Transforming Real Estate: How Walkthrough Plans Saves You Time & Money

Stephen Schmidt (00:02.498)
Welcome back to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs. It’s your host, Stephen Schmidt. And today I’ve got a special treat for you. I’m in the studio with Tiffany Roberts, who has a franchise of Walkthrough Plans, which is an innovative technology in the real estate space, which I’m going to let her explain because she’ll do a whole lot better job of doing that than I will. just before we get started, remember at InvestorPute, we help real estate investors, service providers and real estate entrepreneurs.

Tiffany Roberts (00:24.219)
you

Stephen Schmidt (00:31.64)
two to five X their businesses, which allows them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted to allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed up. That being said, Tiffany, welcome to the show this morning.

Tiffany Roberts (00:41.595)
Thanks so much. for having me today. I am very excited to tell everyone about my new business walkthrough plans. So I have just opened a location in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We do have several locations throughout the US. So if you haven’t heard of us, what we do is take your floor plans, which can be for residential or commercial spaces, and we project them down onto the floor in a real life one-to-one scale. So this is going to be a fantastic tool for anyone that is renovating or building. And I know many of the real estate investors

are doing lovely renovation projects to make their properties more appealing to that next buyer. So this is a fantastic tool for you to use to ensure that your property is going to turn out exactly how you want it.

Stephen Schmidt (01:45.001)
Love it. Now Tiffany, I want to dive more into this topic and talk to you about really how it works, what got you excited about it, and what opportunity you saw with this and how it serves people that are in the real estate space. But before we do that, can you share a little bit more about yourself and just how you got here?

Tiffany Roberts (02:02.651)
Sure. So myself and my family are originally from Michigan. We moved to North Carolina to the Lake Norman area almost five years ago now. And we’ve just really enjoyed the warmer weather and ability to go boating very often. We’re big into boating. So we just love it here in this area. My background has been in business.

been working in corporate America. However, I’ve always had a strong interest in real estate. I’ve done many renovations and DIY projects myself on my own properties. So I saw this concept of being able to actually walk around in a real life space of what your property is going to end up looking like and thought, wow, that is an amazing tool.

and how can I get involved and help other people have access to this tool as well. So I was very excited to go ahead and open up my own location in Charlotte.

Stephen Schmidt (03:15.77)
Now, what was the decide like when you found this, how did you find this exactly? mean, it’s from our pre show conversation. It’s not like you were looking to get into the real estate business by any means you were, you know, working a corporate job and

Tiffany Roberts (03:28.132)
I’m

Stephen Schmidt (03:30.232)
you know, have a family and all that. like, what was, like, how did you even find this?

Tiffany Roberts (03:30.501)
great.

Tiffany Roberts (03:35.183)
Yeah, so I saw a viral video about this concept that was showing people walking around on what appears to be like a giant blueprint of their home. And I could really see how there are so many people who cannot visualize the end result very well. So this service allows folks to really get a feel for what their space will be without

actually spending the money on the construction. So it ends up saving folks a ton of time and money by avoiding the costly change orders that typically come along with doing the big renovations or builds.

Stephen Schmidt (04:23.821)
Yeah, now tell us a little bit more about that. Like you talk about change orders for someone that’s not familiar with that. Like what does that mean?

Tiffany Roberts (04:28.889)
Great.

Sure, so a lot of times the client will go ahead and start building.

they’ll get the foundation done, walls framed up, and then they go ahead and walk around in their space now that the walls are framed, and they realize, well, maybe this hallway is too narrow or this closet really is larger than they needed. Maybe their master bathroom is a little too tight, and then they want to go ahead and make the changes. Well, now each change you want to make could be $2,000 $4,000 because now you’re having to take out what

has already been built and redo it. So that just causes a lot of time delays for the end client as well as your GC is now going to be slightly annoyed that this project is going to take longer. And then of course cost you more. So my service here is just helping folks to avoid all that.

Stephen Schmidt (05:32.94)
Hmm. So it’s almost like the trifecta. It not only saves the client time and money, but it also saves the GC the frustration of like, well, why didn’t we figure this out in the beginning?

Tiffany Roberts (05:47.779)
Absolutely.

Yes, yes.

