All Forum Posts by: Paul Miller

Sorry...PE is a Professional Engineer.

Instead of taking bits and pieces of everyone's information which will vary greatly by municipality, consult with a local contractor who specializes in basement conversions. They will know the local requirements and come up with a quick design. At this point you won't need an architect. If and when you need a PE or licensed Architect to stamp plans, the contractor will have a relationship with one.

Secondly, know your intended audience. Single, college aged or not, I wouldn't even consider paying for a place with no means to shower. Even if you occasionally get some college kids who wouldn't mind, that won't result in a steady stream of renters. If you have a toilet down there already, adding a shower isn't too difficult. More than likely, you will need to meet ingress and egress requirements - Illegal renting is tempting, but practically suicide. All it takes is one slip and fall or other accident and you'd be toast.
What about heating/cooling? Unless you're charging bare-bones prices, someone will want to control their own comfort. A kitchenette is probably ok - most renters near a ski mountain will dine out. I'm not saying go for a full-blown apartment, but will sporadic cheap renters accomplish your goal? I do know that very few municipalities won't require egress and life safety considerations.

A municipality will not accept a DIY flashy app-produced drawing in its raw form. Every city has specific requirements that plans must be formatted to. Many I work with require a minimum 8 x 8 bordered area on the drawing just for their stamps and have rules on font type, size, drawing scale, information on the title blocks, line types, line weights, etc. The apps you're referring to are suited for hand-outs and entry level project starting points - not for official purposes - unless they can be imported into actual CAD software and manipulated (".dwg" files). Not Adobe Illustrator or other readily available Vector software, etc.  

I do this work for large commercial building fire alarm and sprinkler system submittals. As a side gig, I sometimes do this for residential real estate agents to include in their hand-out package. I utilize professional Autocad software. I would do an average size home for about $300.

If this is for a municipality, it will need to be a to-scale, flat 2D drawing for their filing purposes that includes every room - down to each closet. I doubt they would accept a DIY "fluff", look how cool, 3D app that spits out pictures that anyone can download from the App store. That doesn't give them what they need.
If it needs a stamp by a licensed Architect or Engineer, that cost would be additional.

It's on the inexpensive side, but between the survey (about an hour) and screen-time, it takes me about 6 hours. Residential work is pretty easy, so I price it competitively if it's a local job and not a very large home. A few easy $50 an hour jobs pay for my software licensing. I'd question anyone who charges much more than that for a typical home - I am in a suburb of NYC.

I know this is over a year old, but let's not forget....Anyone can measure rooms. But can you turn those measurements into a
to-scale drawing? Otherwise what good is it? I have a "blueprint" drawing business that does this for real estate agents, contractors, etc. It's not as simple as just measuring the rooms.

Here is an example. You've all seen these when dealing with new home builders, but this would be created for an older home on the market.

3D virtual tours are great but this is intended to be a practical, usable tool. You all realize the more comfortable and familiar a potential buyer is with a home the more likely they will purchase it.

Thanks Ryan. Just as an FYI, the majority of my work is for commercial buildings because unless a building was built within the last 10 years or so, they actually do not have them or even have systems in place for generating them. (There are reasons not important for this discussion why building owners often need editable floor plans). 

Between my experience buying a home and some feedback I received from selling my home, I wondered if this would be valuable to other agents. Thanks for your opinion.

Thanks Andrew. I actually recently sold a home and purchased another and used the virtual tours offered on most RE websites. They are helpful and almost standard practice today, however, from my experience one of the frustrations in our decision process was not being clear on space allotments after seeing so many homes.  Will the living room fit our couch?, etc. I provided one for my prospective buyers because it's what I do and I received a few "hey, good idea" comments. Remember, they walk away with a physical diagram which they can refer back to, sketch on, and compare with others. It's a usable tool rather than just a pretty visualization.

My price point for a typical home would be about $175 - $225. Those software programs you mentioned are cool, but involve time and effort. My service doesn't require time or effort on the realtors part, which makes it easy for them. Thanks for your opinion.

I have a niche drafting business that specializes in creating floor plans of existing buildings. Would real estate professionals find it helpful to provide potential home buyers with a floor plan of a home they visited? This can be used as a hand-out after a visit and can have the realtors name and contact info on it, square foot or dimensions of rooms, or any other customization. Before you reply, think out of the box for a moment. Think how multiple home visits and the associated stress can become confusing a day or so after seeing 4 or 5 homes. Imagine a potential buyer being able to review a home you've taken them to and actually visualize themselves in the home (begin to plan themselves in it). "Which wall will we put the TV on?", "Which room will be the baby's room?", etc. 

I ask because the realtor wife saw some drawings I provided her husband (a contractor) and said she would love to be able to give her customers something like this, but architects are too costly.  

Would love some of your opinions...

Try running the keys through a grinding wheel that has a stiff wire-brush wheel (NOT a grinding stone). If you don't have one or access to one, a local hardware shop or even big box store will have one in their key-cutting departments. A decent amount of force is required to smooth-out the sharply-cut keys. Very often a slightly duller key will work better in a very tight keyway. These wire brushes are used after the keys are cut to de-bur the keys. I've had luck with this process, in addition to lubricating the keyways as well.