We are living in an age where HGTV has set the tone for the real estate industry. It’s fun to watch, it’s visually appealing, and yes, I even love to watch it too. However, what makes for good TV in pop culture doesn’t always translate into a good home buying strategy. How many times have you watched TV couples select their new abode based on the fixtures or staged furniture? I’ve seen it happen in real life. 

What HGTV neglects to tell viewers is fixtures and staging are just eye candy. These are all things that can be fixed, swapped, or improved upon with time, money, and a little elbow grease.

In my opinion, the first attribute every buyer should look at is the basic floorplan of the house. 

Floorplans aren’t flashy eye candy, and rarely make appearances on reality real estate shows – but they’re the best way to get an idea of the home’s layout without any design input. It may sound boring – but what better way to understand and feel what you are really buying then to take in the layout of your potential new home? 

We are a visual society, and the real estate and design industries have capitalized on this. Home stagers and virtual stagers have lucrative careers making a space seem visually appealing, but homebuyers are in for a big surprise when they walk into the space without the furniture to see it barely resembles the idyllic scenes supplied by professional interior designers. The floorplan allows you to see what you’re working with in the simplest form.

If the floorplan has a funky layout, that’s way more expensive to fix than changing floors, faucets, or countertops. When you study and really look at the floorplan of a home you are considering buying, you really can visualize what it would be like to knock down walls, make a bigger master, or find the perfect place to build out a walk-in closet. 

Floorplans are my obsession. They are vital to the home buying process because they are the sum of the parts of the home you are buying. Walk the property to understand the current flow. Use your mind’s eye to understand what the property is and what it can be. Your wallet will thank you!