So with this service of walkthrough plans, when you have, we have a client come in, it can be the homeowner and an architect and a builder and their spouse or whomever you wanna bring. We welcome clients to bring the whole team in with them and get everything hashed out right then in your session. So it saves so many phone calls and emails back and forth between the client.

and the builder by being able to just hammer out all those discussions right there where you can see exactly where the walls are and exactly where you know your cabinetry will be, the refrigerator, the range, like we’ve got it all for you in a pretty picture that you get to walk around in.

Stephen Schmidt (06:41.806)
And just to clear up for some people that don’t have a visual of this, because we’re describing something that’s obviously very visual. It’s not like you render the whole house. Like it literally projects onto the floor and you’re able to walk through the entire home’s actual floor plan, versus just looking at it on a blueprint or looking at it on, you know, like the floor plan on Zillow. It gives you an actual immersive experience.

Tiffany Roberts (06:53.231)
Great.

Tiffany Roberts (06:58.842)
Yes.

Tiffany Roberts (07:02.692)
Yes.

Tiffany Roberts (07:09.915)
Yes, it’s a very immersive experience. That’s a great way to put it. So we take the floor plans, make them real life scale, a one to one scale. So if on the floor plan it says the room is a 10 by 10, you will be in a 10 by 10 space. Then we also have a lot of different furniture and props that are on wheels and you’re able to just grab them and move them around into the space wherever you would like. So you can very easily see

Will my bed fit in this space? How close am I gonna be sitting to my TV? Or when this door opens, it going to?

Stephen Schmidt (07:40.59)
Mm.

Tiffany Roberts (07:51.183)
be blocking access to something else. There’s so many little things that our clients are able to figure out by doing one of these sessions and change right then when it’s essentially free to change or very low cost, right? You’re just changing the drawing versus knocking down walls and making those big, expensive changes.

Stephen Schmidt (07:54.222)
Okay.

Stephen Schmidt (08:16.652)
Right now. So is this more so for structures that aren’t built or is there an application where if somebody is wanting to do like an addition to their home that this would also be like a perfect thing for them to look into as well?

Tiffany Roberts (08:29.371)
Absolutely, it can be used for anything that you would make plans for. So we have lots of different use cases.

Stephen Schmidt (08:35.758)
you

Tiffany Roberts (08:38.905)
definitely new builds, also renovations as well as landscaping design. If you are putting in a pool in your backyard and maybe you’re doing some extensive hardscaping in your yard, this is great for that as well. We’ve also been able to use it for things like doctor’s offices and restaurants. any space that you’re wanting to make a lot of changes to,

Stephen Schmidt (08:55.662)
Yeah.

Tiffany Roberts (09:09.049)
could absolutely be used for an office space even. Maybe you have just a blank shell and you’re wanting to go ahead and turn it into your office or whatever it is that you’re needing. Just go ahead, bring the plans to us and it is a really simple, easy process. You just send us an email with the file attached to it. We open that up, get it all set up for you and it’ll be ready when you walk in for your session.

Stephen Schmidt (09:19.278)
Now correct me I’m wrong here, but this is a relatively new technology in general, is that correct?

Tiffany Roberts (09:45.517)
Yes, the technology itself has only been out for about a year and a half now. My location is brand new. We’ve only been open for less than two months now.

So it is all a very new concept and I find that a lot of people I speak to have never heard of this before. We definitely see this as the way of the future and a process that is going to be integrated into your design process going forward. I think once everyone finds out that this exists,

Stephen Schmidt (10:23.15)
Mm.

Tiffany Roberts (10:27.619)
You know, it’s just going to be so fantastic to be able to integrate it in with, you know, let’s say you’re the architect or you’re the builder. This is just another step before your client, you know, breaks ground on their property.

Stephen Schmidt (10:46.702)
or how do you see this, because you talk about it being the wave of the future, how do you see this impacting the way people do things now once it’s nationally known, recognized, locations everywhere, how do you really see it impacting this industry?

Tiffany Roberts (10:51.557)
Yes.

