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Terms of Service

The agreement between you and PlotBarn when you use the site, the planning tools and the build workspace.

Last updated: November 11, 2026

This is a plain-language starting draft and has not been reviewed by an attorney. Have counsel review before launch.

These terms apply to your use of PlotBarn (“PlotBarn”, “we”, “us”). By using the site or creating an account you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use PlotBarn. They should be read together with the Privacy Policy and the Disclaimer.

1. The service

PlotBarn is a planning tool for people in the United States who are researching or planning a one-story barndominium. It lets you:

  • search land listings supplied by a third-party data provider, or enter land you already own;
  • lay out a single-story, rectangular building in a constrained 2D designer;
  • see an itemized planning estimate and a preliminary material takeoff that update as you design;
  • view and download a conceptual plan set, a material takeoff and a cost report drawn from your design;
  • use a financing planner that illustrates a rough construction-loan picture from your estimate;
  • with a free account, save projects and use a private build workspace for vendors and bids, budget, schedule, tasks, checklists and files.

Features that depend on third-party integrations (land listings, maps and place search) are available only where the deployment you are using has them configured. Where they are not, PlotBarn shows labeled demo data or disables the feature rather than simulating it.

2. Accounts

You can find land, design, see the estimate, view and download the plan set and use the financing planner without an account; that work is stored in your own browser. You need a free account to save a project and to use the build workspace.

  • Provide an accurate email address and keep your password confidential.
  • You are responsible for activity under your account. Tell us promptly if you believe it has been compromised.
  • You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a contract.
  • One person per account. Do not share logins or create accounts by automated means.

3. Free for owners

PlotBarn is free for owners — the people using it to plan their own build — and will stay free for owners. We do not charge owners for any part of the service, and we do not take payments from owners or collect card details.

Using what you generate. You may use the plan sets, takeoffs, reports and exports you generate to plan your own project, and share them with the professionals, lenders, vendors and authorities you work with on it. You may not resell or redistribute them as a product, and the limits in sections 4 and 5 always apply to them.

Plan sets are not stored. A plan set is drawn in your browser, on demand, from the design as it is at that moment. PlotBarn does not keep a copy and cannot retrieve an earlier set for you. Each set carries its issue date and a short design reference code; if you need to keep a particular version, download it.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • present PlotBarn documents as engineered, stamped, permit-ready or approved for construction;
  • remove or obscure the conceptual-document notices or disclaimers on any output;
  • present a financing-planner result as a loan offer, pre-approval or rate quote;
  • scrape, bulk-download or resell land listing data, or use automated requests beyond normal personal use of the site;
  • attempt to access another person’s projects, files or account, or to bypass access controls;
  • upload files that are unlawful, infringing, or contain malware;
  • probe, overload or disrupt the service, or work around rate limits;
  • use the service to discriminate against anyone in housing or to violate fair-housing or other laws.

We may suspend or close accounts that break these rules.

5. Outputs are conceptual only

Everything PlotBarn produces — drawings, quantities, estimates, schedules, checklists, trade scopes and report text — is for preliminary planning. It is produced automatically by fixed rules from the dimensions and options you choose; nobody at PlotBarn reviews an individual design.

  • Plans: Conceptual only — not engineered, permit-ready or approved for construction. Licensed professionals and your local authority must review and complete required design.
  • Estimates: Planning estimate, not a contractor quote or binding bid. Site conditions, specifications and local market prices may materially change cost. Rates in the catalog are illustrative placeholder values, not local market quotes.
  • Quantities: Material takeoffs are preliminary and derived from simplified geometry and stated assumptions. Do not order materials from them without verification.
  • Schedules and checklists: Generic sequences for organizing work. They do not predict permit, inspection, utility or contractor timing.

You are responsible for having qualified, appropriately licensed professionals review, complete and take responsibility for any design before it is used for permitting or construction, and for obtaining every permit, approval and inspection your jurisdiction requires.

6. Financing planner

The financing planner is a calculator. It takes your planning estimate and the figures you type in — such as a down payment and an interest rate — and shows a rough construction-loan picture: a down payment, a loan amount and an illustrative monthly payment.

