Welcome pack for estate agents
What buyers see, the drone property pack, and how we start with you.
Welcome
A link on your listing that opens the house in 3D, with what it could become drawn on it. It's free during the pilot, and after a month we show you how many buyers opened it and what they did.
Buyers of a house with room to grow ask the same three things at a viewing: how big could it go, what would it cost, and would it need permission. The link gives them a first answer from your listing, then lets them draw their own.
This pack covers what buyers see, the drone property pack, how we start with you, and the seller's say in all of it.
What a buyer sees
The buyer taps the link and the house opens on their phone, under the line "A design for [postcode], sent to you." Each figure says where it comes from, and the cost and planning read are labelled rough and rule of thumb.
| On the screen | What it is |
|---|---|
| The house | A plain 3D shape at its mapped size, usually from Ordnance Survey's data. Not a photograph of the house. |
| What it could become | The design we drew for the listing: usually an extension (for example "Up to the 3m rear limit") or solar panels on the roof. |
| A rough cost, all in | A range from published 2026 guides, with VAT, fees and a contingency. Not a quote. |
| The planning picture | Whether the design is likely to need permission, with the reasons. A rule of thumb for England, not a planning decision. |
| Their own design | They can drag it, resize it, try something else, and keep their own version in an account of their own. |
A buyer who keeps going can turn their design into a brief for a builder or a solar installer.
The drone property pack
For a listing that deserves more, we can fly the house. A small camera drone circles it and photographs it from every side and from above, usually in under an hour, with nobody up a ladder.
- What you get: pictures from the air, a 3D model of the house buyers can turn round, and how the sun crosses the garden through the day.
- Who flies: drone surveys are flown by a CAA-registered operator and flyer, insured through Coverdrone for £1 million third-party liability.
- Where: Warwickshire and nearby. Some places are off limits to drones, such as near airports, so we check every site before we say yes.
- The neighbours: we photograph the property we're asked to, not the street. Anything of the neighbours' in a picture is blurred or cut out before it reaches you.
- What it isn't: not a RICS building survey, a valuation or a structural report. It shows what the photographs show.
- The price: email us the town or postcode. We reply with what you'd get and what it would cost, before anything is booked.
The 3D model is the seller's, kept on their own Hopecraft account.
How we start with you: one listing, one month
There's nothing to install and no account to make. We do the setting up; you put the link where buyers look.
- Pick one listing whose seller agrees to a 3D design of their house being shown to buyers. A house with room to extend suits it best. The seller confirms which house it is on the map, and whether it has been extended before: both change the planning read.
- We make the design on the house, check the cost and planning read sensibly for it, and send you the link with your own code in it.
- Open it once yourself, ideally in a private browser window, so you see exactly what a buyer sees.
- Put it where buyers look: the listing on your website, the brochure, your emails to registered buyers, your social posts. Whether a portal's virtual-tour slot accepts it is that portal's rule to check.
- A month later, we show you the numbers: how many buyers opened it, and how many went on to change the design, look at the costs, or keep a brief. Counts only, never who.
What you might say
- To the seller: "We'd like to show buyers what your house could become, in 3D. It's labelled as an idea, and it's your call."
- In the particulars: "See what this house could become in 3D. Rough costs and planning points are estimates, not a quote or a planning decision."
- At a viewing: "Wondering how far it could extend? Open the link and draw your own."
What it costs
The listing link is free during the pilot. What comes after hasn't been decided, and nothing will be charged without being agreed with you first.
For a drone property pack, we tell you what it would cost before anything is booked.
During the pilot, no referral fee is paid either way, and the tool is free for buyers.
The seller, buyers and their details
- The seller has the say. We make nothing for a listing, and fly nothing, without the seller's agreement.
- It's an idea, and labelled as one. Every screen says the cost is a rough range from published guides and the planning read is a rule of thumb for England. Describe it the same way in your particulars, and never use the tool's sizes in place of a measured floor area.
- The link carries the design, the postcode and where the house sits on the map. Treat it as you would the listing itself. It carries nobody's name.
- Buyers stay private. We count visits by your code, never who. A buyer's own design stays theirs, and we never build a marketing list.
- Your listings stay yours. We never use a listing's photos or plans without your written OK and the seller's.
- Changing your mind: take the link off the listing whenever you like. A link someone already saved still opens the design.
More on how data is handled at hopecraft.co.uk/privacy, and the site's terms at hopecraft.co.uk/terms.
Where it stands, and how to reach us
The listing link is ready now, and drone property packs are taking enquiries in Warwickshire. No agent has run a listing with us yet, so the first month's numbers will be yours.
Not ready yet, and we'll tell you when they are:
- The house drawn as it really looks, from the listing's own photos and floor plan.
- The 3D model passing from the seller to the buyer when the sale completes.
- A sign-in of your own, to make listing links yourself.
Questions at any point: email us at bob@hopecraft.uk, or message whoever introduced you.