Tagging floor plans: naming conventions and grouping

How floor plan naming works

During the rent roll parsing step, Archer reads the floor plan or unit type column from your rent roll. Each unique value becomes a floor plan. You can rename any floor plan during this step — just click the name and type your preferred label.

The grouping rule

If two floor plans have the exact same name, Archer groups all their units together. This is useful when you want to consolidate: if "A1-Std" and "A1-Dlx" are both standard one-bedrooms, renaming both to "1BR" merges them into one group.

Be deliberate about this — once merged, unit-level detail within the group is preserved but the floor plan summary treats them as one category. If there's a meaningful rent difference between A1-Std and A1-Dlx (like 130 sq ft and $100/month), keep them separate.

Recommended naming approach

For most analyses, a combination of bed/bath and renovation status works well:

• "1BR Classic" / "1BR Renovated"
• "2BR/2BA" / "2BR/2BA Partial"
• "Studio" / "Studio Premium"

For properties with significant square footage variation within the same bed/bath, add a size indicator:

• "1BR Small (650sf)" / "1BR Large (850sf)"

Floor plan names and comps

Floor plan names contribute to your comp data. When you parse multiple properties and consistently name floor plans the same way (e.g., always "1BR Renovated" instead of sometimes "1BR Reno" and sometimes "1BR-R"), your comp data aggregates cleanly. You can see average renovated 1BR rents across all properties you've analyzed.

Inconsistent naming doesn't break anything — it just makes comp aggregation less useful.