Floor Plans Are a Powerful Selling Tool But Can House Hunters Trust Their Accuracy?.
Space really can be the ‘final frontier’ for house hunters! To seek out a new life, and a new home. To boldly go..! Purchasing a property may increasingly appear to buyers as “exploring strange new worlds” as they navigate potential space at a house viewing and try to work out how it relates to the floor plan presented.
The success of selling a house almost always includes the potential for enlarging the available room areas to maximise living space and most importantly, storage.
In August 2018, it was reported that the average home in Britain had shrunk by one fifth since the 1970s. A view supported by a separate newbuild survey which said that the average living room now measured 17 sqm compared to 25 sqm some four decades earlier. Today, a property is likely to be “quarter the size of a tennis court”, according to recent research commissioned by The Times.
So its now more crucial than ever for home sellers to ensure their property can be marketed as the “perfect space” with “future potential” for their target buyer audience.
Detailed picture of the entire ‘footprint’ of the property
The floor plan fulfils an important role because it provides more than actual room sizes. A potential buyer is also given a detailed picture of the entire ‘footprint’ of the property, how spaces ‘interconnect’ and flow into each other. A buyer may often want to understand the feasibility for practical modifications to the current layout for opening up available spaces, no matter how small.
With space increasingly at a costly premium, a potential buyer wants be sure that the property offers exactly what they are looking for even before they go to a viewing to see it with their own eyes. With a floor plan now such an essential “selling tool”, the likelihood of errors creeping in can make or break a potential deal as the discrepancies are discovered under close scrutiny. So why do these errors occur?
Spaces included or omitted as square footage on the plan
A floor plan is usually obtained by the property agent from a specialist floor plan provider. However, until recently there was no regulatory standards or industry guidelines which would help to ensure accuracy. A floor plan may simply reflect individual software, tools and the process of collecting data.
Another factor can sometimes be those spaces included or omitted as square footage on the plan, such as staircases, storage room or walk-in wardrobes, which can affect the property’s asking price. Potential buyers may simply see a discrepancy between the floor plan and the actual space, which they may or may not be able to practically use.
No potential house buyer wants to feel they are being misled by a floor plan that appears to show a property is bigger than the space it actually occupies. A RightMove survey of 10,000 house hunters reveals that more than half would not proceed if a floor plan was not provided and a fifth said they would “ignore the property advert completely”.
RICS “Measurement Matters” Guide
Traditionally, house buyers have clearly placed their trust in the accuracy and reliability of the floor plan to help them arrive at a final decision on an offer to purchase. Clearly, buyers also might reasonably expect industry standards to be in place and properly followed.
However, how many house sellers and buyers are aware that official guidelines for creating accurate floor plans have been in existence for the last 12 months? In November 2018, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) produced its “Measurement Matters” guide, with the aim of removing imprecise floor plans and providing a mandatory standard and consistent approach to measuring a property for sale or let.
Attract up to third more interest from buyers
RICS advise that the floor plan must include accurate wall-to-wall and window-to-window measurements of internal rooms. The guide also instructs on external spaces that should not be included such as, detached garages, outbuildings and decking in the overall measurement of the property. Spaces that cannot be inhabited, such as basements and lofts should also be excluded.
The floor plan has always been a powerful selling tool for selling a property, which can attract up to third more interest from buyers, say RightMove. Both house sellers and buyers will welcome the news that fair and accurate floorplans to RICS guidelines can be obtained from the best high street property agent professionals.
