I have long thought that providing floor plans for your listings was a good idea but only two things kept me from it.

1. I can't draw worth a darn, and

2. It was expensive to have someone else draw them for me.

First I tried drawing my own with a ruler, compass, pencil, and several erasers. Never did get the professional look I was after. Then I bought a program to draw them for me. Never could make it draw a straight line either.

Finally I stumbled across a firm called Diakrit; here's some information about them: "Founded in 2001, Diakrit has grown from a purely IT company into one of Northern Europe’s leaders of visualizations and 3D modeling.

In July 2008, Diakrit AB merged with Matrix AB, triggering enormous growth. Today, Diakrit boasts over 110 employees throughout Scandinavia, the United States, China and Thailand, and provides its services in visualization and 3D modeling to more than 1300 clients in the real estate and retail sectors worldwide, with more clients signing up daily.

With its experienced architects and a deep understanding of the global markets, Diakrit offers solutions to real estate agents, brokers, and international franchises, as well as real estate portals, facility management companies, and developers."

Wow, I had no idea they were such a big deal international firm.

But they did what I wanted, that is, produced a nice, clean looking floor plan for my resale listings at a very reasonable price. Starting at only $19.95 they can provide both 2D and 3D floor plans with a "floorplanner" option that lets your customer place and move furniture in the plan.

To get started all you have to do is draw a crude sketch (and that perfectly describes my drawings), fax or email it to them, and they produce a nifty looking, professionally drawn floor plan of your listing and post it on their website for you to download.

Here's how my first effort turned out.

Diakrit took this:

and turned it into this:

In less then 48 hours and for around 25 bucks.

I'm sold; all of my future listings are getting floor plans to go with their virtual tours and MLS photos.

Even if buyers don't appreciate it just think what an awesome listing tool it could be. "Why yes Mr. & Mrs. Seller, if you list your home with me you not only get everything every other Realtor in town does you also get a custom yard sign, virtual tour, enhanced presence on Realtor.com and many other real estate websites, and a professionally drawn floor plan of your home for buyers to see."

Here's the 9709 Panama Drive virtual tour complete with floor plans.