I have been seeing more floor plans included in the mls in MA anyways. I agree they are great. Especially if you plan to buy and renovate. I think it depends on the Realtor if they include it or not.

Safety can be an issue. You don't want criminals seeing the layout of your house so they know where the kids bdms and mstr bdm is.

Here most flyers from information box attached to the for sale sign, or from the open house, including floor plans.

I am on our MLS committee and can tell you why we don't do this....liability issue... "unleash the lawyers"

If it's an older home you can often see the basic floor plan if you check out the parcel data. Floor plans can change, so lots of older homes don't have one anymore. New homes usually have one on the listing.

summer,

"we don't do this....liability issue..",

What liability issue?

It's quite common here (MA). I suspect much of the reason they are not used is that people very often don't have them and they are expensive or time-consuming to make.

The "liability" issue makes no sense. Anyone who wants to know your general layout can just look at the house and in a window or two and figure it out with just a couple clues.

When I was house shopping, most of the listings included the room dimensions (master bedroom 12 x 14 for example) but now I no longer see the dimensions. Super disappointing. It was very helpful.

We posted a floorplan with approximate dimensions ...

We posted a floorplan in our FSBO website, but when we switched to a realtor, they didn't. We used an appraiser's sketch.

Not common in current or last 2 places I've lived, but I would definitely find it useful.

If there's a concern about liability for incorrect dimensions, then you just say "measurements approximate" like they do on the room dimensions in the MLS listing.

I agree that worrying about someone casing your home via floorplan to target bedrooms is a bit far-fetched.

I'm no lawyer and I don't play one on TV, but disclaimers don't always remove all liability.

A drawn floor plan can look pretty professional and sort of gives the impression that it's accurate. So adding a disclaimer might not remove the liability.

Whereas just a list of rooms with approximate sizes is more obvious that it's just approximate even without the disclaimer.

I repeat ... I'm not sure if that's true, but it might be.

For me personally the disclaimer would be satisfactory, but there are a lot of sue-crazy people out there and if they see any potential at all, they'll drag you to court.

I think the reason is that most people don't have them. I don't have a floor plan for my house, and if I went to sell it, I would not pay anyone to make one. If someone wants to see the floor plan, they can stop by the house.

The thing about measurements is valid. Many lawsuits on this so there are disclaimers everywhere about "measurements approximate" and "buyer responsible for measurements" and such to keep the seller off the hook.

New construction? Floor plan is a must.

azmomom says:

summer,

"we don't do this....liability issue..",

What liability issue?...

The liability issue of incorrect room dimensions being displayed and getting sued over it.

They are common in my area, The disclaimer states, "information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed, buyer to verify all information."

summer, thank you, I was over thinking, thought may be there are some concerns I have never heard before, I did not expect it was only for sue happy people.

Cmarlin wrote:

"information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed, buyer to verify all information."

Our MLS will not allow this wording to even be in the MLS. If you, the agent, puts info into the MLS, then it needs to be accurate. And just because you add the above wording, it will not necessarily deem you not liable.

Oh, I didn't mean this was in the MLS, IT WAS NOT IN THE LISTING as the OP asked. It was in the flyer given when viewing a house. It is common for the MLS to say BTV when using numbers though.

New construction often includes a floorplan, but it is with the pictures. There is not a tab on Zillow for this. I agree it would be helpful.

American homes do, however, usually have a refrigerator in the kitchen;)

In my experience, a disclaimer is mainly to serve as a reason for the court to dismiss a complaint right away. An attorney simply won't take the case if there's been a disclaimer, no matter how incensed the buyer might be.

In my opinion, a layout sketch of a regular 3 bdrm 2 bath house would take a homeowner 2-3 hours at most. I drew a floorplan of my house as a part of a painting project. Measured the rooms, fireplaces, wall cabinets, doorways, windows, every cranny and nook. All it took was a measuring tape, pencil, ruler and graph paper.

"If someone wants to see the floor plan, they can stop by the house."

It would be good to avoid wasting everyone's time (the seller's, realtors' and mine) if the layout is wrong for me.

"It would be good to avoid wasting everyone's time (the seller's, realtors' and mine) if the layout is wrong for me."

The goal for the seller and the agent is to get buyers into the house, putting too much info in a listing might hurt that. Many times a buyer loves the house for other reasons and buys it.

I must be the oddball, I'm willing to overlook a bad floor plan, if the space, location, view is good, I'll remodel the interior.

handmethehammer -- There IS a fridge. It's beside the dishwasher, under the countertop. Bet it has a 'freezer compartmentwith refillable tray to make eight ice cubes *all at once*!