  • It is an illustration, not a loan offer, pre-approval, rate quote or financial advice. The rate is one you enter; PlotBarn does not supply, check or guarantee it.
  • PlotBarn is not a lender or a broker. It does not arrange credit, check your eligibility or submit anything to a lender.
  • The result inherits every limit of the planning estimate it starts from. A real lender’s terms, fees, draw schedule, appraisal and requirements will differ.
  • The lenders listed in the planner are fictional demo entries (see section 9).

7. No professional services

PlotBarn is software. PlotBarn is not an architect, engineer, surveyor, general contractor, construction manager, real-estate broker or agent, appraiser, lender, mortgage broker, insurer or law firm, and does not provide the services of any of them. Nothing on the site is architectural, engineering, construction, real-estate, financial, tax or legal advice. Using PlotBarn does not create a professional or fiduciary relationship. Hints about when licensed professionals are typically needed are general information, not a statement of what your jurisdiction requires.

8. Third-party data and services

  • Land listings (RentCast). Listing data comes from RentCast. Listings may be incomplete or outdated. Confirm availability and details with a licensed real estate professional. PlotBarn does not own, verify or warrant listing data and is not a party to any land transaction. Where live listing data is not configured, the properties shown are fictional demo data and are labeled as such.
  • Maps and place search (Mapbox). Maps and geocoding are provided by Mapbox and subject to its terms. Pin locations do not represent surveyed property boundaries.
  • Property suitability. Zoning, setbacks, HOA/covenants, floodplain, utilities, soil, septic and site access require independent confirmation. PlotBarn does not check any of them.

Third-party services can change, be interrupted or be withdrawn. Where a service is unavailable, the related PlotBarn feature may be limited or shown with demo data.

9. Demo vendors, demo lenders and your own records

Every vendor and lender that ships with PlotBarn is fictional and is labeled as a demo entry. A fictional demo vendor is not available for hire, a demo lender does not lend, and the presence of either is not a recommendation or referral. PlotBarn does not vet, license-check, endorse or recommend any vendor or lender, does not contact anyone on your behalf, and does not send requests for bids, leads or messages to anyone.

Vendors, contacts, bids and documents you add are your own records. You are responsible for their accuracy, for having the right to store any contact details you enter, and for your own selection of and contracts with vendors and lenders.

10. Future partner program

We intend to fund PlotBarn through a partner program rather than by charging owners: contractors and trades would pay to be listed as verified vendors and to receive project requests, and lenders would pay for referrals.

That program does not exist today. No vendor or lender pays PlotBarn, nobody is verified, and no owner information is passed to any vendor or lender. We are not committing to a launch date. If a program is introduced, these terms and the Privacy Policy would be updated before it starts, and owners would still not be charged. The partners page describes the idea.

11. Intellectual property

  • Yours. You keep ownership of the content you enter or upload — your design choices, project data, vendor records and files. You grant us the limited permission needed to host, process and display that content to operate the service for you.
  • Ours. The PlotBarn software, site design, drawing templates, sheet layouts, rate catalog, checklists, scope templates and branding belong to PlotBarn. Section 3 covers your use of the documents you generate; it does not transfer ownership of the underlying templates or software.
  • Feedback. If you send suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

12. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

PlotBarn is provided free of charge, “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement. We do not warrant that outputs are accurate, complete, buildable, code-compliant or suitable for your site, or that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, PlotBarn will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, construction cost overruns, delays, property damage, decisions to buy land, financing decisions, or losses arising from reliance on any plan, estimate, quantity, listing, schedule, financing illustration or vendor record. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the amount you paid us for it in the 12 months before the claim arose; because the service is free for owners, that amount will ordinarily be nothing.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limits, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

13. Changes to the service or these terms

We may change or discontinue features, and we may update these terms. When we make a material change we will update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify account holders. Continuing to use PlotBarn after a change means you accept the updated terms.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms, your account or your data: see the contact page.