations during your ownership, the original floor plan is obsolete and you will have to have a new set of plans drawn. MLS boards are strict about measurements that can and cannot be included. Floor plan technicians specialize within real estate measurements and keep up-to-date with local regulations.
It just makes sense to have a professional create these floor plans, because when it comes to pricing, big differences are affected by small differences. “Guestimates” are sloppy and could get you into trouble. A certified floor plan technician will measure your home to each 1/16 of an inch. This is one area in which DIY could cost you in the end.
NUMBERS DON'T LIE: BUYERS LIKE VIRTUAL TOURS
Seventy-five percent of potential buyers who took part in a recent real estate study reported more interest in virtual tours than traditional photographs.
Listings that incorporate virtual tours are viewed by approximately 40% more buyers when compared to listings that only offered traditional photographs.
VIRTUAL 360 TOURS
John Passerini, VP of Interactive Marketing at Sotheby’s International Realty, told a recent conference audience that virtual reality is becoming an absolute necessity for real estate. A virtual 360 tour is a great way to showcase all that your home has to offer potential buyers. The 360-degree panoramic photography enhances visualization by showcasing an entire room in one full, beautiful shot, without missing a square inch.
NAR recently conducted a study in which they identified that 45% of buyers were more attracted to listings that contained the 360 tour.
VISUALIZATION BENEFITS
With the virtual 360 tour, potential buyers can view the property more effectively than traditional photography because multimedia tours of this type allow buyers to develop an enhanced impression of the property.
BEATING THE COMPETITION
If you’re living or working in an area with multiple homes up for sale, you need to gain an edge on your competition. A virtual tour is the best way to accomplish this goal.
Producing a virtual tour for your property gives you a great opportunity to help buyers make the decision to buy. Your property will make the first perfect impression on your potential buyers and will stand out among the rest.
MULTIPLE EXPOSURE
With everything going mobile in today’s real estate market, you have to take advantage of all the ways the technology platforms interact with each other, while keeping in mind that potential buyers don’t want to use up all their data downloading your app. Be sure that your property tour can integrate with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, at the very least. It’s worth your time to investigate automating changes to your listings for all your social media accounts. It will save you a lot of time manually inputting every little change.