The most often asked requirement that I hear from buyers concerning floor plan is that the master be located on the main floor. This info is listed in every MLS listing. Other than this one floor plan requirement, I rarely am told that other floor plan requirements are a must.

NCREG - do you mean people don't mind a two story but want the master on the first floor? Parent's don't mind being on a different floor than their children? I thought that was a common complaint. Personally, for a two story I just want one bedroom on the first floor for guests.

We had a floor plan when we sold our house in MA back in 2007 and would also do one if we had to sell out house in CA. They are usually expected above a certain house size and price. They are usually not included in the MLS listing, but are found in the glossy brochure prepared by the realtors and handed out during appointments or open houses.

When our children were young, we would not have considered a home with a MBR on a floor different then theirs.

YMMV

Our mileage did vary. When our children were young, we remodeled to add a second floor to our rambler and intentionally put the master bedroom upstairs so we would be away from the kids. They knew where we were if they needed something. They managed to survive and are even relatively happy, independent, and well-adjusted adults. :-)

Glad your"kids" were self sufficient and did not need supervision.

My bad.

Saltidawg-

I hope you didn't think I was trying to twit you. I know that your view is probably the prevalent one; but I've always been surprised that it is a big deal for a lot of folks. Clearly, there are significant differences in what individual families view as necessary/acceptable/safe. I'm sure your kids probably turned out at least as well as mine. What is right is what the parents feel is necessary. And my attitude might have been different if any of my children liked to play with matches :-)

Our realtor paid to bring a pro out to draw floor plans which she linked as a “virtual tour” on the MLS listing. My guess is that if more sellers asked for it, it would become more commonplace. If I were selling, I’d ask for it when interviewing potential listing agents.

What I meant was that WHEN a buyer does request a requirement that has to do with the floor plan, it usually has to do with the location of the master. My main point was that I do not run into a lot of buyers that request requirements from the floor plan.

I don't even know what "I do not run into a lot of buyers that request requirements from the floor plan." means.

I do know that my wife and I have eliminated numerous homes from consideration based solely on seeing the floor plan and thus saved the Realtor and ourselves time and effort.

What did you see from the floor plans that eliminated the homes?

That would vary from home to home... in the hypothetical with three teen boys and my wife and I we would not want a four BR with one tiny room. Would want a MBR Bath and a second bath with bath and shower on the BR floor. Tub not important nor probably desired in MBR bath.

Dining room proximity to kitchen. Den proximity to kitchen. Garage access. Garage to kitchen for shopping trip unloading. Kitchen general arrangement. Access to basement.

I am somewhat surprised a Realtor would ask this question. In those instances where I purchased a new home, Floor plans allowed the Realtor/Site sales folks to eliminate much of their offerings and concentrates on the floor plans that would "work" for us.

I listed a few things I would look at, but some of those items would not be fatal floors, but would allow us to better communicate to the Realtor what we were looking for without wasting their time - nor ours.

EVERY time I bought or sold, I was making a long distance move for an employer that did not pay for house-hunting trips nor give me time off. We never spent more than 3-4 days looking for a new place and signing a purchase and sales agreement before returning home. Twice I "fired" Realtors for not listening, and still found a home within those 3-4 days total. In all cases I had told the Realtor that I would be loyal to them to a fault, UNLESS they did not listen and deliver, in which case I would move on to another Realtor. ALL listened over the years, save two.

In most cases, when I moved again in 3-4 years, I gave the listing to the agent that had found my house for me. Kharma.

One common layout issue that I encounter, where I live, is a finished basement/family room that is only accessible through the garage. Without a floor plan or virtual tour I have no idea if I'm going to encounter this sort of layout and so I waste everyone's time going to see those homes.

i think floor plans would be very helpful, and I wish they were more common here. I think it would save time for buyers who don't even want to consider houses with certain layout quirks common to their area.

All of the above can be found out with the listings' pictures, visual tours and agent description and the part of the MLS listing that spells out what rooms are located on each floor.

Would a floor plan depiction be nice to have? Sure. Especially for some of these very large homes. But the info can be found on the MLS listing too. Just in a different form.

Most agents do not even like measuring the outside dimensions of a property in order to determine Heated Living Area. I could just imagine the mistakes they would make trying to depict every separate space and walls. It's just not going to happen.

I spoke with three new buyers over this past weekend. All are just starting their search. None of the three listed criteria that I can not find from the MLS sheet.

