SQUARE FOOTAGE NOT SO SQUARE
March 9th, 2010 categories: Buying, Market Trends, Rants, Selling
Frankly, square footage gives me the willies. It makes about as much sense to me as a square watermelon! In one of my early years in real estate, I was nearly sued for misstating the square footage of a condo. I had quoted the developer’s number, which virtually every other listing in the building used, a perfectly normal thing to do. Or so I thought. The problem arose when the buyer of the unit measured the home and came up with a different figure. Square footage was extremely important in the buyer’s part of the world and totally irrelevant in the the seller’s native land. So there I was stuck between the two. With some skillful negotiating by the attorneys (there are times when it comes in handy to be in an attorney approval state), the matter was resolved without a law suit. Lesson learned! I am still very reluctant to quote square footage on a listing.
Why do I feel square footage is a poor way to measure the value of a home?
- No reliable uniform standard for measuring–no rules. Does the balcony count? Are we measuring from the outside of the front door to the outside of the front wall? Or, are we measuring from the inside of the front door to the inside of the front wall?
- Think of some of our vintage condos here in Chicago–what do you do with a hall that is six feet wide and thirty feet long? How much of that space is usable unless you have a lot of pictures and need a gallery. You might prefer a larger living room over a long hall! And don’t even think about that rounded turret on some of the buildings–how do we measure that?
- Lots of deals are coming apart at the seams right now–inaccurate (according to the appraiser) square footage can result in an appraisal being rejected.
- Square footage is extremely subjective and most agents know that buyers want the biggest home they can get for the money–this can result in an overstatement of the square footage by the selling broker. When you check the Multiple Listing Service for properties, you can see square footage variations that will curl your hair–another reason to know the broker you are working with.
So there you have it–square footage is not a reliable measuring tool for figuring the price of a home. So much depends on who furnished the numbers and how the square footage is measured and who measures it.
If you need to talk about Chicago real estate, plese call me–direct dial is 312-981-2360, cell phone is 312-607-1306, e-mail works too!
Other posts you might enjoy are:
Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet Too!
How Not To Sell Your Home and How To Sell Your Home
The Closing Is The End–The Very End
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