Neighborhood home listed with incorrect square footage (for sale, real estate)

[austinHodge]

There is a home for sale in our neighborhood that is listed at 350 sq foot more than it actually is. I know this because we have the exact home. We even walked their home while it was being built, and it is identical in all aspects to ours. It appears that they used the value that is on their tax records instead of the actual value provided by the builder.

I am sure this is an honest mistake, however I'm concerned that this bad data will affect home appraisal values in our neighborhood. We are planning on listing our home in the next few months, and this discrepancy will show a price / sq foot that is much less than it should be. There are only 3 homes for sale in our neighborhood, so this will certainly be used as a comp.

Are my concerns warranted? If we mention this discrepancy to the owner or their agent, would they be obligated to take a second look at their square footage? Thanks for any tips.

[RooCeleste]

I don't think anyone really cares what is correct anymore. I wondered the same thing last year with the tax appraisals - I mentioned to the tax assessor that another home in our same neighborhood (with whom we're friends, and who built the EXACT same house just a few months after we did) was listed as being smaller, and thus, appraised less. His response was that "NO house is exactly the same size, regardless of if it is supposed to be the same size." Period. I don't understand it, but I'm starting to see that nobody cares about accuracy.

[ScoPro]

Maybe they're just including the garage space?

[funicorn]

I don't know if this could be the case, but our house is larger than most identical floor plans because previous owners turned abundant 2nd floor, walk-in attic space into a finished room. We added a window, turning it from climate-controlled "texas basement" into real living space.

[Trainwreck20]

350 feet is 20x17.5, so probably a little small for a garage. It is possible that someone included an add on porch, even though it is not enclose and/or ACed.

Btw, I would pay no attention to what the tax appraiser says, they are so used to double-speak, they don't even know what they mean anymore.

[austinHodge]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

It is possible that someone included an add on porch, even though it is not enclose and/or ACed.

We thought this might be the case, so we went to the open house this past weekend. There have been no modifications to the original floor plan. The house is still identical to ours.

[centralaustinite]

As long as the owner and the real estate agent give the source of the sq footage (in this case, TCAD), they are in the clear (nothing unethical going on).

The bigger issue is that there is not a single, established way of establishing sq footage. Builders can do it one one, bank appraisals do it another way. How do you count stairs, closets, wall thickness, conditioned space, etc. the list goes on and on. (search the threads, this has been well-discussed here.)

Price per sq foot is better used as a rough guide to neighborhoods not house to house comparison. People buy a house in total, not like meat at the butcher. Builders figures are also not always perfectly reliable.

[austinHodge]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

As long as the owner and the real estate agent give the source of the sq footage (in this case, TCAD), they are in the clear (nothing unethical going on).

Where would they provide this information? It's not shown in the MLS listing from what I can tell.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by austinHodge

Where would they provide this information? It's not shown in the MLS listing from what I can tell.

Yes, it is on the MLS listing. Next to the number, it says the source. It will say something like 3570/Tax Record or 4000/Builder or something like that. It always has a number with a slash and then the source. If it says "per owner", you've always got an issue. You want to always either see Tax Record or Appraisal as the source. Nothing else is really "documented", just guesses.

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by austinHodge

Where would they provide this information? It's not shown in the MLS listing from what I can tell.

It should be in the MLS listing, the sq footage and the source of the number. Most real estate agents prefer to use the TCAD number over the builder's number because it is easily available to verify.

Certainly, it would be on the disclosure sheets distributed to people making an offer.