How A Gamble On Floor Plans Can Be a Win for Homebuilders

Every time I cut into an avocado, I’m rolling the dice. Will it be ripe or rotten? Will the seed be giant or small? The act comes with uncertainty, but by no means is it life changing. At worst, it might mean I’m serving salsa with my chips instead of guacamole.

For many, trying to understand a home’s floor plan is more of a gamble. Will the space be large enough for my family? Will it feel bright and open or dark and enclosed? Is the kitchen isolated or is it connected to the causal living areas? These concerns are so troubling, buyers often will settle for a pre-built house that may not be right for them, but at least they can easily see and understand it.

Buying a home tends to be the biggest investment of people’s lives. When you combine uncertainty, emotions, and big investments, is it any wonder that the model becomes the best-seller in any neighborhood?

Floor Plans are Abstract

Buyers aren’t the only ones who can’t fully anticipate how a floor plan will live and feel. Many homebuilders share the same uncertainty as buyers but often won’t admit it. Let’s face it, floor plans are abstract. No one sees a house with the roof pulled off so they can look down from above.

As an architect, my practice is to not only create the floor plans that will win over buyers, but also communicate to my clients—whether builder or homeowner—the attributes of my designs. Over the years, I have learned that everyone’s knowledge and comfort with reading a floor plan is vastly different. Some get it immediately while some need a little coaching. Some are clueless and know it, and, worst of all, some are clueless and don’t know it. These are the ones who need to build the prototype before they build the model.

Now imagine you’re a developer of a large, multifamily project. You fully embrace the plans developed by the architect, but the financial backers of the projects can’t visualize the design. They think the units are too small or the common spaces aren’t grand enough. Because they can’t visualize the floor plan, the project can’t move forward. It would be like the produce truck delivering all rotten avocados to the Mexican restaurant—sorry, no guacamole today!

Selling From Floor Plans

During the pandemic lockdown, I conducted several “The Art of Selling from Floor Plans” classes for new-home sales consultants. I was hoping to show the sales teams the nuances of the plans that would help their buyers visualize how the house lived. Some of my top points:

• Notice how connected the kitchen is to the family room.
• This is the everyday arrival sequence for the buyer coming through the garage.
• Notice the zoning for this house—kids at one end, grownups at the other end.
• This bedroom has a bed wall long enough for a king size bed.

Initially, it didn’t go as expected. Instead of the sales team adopting the nuances on selling from floor plans, I got basic questions about how to read a floor plan:

• How can I tell the difference between a door and a window?
• What does the zig-zag line on the stairs mean?
• What is that door only open halfway?
• Is that dotted line above the washer and dryer indicating wire shelves or cabinets?

Turns out, there are a lot of symbols and protocols on floor plans that are counterintuitive. If the people selling the floor plans don’t understand the difference between a window and a door, chances are the buyers don’t either.

Bringing Floor Plans to Life

Demystifying a floor plan starts with a basic understanding. As mentioned, a floor plan isn’t a realistic point of view. The roof or upper floors are removed to reveal the walls and cabinets below. This cut or removal happens 4 feet above the floor. Anything removed above 4 feet is shown as a dotted line. Doors are typically shown fully or partially open with an arc indicating the direction of travel. Windows are usually shown as two thin lines on either side of the wall.

The next hurdle is making the plan easy to read. A typical construction document floor plan is so cluttered with notes, dimensions, and weird hatch patterns that it can be hard to find the front door. I recommend creating a marketing floor plan that keeps the walls a solid color and indicates rooms sizes by text within the room. Strings of dimension lines are distracting.

The role of furniture is also important. I like to add furniture to a floor plan to add scale and show how the room functions. When you add a king-sized bed to the primary suite, buyers begin to understand the remaining space in the room. Nightstands, dressers, and other furniture can demonstrate how big the room is and how it functions. Adding furniture to the living room can quickly reveal if the room is properly designed and big enough to be livable. If, for example, the couch and loveseat must float in the middle of the room to allow for circulation and a view of the TV, the room may be too small.

Graphics should be kept simple. You should be able to see the dining room table with the chairs partially slid under. A sofa should have distinguishable arms and a back. Adding pillows and patterns to the furniture start to make the drawing look cluttered. I am not a fan of a colored floor plan that shows patterned rugs under colorful furniture. For me, it gets too busy. The goal is not to sell furniture, but to help consumers understand the spaces.

Adding the Third Dimension

Even with clean graphics and properly scaled furniture, the floor plan is still just a 2D representation. Adding the third dimension is key to bring a plan to life. In the past, this step has been skipped because it takes too long or is too expensive to create. Often this is only utilized for large-scale projects like the previously mentioned multifamily project.

Fortunately, we are at the cusp of an emerging technology when it comes to reading and understanding projects before they are built. Artificial intelligence is the perfect communication tool to create not only 3D drawings but also 3D “digital” buildings you can walk through. Some architects may bristle, thinking AI might replace them instead of embracing it as a communication tool. But those who have fully embraced AI now use it as a design tool to quickly explore options and ideas. Like many, I am a novice when it comes to this powerful tool, but I am excited to learn and implement it our practice.

The ultimate sales tool is still the model home, as it is the best way to showcase how a floor plan lives. Furnished model homes are a big investment, but if the model is always the bestselling floor plan, then isn’t it worthwhile?

3D tours, such as Matterport, allow models to be viewed and walked through online. These tours use a camera that takes 360-degree pictures and builds a virtual reality replica of your model. With this tool, buyers can walk through the house, look up, look down, turn around, and begin to understand how the house lives. It even allows users to measure spaces. Is it better than experiencing a home live and in person? Probably not, but I believe it is powerful enough to get someone off the couch and interacting with your product.

Bottom Line

The inside of the avocado is still a bit of an unknown. Fortunately, that’s not the case with floor plans with so many ways to peel away the mystery. And since a home is often the most expensive purchase in a family’s life, utilizing every possible tool is worth exploring. There’s enough uncertainty in the housing market today. Removing the uncertainty of understanding how their family might live in your home could be just what we need today.