"Rebecca, why am I here to do a floor plan if this is a tear-down and you're selling it for the Lot"? 

Now, to me, that seemed to be a reasonable question. Not that I'm an ingrate, but that's kind of an odd sort of circumstance, don't you think?  There I was standing on the front lawn of the River Oaks property talking to my new listing agent client who had just indicated to me she wanted just a "bare bones" floor plan because the house was a tear down.

River Oaks --- one of our more exclusive residential districts in Houston, developed in the 1930's when Texas oil still gushed out of wooden derricks and the lots were half-acres (or more).  This house was originally built in 1939 and had several incremental updates --- and then a major remodeling in the 1960's.  "Faded" would be a good description for it, but it was also located in a VERY DESIRABLE section of River Oaks.  It was an estate sale, the owner was a prominent socialite who had recently passed away, after living well into her 90's. Her son was sorting through the house and putting it on the market.

"Well, Judith" she said, "it was like this....  

Sitting across the table from him I KNEW I was NOT going to get the listing. I could just tell ... he wasn't "with" me... and suddenly out of my mouth came "...and I'd like to do an interactive floor plan" and just like that he was listening to me... so I kept talking." 

I'd never worked with Rebecca before, but I had given a presentation to her brokerage .. which apparently she started channeling as she spoke with her potential client.

"I spun my laptop around and went to your webpage and showed him how it worked with the photos launching out of the floor plan and he was fascinated ... he'd never seen anything like that ... so that's why you're doing a floor plan..... I promised him one."

"Alrighty then ... let me get to work," I said.  And then she said something I didn't expect to hear. "You know I learned a valuable lesson on this one. When I was talking to him I was talking about "the Lot" ... as agents we tend to frame it that way in our heads, and we were discussing a proper valuation of the LOT -- but to him, this was his HOME, this is where he grew up. Then when I started demo-ing one of your floor plans with the photos launching out of it and bringing it all to life ---- we were suddenly talking about a HOME again ... not a broken down passed-its-prime-house sitting on a Lot just waiting for the bulldozer to show up .... and I realized that made a difference.  I need to remember that."

I know I won't forget it.

PS.. Multiple Offers were involved .. the first one for the Lot fell through. Listed at $1.5M, it sold for $1.5M with 5 days on the market.  The new owner is taking it down to the studs. My online floor plan turned out to be a useful, informal "go-by" that helped them see the possibilities. At least on this one, the bulldozer didn't win.

Thanks for Stopping By,

Judith, The Floor Plan Lady

www.smarteplans.com