Unfortunately, the layout issue I described is almost never in the listing available to the public (at least in my area). As a realtor you have access to significantly more information than I do. If this type of information was more easily accessible to the public, I think it would save everyone a lot of time. I'd quit emailing my realtor about why I'm not seeing a particular house that meets all the rest of my criteria, and my realtor would save time either looking up why she excluded the listing for me, or emailing me explaining that it had this layout quirk.

I think having layouts would be nice. Personally, I don't need exact dimensions. I just want to know how the house is laid out. If the layout doesn't work for me, I can save myself, my realtor, and the seller time by not going to see the home.

Exactly! And clearly some of the floor plan info is NOT available in the on-line sites available to me... That door from the garage to the basement item mentioned a bit ago would presumably not be highlighted in a listing,a minor example.

BTW, I don't think I have EVER looked at a new home that the developer did not have the floor plans on-line and available at the sale's office.

The developer is displaying the floor plan prints only because he has them already.

A finished basement that has to be accessed from either outside or from an unfinished room is not supposed to be included in the heated Living Area... at least not in our MLS.

You really need to stake out a consistent position. You have argued that including the floor plan that a few clients feel are of great value because you don't think the clients need them because they don't add value to the clients' search.

Not your call.

Now you suggest that ""The developer is displaying the floor plan prints only because he has them already." The developer wouldn't present them if he/she did not feel they add value.

Look, we get it. You don't think floor plans add value. I'd suggest that as a business person you may want to recognize that at least some buyers do find them valuable.

Indeed, I have lived through two cross-country home purchases where the sales would not have occurred without floor plans being available. (I suspect those Realtors were glad the plans were "already available.)

I realize the industry is not going to change their sales approach to include floor plans as a matter of routine because a portion of the potential buyers would find them valuable. However, to suggest that those buyers are somehow mistaken in their belief that the floor plans add value is not an attitude that this buyer would accept in a potential agent. Kharma II.

I must be the oddball, I'm willing to overlook a bad floor plan, if the
space, location, view is good, I'll remodel the interior.

To me, bad layout is one of the deal breakers, if it cant be fixed/changed. That would bug me forever.

What did you see from the floor plans that eliminated the homes?

One of my dealbreakers is running into the stairs when you open the front door (crowds the foyer too much). This can be shown in photos, but often is not. Layout would show it and save a trip.

Example 1: A house had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and I think 3 living areas mentioned. Upon viewing, the bedrooms were tiny and the living areas were oversized, and the layout was such that you couldn't carve from the living areas to make another bedroom.

Example 2: A house had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and living and family rooms. But the 2nd bath was a tiny powder room off the master bedroom, and expanding it would have meant cutting into the kitchen.

In both cases, a floor plan would have let me play with remodeling options, and I would have been able to quickly figure out that it wasn't feasible.

And no, the room sizes in and of themselves aren't sufficient info. Because we moved walls to right-size rooms before. But until you see the floor plan, you don't know if walls can be moved.

To me, bad layout is one of the deal breakers, if it cant be fixed/changed. That would bug me forever.

We are in agreement, I'm saying I would fix/change the floor plan (move walls) if the house has the right space, location, view. I just viewed an open house in an area I'm considering. It had just been remodeled, but kept the uncomfortable step down in the living room and the new kitchen had limited cabinet space with the huge built-in refrigerator blocking the water view. Other than that, I liked the size, location and water view, if I was ready to buy, I might do that knowing I would/could change the interior things I couldn't live with. Oh and the cheap fake metal wood look garage doors need to go.

What would be a deal breaker for me is having to change anything structurally in terms of building/removing walls. Layout is not that integral except for a few key elements such as:

I would want all bedrooms upstairs and the MBR the one closest to the stairs (in case I ever do have a family, for safety reasons).

I would want the MBR to have a front view, not back (which I see is very common).

I would want the ability to place (if it is not already present) a door on the top of the stairs, again for security.

I would want the Living Room to have a front view.

I would want the garage to be connected to the house instead of seperate from it (even if this just means a seperate structure but something which is ENCLOSED connecting the two).

I would also want larger rooms in the living area than in the bedrooms. Bedrooms are for sleeping and do not need to be large.

And last, but not least, I would want there to be a large enough foyer that I can door off.

I don't think this is a lot to ask lol, but it has been difficult to find thus far. I have found that the right foyer, especially, is difficult to find in newer homes.

I agree floorplans are helpful but I don't see one in the Scottish listing. I find it interesting how very tiny the refrigerator is!