Tiffany Roberts (11:03.575)
I see the professionals being able to move from one project to another a lot more quickly. You’re going to be able to get more projects done within the year by just avoiding these delays that would naturally come up if you don’t use this service. So, you know, if you’re doing a renovation that let’s say you have a tight eight week timeline and now you realized, you know, there was a

Stephen Schmidt (11:28.27)
Thank

Tiffany Roberts (11:33.421)
Mistake made and it needs to be fixed

because you didn’t walk your plans first, that you know your timeline can easily be bumped out to 12 weeks instead of eight weeks. So this service we have, you can either use a one hour session or a two hour session just depending on how large of a scale your project is. But who wouldn’t want to take one hour walk through your plans, make sure you’re super happy and satisfied with everything, get the changes out of the way, and then go ahead and start your construction.

Stephen Schmidt (11:47.406)
you

Stephen Schmidt (12:08.366)
Yeah, 100%. Now, so obviously newer concept, newer technology, newer business. What’s like on the, what would make this a massive success for you personally? What do you really see for yourself in this business?

Tiffany Roberts (12:24.527)
think really just word of mouth, people coming in, having the experience, going out, telling all their friends about it.

I’ve been doing a lot of work with real estate agents lately. So the real estate agents are able to spread awareness for when they have a client that is wanting to renovate or purchase a new build. They’re able to go ahead and communicate, hey, this is an awesome service that’s available to you. So you don’t need to struggle with that decision fatigue that a lot of folks find themselves in.

come in, see it in real life scale. It really helps people to be able to make decisions and good decisions, not just kind of guessing based on a small scale design.

Stephen Schmidt (13:18.286)
With those decisions, like in that decision making process and how it helps with that, what have you seen from some of the people that maybe, I know you’re brand new, but with some of the people that you maybe have worked with or like in getting started with opening your own location here, how have you seen it like benefit that end client?

Tiffany Roberts (13:41.067)
so much, making all these little changes, really the bottom line of their project.

it suddenly stays exactly where they want it to be rather than being inflated by all the change orders. Most of our clients, I would say on average, find five to 10 items that they want to change. So if you’ve already began construction and then you find those items, you’re looking at 10, 15, $20,000 to make the changes. Or your other option is

just don’t make any changes and live with it the way it is and you may end up being really unhappy and have certain annoying pain points that you’re just stuck with. Who wants to have that, right? If you’re spending the money on the project, let’s get it right the first time, make sure you’re really happy and satisfied. Then this also helps a ton for the professionals, the general contractors, architects, designers,

Stephen Schmidt (14:31.07)
Hmm.

Sure.

Tiffany Roberts (14:49.565)
having their clients be really happy with the outcome, who doesn’t want that, right? Let’s make the clients happy, let them come on back to you over and over again. So it’s really just a win-win.

Stephen Schmidt (15:01.134)
100%. So and and what you said in there in a very real way, I mean, can literally save people potentially 10 to 1000s of dollars.

Tiffany Roberts (15:09.115)
Absolutely, yes. So it’s the cost of the experience is very low and considering the benefit that you receive from it. So. Screen.

Stephen Schmidt (15:12.92)
Wow.

Stephen Schmidt (15:22.23)
Right. Now, so do you have plans to potentially, no, you’re great. Do you have plans to potentially expand for yourself, like outside of just Charlotte? Do you see yourself always staying in Charlotte or what does that look like for you as a franchisee?

Tiffany Roberts (15:36.379)
I would be interested in possibly opening one other location. I don’t want to go too far away, so something that I could drive to would be great. yeah, we’re going to see how the first one goes. I imagine it’s going to be very successful. I’m very excited about it, but definitely interested in possibly opening a second.

Stephen Schmidt (16:02.102)
Love that. Well, we appreciate you coming in today and sharing with us about this. I think I’ve exhausted almost all the questions that I can ask about this specifically without just diving into more about you and what you enjoy doing. But if people want to connect with you more, learn more about this, where should they go for that?

Tiffany Roberts (16:23.131)
Absolutely. So our website is walkthroughplans.com and through is spelled T H R U. We also are present on Facebook and Instagram. My Instagram page is going to be walkthroughplans underscore Charlotte. So please come follow me. Check out all the cool videos and images that I’ve been sharing so you can get a sense of

what this is like.

Stephen Schmidt (16:55.116)
There you go, folks. Go connect with her for more. And I hope you enjoyed today’s show, and we’ll see you on the next episode.

Tiffany Roberts (17:02.203)
Thank you.