Table of Contents
- Why Floor Plans Help Real Estate Sales
- Not All Floor Plans Are the Same
- Top 5 Apps to Easily Create Floor Plans
- Your Best Floor Plan Option – PhotoUp
Floor plans help sell real estate listings. Therefore, sales professionals are always looking for ways to create floor plans for real estate easily.
There are many floor plan apps and programs available. Unfortunately, many are difficult to use and produce inferior-quality floor plans.
In this article, we’ll look at a few apps and providers that easily create floor plans for real estate.
Before diving in, let’s explain why floor plans significantly benefit real estate sales.
Why Floor Plans Help Real Estate Sales
Buyers love floor plans and consider them valuable tools in their home search. Why? Because floor plans enable buyers to understand the spatial layout of a listing fully.
With this essential information, buyers can then determine the following:
- Will their furniture fit in any given space or room?
- Is the family room big enough for holiday gatherings and parties?
- Are there layout issues that might be problematic for their plans for the property?
Moreover, a floor plan allows the buyer to visualize the physical context of the listing photos more accurately.
Now, exactly how important is featuring a floor plan on your listing? These recent statistics answer the question:
- 64% of buyers expect to see a floor plan on every listing
- 1 in 5 buyers won’t schedule a showing for a listing that does not include a floor plan
- Floor plans on listings are viewed 7.5 times more frequently than other listing materials
- They help speed a sale – listings with 3D floor plans spend 50% less time on the market
- 51% of buyers say that floor plans were helpful in their decision-making process
The numbers are clear. Floor plans give buyers the information they need to decide whether a home will work for them and whether it’s worth viewing in person.
For these reasons, all your listings should include a floor plan. This then raises the question, “What kind of floor plan?”
Not All Floor Plans Are the Same
Not all floor plans are created equal. There are a variety of floor plan styles and options. Additionally, floor plans have become more complex in the past few years.
Generally speaking, there are three basic types of floor plans:
2D Black and White is the most common and basic floor plan option. It provides the visual and spatial context for a listing. These are usually the easiest to create as well as the least expensive.
3D Colored floor plans are a step up from black and white 2D and have the advantage of looking more impressive and being better at helping the buyer visualize any room accurately and in more detail.
360/3D floor plans are akin to virtual tours and rely on the same technology. However, these floor plans require the use of a special 3D camera and tend to be more expensive.
Deciding which floor plan type is best for a listing will depend on a range of factors, including budget, timing, and layout.
At this stage, you’re probably wondering how to easily create floor plans for real estate. Let’s review a few of your options.
Top 5 Apps to Easily Create Floor Plans
A range of software is available for brokers, agents, and home sellers to easily create floor plans for real estate. The following 5 apps are worth exploring.
1. Magicplan Floor Plan App
First on our list is Magicplan, an online, browser-based floor plan maker that works on any Mac computer or iPad.
While Magicplan offers its services primarily to builders and contractors, its floor plans would be suitable for use by real estate sales professionals.
Magicplan offers the following floor plan features:
- The ability to create a floor plan by simply scanning a room with your smartphone
- You can edit and alter the floor plan by using your finger to “draw” on it
- These renderings can then be turned into 2D-floor plans
- 3D floor plan service is also available
Overall, the program is easy to use. However, it only works on Apple software.
Price: Magicplans “Sketch” option allows for multiple 2D floor plans for $9.99 a month. Their “Estimate” options allow for 3D floor plans and multiple users for $89.99 a month.
2. A Popular Floor Plan Option – RoomSketcher
Second on our list is RoomSketcher, a popular floor plan software used by real estate photographers and agents.
RoomSketcher is an online program that makes it relatively easy to create 3D floor plans quickly without any prior technical or design experience.
Since it’s web-based, it can be used on multiple devices. Even better, it has a comprehensive catalog of templates, furniture, and fixtures to add to your floor plans.
Price: You can try RoomSketcher using its free version that allows 1 user to create 1 floor plan. Paid plans run from $24-$360 annually and enable multiple users and projects.
Incredible 2D & 3D
Real Estate Floor Plan Service
Record a video of your listing from your smartphone. We do the rest.
3. Easily Create Floor Plans With Floorplanner
A third option for easy floor plans is Floorplanner. In fact, this software is one of the easiest to use on our list. The following features and benefits are worth checking out:
- It’s web-based and easy to access
- The drop-and-drag interface is designed to be easy for beginners
- You can easily create 2D and 3D floor plans
The program is really easy to use and allows you to create professional-grade floor plans within minutes.
Price: Floorplanner offers a trial option to create 1 free floor plan. However, it will contain a watermark if you want to download it.
They offer better-quality floor plans in two pricing plans – their Plus plan costs $5 per month, and their Pro plan costs $29 per month.
4. 3D Floor Plans With SketchUp
Another option on our list is SketchUp. Their program is primarily for 3D modeling and rendering, but it can also be used to create floor plans.
SketchUp is easy to use and offers an extensive library of furnishings and objects to create realistic 3D floor plans.
A fairly popular option, SketchUp is used by many sales agents and photographers who cite its ease of use as the reason they chose it.
Price: A Commercial subscription starts at $119 per year, while their Studio level option costs $749 annually.
5. Create Floor Plans With Sweet Home 3D
Last on our list of easy-to-use floor plan programs is Sweet Home 3D.
The software was created for interior designers. However, it can also be used to create floor plans. Some of its features include the following:
- The ability to create both 2D and 3D floor plans
- A function to add furniture, lighting, and accessories to any design
- And a 3D walk-through experience
Sweet Home 3D offers many pre-designed templates that make it appealing for those who don’t have in-depth design skills and training.
Price: Free. However, while the program is free to use, the quality of the floor plans is quite basic, and they are not the most visually appealing option.
Incredible 2D & 3D
Real Estate Floor Plan Service
Record a video of your listing from your smartphone. We do the rest.
Your Best Option for Quality Floor Plans – PhotoUp
All of the above apps and programs require you to make your own floor plans. Think about it for a moment. Why pay a website when you have to do the work?
Thankfully, there’s an easier, more affordable, and faster alternative.
PhotoUp is your best solution for easy floor plan creation. We offer 2D and 3D floor plans that look fantastic.
Our floor plans are attractive and provide buyers with the visual information they need to see if any listing is right for them.
PhotoUp makes creating a floor plan as easy as 1-2-3.
First, sketch a rough property layout and include the dimensions, room names, and the property’s orientation.
Second, sign up for a free PhotoUp account and send us your sketch, photos, and other support materials.
Third, we’ll send you a proof of your floor plan within 24 hours for your approval.
It’s really that easy.
The price? Real estate floor plans start at 20 credits ($1.60/credit) depending on features.
PhotoUp – More Than Just Floor Plans
PhotoUp offers much more than just superb floor plans. We also provide a comprehensive range of real estate marketing solutions, such as:
- Real estate photo editing
- Virtual staging
- Virtual house tours
- Single property websites
- Video editing
- Custom websites
- Property flyers
- Custom house portraits
- And Virtual Assistants
PhotoUp provides a one-stop service for everything you need to market real estate on one user-friendly platform!
So, do yourself a favor.
Sign up for a free PhotoUp account right now, and let us help you start using real estate floor plans in all your marketing efforts.
We hope this blog post showed you how to easily create floor plans for real estate. If you liked this post, you may also want to check out the following related resources:
