Two days ago I received an email that said: I think you have a very infor­ma­tive and inter­ac­tive Web­site with plenty of pic­tures. What I think is miss­ing are the sam­ple floor plans. Some­one like me would want to see the pic­tures (which you have) then look at the floor plans. Just a friendly com­ment. I wish I had those floor plans. In fact, I wish there would be floor plans not just for con­dos but for all homes. The only floor plans for the resale of homes I’ve seen were the architect’s plans for a custom-built home and another set for a planned remodel. In the resale of con­dos the doc­u­men­ta­tion that comes with the Resale Cer­tifi­cate may include floor plans but the qual­ity of the repro­duc­tion often leaves much to be desired. So do the floor plans cre­ated by apprais­ers which are meant to estab­lish only basic dimen­sions and lack detail.

Floor plans are com­mon when they are a nec­es­sary part of mar­ket­ing. When the new condo com­plex exists only on paper or is still under con­struc­tion, the “show­room” sales office dis­plays 3d-models and the brochures include floor plans. So do the web­sites such as the one for the Gallery in Seattle’s Bell­town neigh­bor­hood where one of my clients pur­chased a one-bedroom unit. (I’ve started a file with new condo and home brochures to have the floor plans for re-sales down the road.)

Man­u­als for appli­ances and cars but not for homes If I remem­ber cor­rectly, in Ger­many, were I grew up, the pur­chase of a home included all plans with every addi­tion and alter­ation. In any case, this is how it should be. It would make every­thing eas­ier: inspec­tions, appraisals, say noth­ing of plan­ning a move and decid­ing what piece of fur­ni­ture should go where.

This isn’t ask­ing too much. When I sold a 1984 Mazda the new and fourth owner received the car with a detailed man­ual and a com­plete record of all repairs. When I was look­ing to buy a similar-vintage stereo sys­tem on craigslist the owner offered a com­plete man­ual in pdf for­mat. In fact, there are sev­eral web­sites ded­i­cated to prod­uct man­u­als dat­ing back sev­eral decades.

Plans on a Stick Con­sid­er­ing that homes cost much more than most cars and a mul­ti­ple of any appli­ance it’s amaz­ing how lit­tle about them is doc­u­mented. In the age of dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tions it isn’t ask­ing too much for the builders of new con­dos and homes to hand each new owner the keys on a key ring that includes a USB stick with all floor plans and specifications.