Very occasionally - maybe one out of every 50 inquiries we get - we are contacted by someone who really needs a 3D rendering but are hesitant to share their architectural plans with us, due to concerns that we might somehow steal and re-sell their plans elsewhere.
We want to make it clear up front that there is zero risk we would ever do that. As you’ll see below it’s not even something that would realistically happen!
That said, we totally understand where those people are coming from. They have paid good money for those plans. Plus, housing is a very personal thing, so they likely don’t want someone else living in the house they paid to design, benefiting from the monetary and emotional investment they’ve made in their plans.
Beyond that, they may not know who we are as a company. Eg. they might have come across our website through a Google search or clicking on an ad, and not know anything about our background. To them we might just be a somewhat unknown online brand, and they might not see how many people and companies have already trusted us, and just how much work over many years has gone into establishing Render 3D Quick as the thriving and industry leading architectural visualization business that it is today.
So we thought we’d write a short article explaining why an ethical 3D rendering company like us would never steal anyone’s architectural plans, why that would be terrible for the customer experience and would be terrible for our reputation and us as a business with long-term future prospects!
Some Credibility building - Why You Should Trust Us
To begin with, we thought we’d start by establishing our credibility with some examples of our work and the positive experience that people hiring us have had.
We have:
13 years in business where we have grown from strength to strength (2023 figure)
Over 500 Google reviews with an average of a 4.9 star rating - it’s really hard to achieve such a high rating over that many reviews, unless you’re providing a very high quality of work and service. We have way more reviews than any of our competitors even come close to, as can be seen in this comparison of competing companies we created.
Almost 800 Sketchfab models online of previous examples of our work.
1000s of Google Business Profile images, uploaded by us, and our clients (without asking). To see them, click “See Photos” on that link.
100+ videos of our work and animations on Youtube.
Over 1100 examples of our work on Instagram.
Over 350,000 total visitors to our website.
More than 28,000 people and companies on our mailing list!
We also have over 40 staff members that we care about a lot and would never do anything to jeopardize their jobs.
The Implausible Nature of any 3D Rendering Company Stealing and Reselling Architectural Plans
Let’s just say for hypothetical argument’s sake, that a company did want to try and resell their client’s architectural plans - is this something that would even be possible to do? The simple answer is no, and here are some reasons why:
Building codes are Very Specific
Building codes are very specific to the state, province or county that you live in. When an architect creates plans, they make them to meet these very specific requirements. So even if someone really liked your plans, unless they were planning on building in the same vicinity as you, they would not be able to.
They would have to pay an architect to re-make the plans according to their local building codes and would need to go through the entire approvals process again. For this and other reasons, there is no market for secondhand plans.
Plans are drawn for a specific property LOT and have to get city / municipality approval prior to breaking ground
Every single lot out there is different. Different size, different shape, with different geographical features that need to be taken into account as part of the planning and design process. In most cases, houses designed for one lot may not fit or be appropriate for another.
Architectural plans also need to follow strict local building codes into order to get planning approval. Without the seal or stamp of approval from the municipality someone is building in, that home will never be able to be built, as no building permit will be issued. Just giving a city planner someone else’s plans without further work from an architect is not going to lead to a building permit approval.
It’s much easier to hire an architect to build a property from scratch, plus that person will get something unique to them when it is designed anew.
The Business Risks That Would Be Involved In Stealing and Reselling Plans
There are also many other reasons why it would be unethical and a terrible business decision for us or any 3D rendering company to steal and sell their client’s plans. Some of these reasons include:
Stealing is a crime: Doing or considering doing illegal things should be a red flag in any business. Stealing a client’s plans would clearly violate intellectual property laws and could land any company doing it in very hot water and legal action.
Losing our hard-won reputation: It takes a really long time to build up a solid reputation as a reliable, trustworthy business, and not long at all to drive a reputation into the ground if you start doing dodgy things. If we were to steal or sell our clients plans our reputation would be mud in no time. Our reputation is one of the core attributes of our business, so we’d never do anything to endanger that! Nothing would be more unprofessional.
Our business ethics would be compromised: Stealing someone else’s work and possessions is not cool. We have a strong set of ethics that we abide by and taking any actions like this would completely compromise them.
We hire ethical employees: At Render 3D Quick, we hire the highest caliber staff and require that they act ethically as part of their conditions of employment. It’s part of the reason why we’ve developed such a good reputation.
Our long-term client relationships would be at risk: Returning clients are a really important part of our business. We are not one of those “churn and burn” or “fly by night” companies that are happy to burn their clients for a quick buck. Long-term client relationships matter to us, and going behind our client’s backs would severely jeopardize the relationships we’ve worked hard to build and maintain, sometimes over many years.
The financial risk would outweigh any possible gain: We are in the business of selling 3D rendering services. It’s a good business model, and it’s helped sustain us for the many years we’ve been in business. Stealing and selling plans, even if there was a market for it, would not be a good business model financially, as for all the reasons above, the plans would not sell for much. Any company stealing and selling their client’s plans could also face a large financial risk due to legal action - it just wouldn’t be worth it.
The 3D rendering industry isn’t that big: If a company was to start stealing and selling their client’s plans, word would get around pretty quickly, which would just accelerate the harm caused to their reputation. No-one would want to know them, not clients and not other similar company peers. Again, this would be a quick way for any company to destroy their reputation in the industry.
Client expectations would be violated: When our clients hire us they expect a level of professionalism that would totally be breached by stealing their plans. This would be a surefire way to quickly accumulate a lot of terrible reviews!
We want our business to be sustainable: We have worked hard to create a sustainable business, and we want Render 3D Quick to be around for a long time into the future! Building a sustainable business requires us to be honest, have integrity and to be professional, all attributes which would be compromised if we started to steal and resell our client’s plans.
If we actually did have intentions to steal your plans, we probably wouldn’t have written this: If we were the kind of company that might steal your plans, we imagine that we probably wouldn’t care enough to write this type of content!
We Have Worked Hard Over Many Years, to Build a Strong Brand With Lots of Clients That trust Us, and We will continue to do so!
We have worked with many thousands of clients, from individual owner builders, to charities and non-profits, high-flying developers and the biggest real estate chains and brands in North America. If we were to be caught stealing and selling people’s plans we would be sued faster than you can say "cease and desist"! It would be a surefire way to drive our reputation and business in the ground, and is not something we would even remotely consider as we want Render 3D Quick to be around long into the future.
We understand that it might feel scary to share your architectural plans with a company you don’t have a lot of information about, but hopefully all the above information, proof of our past work and testimonials, and the explanations above will help prove we’re not out to get you.
We're here to help your architectural plans look amazing in 3D. You can share your plans with us with confidence, we promise we won’t steal them!
Check Out Some of Our Recent Work (Click to View larger version)
Alex Smith
Manager & Co-Owner Render 3D Quick
Alex Smith is a manager and co-owner at Render3DQuick, with over 6 years’ experience project managing their large team of 3D rendering professionals. Alex is obsessed with architecture and is a CAD design specialist in his own right and an expert in the field of architectural visualization, 3D rendering, and virtual reality tours.
As the first point of contact when you get in touch with Render3DQuick, Alex loves sharing his knowledge and answering any questions you may have about architectural visualization or the latest technologies and techniques they utilize.
Connect with Alex on LinkedIn here.