CubiCasa Announces Free Floor Plan Creation Tool

A Finnish company is hoping to give U.S. home buyers something they've been craving! Real estate software company CubiCasa just launched a product in the U.S. that produces a FREE floor plan that sellers can put into for-sale listings. According to the National Association of Realtors, it's something that just 10 to 15% of U.S. listings include right now, but it's third on a list of desirable listing features! Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Clear Capital purchased CubiCasa last September, so it's now a subsidiary of Clear Capital, but it operates independently. CubiCasa says on its website that it's the market leader for this kind of software in its home country, and is already being used in more than 170 countries around the world. With its introduction into the U.S., it says it's one of the major players here and will help revolutionize the home-buying experience. (1) Market Properties More Effectively with Floor Plans The president of CubiCasa, Jeff Allen, says: "By offering a free version of our mobile scanning technology in the U.S., we're helping potential buyers make more informed decisions, while empowering agents and sellers to market their properties more effectively." He also says: "It's time the U.S. caught up" with the rest of the world. (2) CubiCasa says it has already provided more than one million floor plans to homeowners and sellers internationally. It operates with the use of an app on your smartphone. After putting in your location, you point the camera towards the lower part of the walls where they intersect with the floor, and record the layout as you walk around the home. There are specific instructions for doing it properly, such as how you hold the camera, what part of the interior you should be recording, and how you should walk in and out of spaces. After you are done collecting all the visual information, the sketching technology takes about 24 hours to produce a finished floor plan. You can also pay a small amount to have additional features incorporated into the floor plan, such as kitchen cabinets, bathroom features, furniture and appliances. If you want your floor plan produced more quickly, it costs an extra $10 to get it within six hours. Do Floor Plans Violate an Architect's Copyright? CubiCasa says the app will accurately calculate the square footage of a home, and that this will improve the quality of property data and inspection reports. Although floor plans are quite common in real estate markets around the world, they've been more of a niche market here. And there has been some question about potential copyright violations. In Missouri, the architects at Designworks Homes sued Columbia House of Brokers Realty over the use of floor plans in listings. The case evolved from the listing of a home in 2010 and a floor plan produced by the sellers. When the architects discovered the use of the floor plan, they sued for copyright infringement. Last year, they won their case in a lower court, but the Realty appealed to the Supreme Court. NAR also filed an amicus brief in support of the Realty, arguing that the ruling misrepresents federal law, puts decades of a legal precedent at risk, eliminates a long-standing practice in the real estate market, and makes many homeowners vulnerable to lawsuits if they have used floor plans to sell their homes in the past. (3) Supreme Court Rejects Floor Plan Case The Supreme Court declined to review the case however, saying the two sides have not presented compelling reasons to do so. But more recently, the Seventh Circuit ruled against the same architectural company in another lawsuit. It affirmed a lower court's ruling against the plaintiff saying that a floor plan must be "virtually identical" to the architect's drawing to be considered a violation of the copyright. NAR says that "many homebuyers rely on floor plans in real estate to decide whether to purchase a residence, and their ability to secure financing for that transaction is often contingent on an appraisal that requires the reaction of a floor plan." (4) Homeowners also make floor plans to help them decide on where they want furniture or how they want to renovate a home. Plus, many jurisdictions also want to see a floor plan before they approve a renovation project. The legal dust-up has apparently settled enough so that CubiCasa feels confident about launching in the U.S. If you want to check it out, you'll find links in the show notes at newsforinvestors.com. And please remember to hit the subscribe button, and leave a review! Thanks for listening. I'm Kathy Fettke. Links: 1 -https://www.cubi.casa/about/ 2 -https://www.housingwire.com/articles/this-app-lets-homeowners-generate-floor-plans-of-their-homes-for-free/ 3 -https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/nar-asks-supreme-court-to-protect-consumers-from-lawsuits-when-making-floor-plans-of-their-homes 4 -https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/nar-asks-supreme-court-to-protect-consumers-from-lawsuits-when-making-floor-plans-of-their-homes