Home Listings in This Southwest State Will Look Different—and Other States Could Soon Follow Their Lead

If you’ve ever wondered why so many home listings don’t include floor plans, you’re not alone. It’s a topic that’s come up repeatedly on Reddit, where would-be homebuyers lament the lack of transparency in some listings.

A recent decision by New Mexico’s Multiple Listing Service is set to change that. The state’s MLS announced that it would require listings posted to its system to include floor plans, in an effort to improve the homebuying experience.

NMMLS announced the move after users complained that not having access to floor plans impeded their ability to make informed decisions about purchases. A 2024 report from the National Association of Realtors of homebuyer and seller generational trends found that homebuyers consider a floor plan the third most important real estate website feature, behind photos and property details.

“Requiring floor plans on listings ensures that every buyer in New Mexico has access to the tools they need to make better decisions,” says Megan E. McFarlane, executive director of NMMLS.

“I think we, the brokers for the last 10-15 years, did not have access to a manageable floor plan without hand drawing it,” McFarlane tells Realtor.com®. “We didn’t have the technology on our phone.”

McFarlane tells Realtor.com that thanks to Light Detection and Ranging tech in cell phones, agents can now create basic floor plans free of charge.

New Mexico is the first state to require floor plans be included in listings, a practice that’s already standard in Sweden, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Use of floor plans in the U.S. had in the past been somewhat hampered by legal challenges from floor-plan designers to their use in listings.

In 2021, Charles James, owner of Dreamworks Homes, in Columbia, MO, filed a lawsuit against a local brokerage and the National Association of Realtors, claiming that the use of floor plans his company created in listings violated copyright law. But earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that the use of floor plans falls under fair use law.

McFarlane hopes New Mexico’s move will inspire other states to follow suit.

“I will tell you, our board is so excited about this, and, and we have had no pushback,” she says. “They can do it when they’re taking photos. It’s on your phone, it’s free, and they can’t complain.”

A closer look

Floor plans provide an advantage for buyers who want more details about a home, beyond the photos.

Pictures can show the potential, but floor plans outline the details.

Floor plans usually include specific dimensions and locations of the rooms.

This allows people to see a home’s layout ahead of going to an open house.

It also allows a potential buyer to decide if there’s any remodeling that needs to be done.

A listing with a floor plan can increase buyer click-through by 52%, according to SmartDraw, a software company that creates data visualization tools.

Floor plans allow people to start visualizing whether a listing might be their future home.