In a world where agents spend thousands on drone videos, glossy photo shoots and slick digital campaigns, one element of property marketing remains stuck in the past – the floor plan. It’s the document every buyer checks but no one talks about.
And according to Michael Cardillo, Managing Director of FloorScape, that silence is costing agents both trust and results.
“Floor plans are completely neglected,” he says.
“They’re the most neglected part of Australian property marketing – right through from off-the-plan sales to your average high-volume residential campaign.”
A glaring disconnect
Michael’s journey into the floor plan business began in the same way many buyers start their property search – on a real estate listings portal.
“We noticed that above 75% of listings had floor plans, but they were of horrendous quality. They were riddled with mistakes, they looked visually unappealing, and they sat next to beautifully produced photography and video. It didn’t make sense.”
For a campaign that might cost a vendor $10,000 or more, the floor plan was the weak link. Worse, it was inaccurate.
“If you go on Domain or realestate.com right now, even on the best listings in Australia, the floor plans are disgraceful.”
The reason, he says, is structural. Floor plans have historically been produced by photographers as a cheap upsell.
“They sketch it up or scan it with an iPad and send it overseas. The cost to produce that product is like $20 in some cases. There’s no oversight. No one cares about them.”
And, Michael says, that has consequences.
“The biggest and most critical mistake is to do with floor area sizes. The floor sizes on most listings are over 10% inaccurate in some instances. There’s no consistent calculation method, and no regulation or process behind it.”
The price of “good enough”
What’s most frustrating, Michael says, is that agents often don’t realise what they’re sacrificing.
“There’s a culture of ‘Don’t worry about it, it’s just a diagram.’ But that narrative doesn’t work anymore. Not when you’ve got architectural photography, cinematic video … and a floor plan that looks like it was done in Microsoft Paint.”
Buyers aren’t necessarily walking away from listings due to poor floor plans, he admits, but their engagement changes.
“They’ll still go to the open home, but it degrades the overall feel of the campaign. It affects how seriously they take the brand, the agent, and the property.”
And the data backs him up. Research from Rightmove UK found that “over a third of buyers said that they were less likely to enquire about a property without a floorplan” suggesting that listings with floor plans receive more buyer engagement and may sell faster.
“People who are spending more on marketing tend to get better results,” Michael says. “Floor plans are part of that.”
The floor plan problem, as Michael sees it, is largely cultural.
“It’s just been accepted that they’re bad. No one’s challenged it. But the truth is, it’s a critical part of the campaign – especially now that more people are shopping virtually.”
He’s quick to point out that the issue isn’t unique to Australia and part of his company’s mission is education.
“Agents aren’t trained in architecture or design. They’re salespeople. So when they work with us, we take the lead. We don’t ask them what they want, we just give them what’s accurate, clear, and useful,” he says.
“We’re not just avoiding mistakes, we’re getting it more right than the agent could even expect. Our floor plans inform the copyright, the campaign, everything. They’re a core tenant of the marketing, not an add-on.”
Even small things, like consistent colour palettes to reflect flooring, legible room labels, and brand integration, add polish.
For all the energy agents pour into listing presentations, brand building, and vendor management, many are still undermining themselves with a floor plan that doesn’t match the rest of the campaign.
And buyers, particularly those in the upper brackets, are starting to notice.
“There are generational expectations, sure, but more than that, it’s about price point. People buying at the top end expect better. And they should.”
Because when it comes to selling property, presentation isn’t just about how something looks, he says it’s about whether it holds up under scrutiny.
“Why is a photographer doing a floor plan?”
What FloorScape offers isn’t revolutionary in concept, it’s just a 2D floor plan, but it’s the execution that sets it apart.
“We’ve measured over 40,000 properties. We go to every single one. Even if someone sends us building plans, we ignore them, because they’re always out of date. People change things, they renovate, they knock out walls. You can’t trust a PDF someone pulled from a council archive,” says Michael.
“With a bedroom, for example, we’ll exclude the built-in robe from the room’s dimensions. We show usable space, because that’s what the buyer wants to know. Same with kitchens – we show where the dishwasher is, where you’ll put your appliances. These plans are designed to help someone understand the home.”
That attention to detail, Michael argues, should be the industry standard. Instead, he says most agents are still treating floor plans as an afterthought – handing them off to photographers or relying on outdated methods.
“It’s like getting a haircut at a bakery. Why is a photographer doing a floor plan?”
