Square Footage Guidelines IN CHICAGO (for sale, real estate market, condos)

[Phl_Gd]

Hoping some Real Estate professionals or those knowledgeable could help me with this one...

How is square footage measured for Real Estate marketing in Chicago? Footprint? Attached garage excluded? How about a roofdeck, not balcony (outdoor living space)? Basement included?
You see all the signs on the FOR SALE postings and I was wondering if there were some general guidelines for Chicago.

PS I have searched and there are tons of threads on this but none specific to Chicago. I understand that it varies by locality so I wanted to hear something local.

Thanks in advance.

[loboftbl88]

I was wondering if you have found anything out about the square footage issue in chicago. I bought a preconstruction condo, and when it came time to close, the condo was much smaller than advertised. The floor plan had no approximate square footage wording of any sort. They included a 100sq foot balcony and never mentioned that until I got an appraisal. Are there any guidlines to rules for outdoor square footage? Any advice would be great because I am trying to get my earnest money back! Thanks in advance for any help!

[chet everett]

Our region is perhaps the LEAST interested / standardized on sq ft. The practice of MANY real estate office in the region is to consciously AVOID making statement about sq ft, my suspicion is that this due to several factors.

Tract builders have a far smaller role here than in more modern areas, and even the condo developers in Chicago have never had the number of units as in a market like NY. That leaves LOTS AND LOTS of small builders, all of whom have reasons NOT to report sq ft accurately.

Our byzantine (and often corrupt) property tax assessment system encourages 'fudged' numbers.

The relatively small size of many homes in Chicado encourages additions / renovations in attics / dormers/ basements and other 'space' that is not just hard to measure, but NOT uniformly usable due to things like lack of headroom.


A wide variety of construction styles also means there are WIDE variations in exterior footprint vs interior sq ft -- solid masonary (brick on block) is MUCH thicker than a balloon framed structure, even if faced with brick, porches are often 'shared' as well as 'means of common egress' that are not assigned to any one unit in 3 flat. Coal chutes and similar interior shafts / chimneys rob space.

Clear? Not really, but it is what we live with...

[Lookout Kid]

I've only worked on large multi-family residential projects, so I can't say exactly what realtors do, but developers of condos will usually include wall thicknesses in their square footage calculations. And demising walls between units will be split down the middle. Exterior walls are usually counted to the outer edge of the wall, or the outer edge of glass.

Commercial building owners typically use the BOMA standard, which includes all square footage to the outer edge of the exterior wall. But there are differences between "rentable space" and "usable space" in the way that vertical shafts, janitor's closets, and restrooms are counted.

[loboftbl88]

I understand how developers will measure walls, and try to stretch their measurements. I have always heard that basements don't count in square footage measurements, and I can't imagine balconies would either. I just can't find anywhere that this is written? Is this just one of those old wives tales? I would think if balconies did count as your sq footage, you would see 1000 sq ft balconies hanging off of a 300 sq foot unit so they could say the unit is 1300 sq feet. I just have a hard time beleiving that there is no guidelines for building, appraising, measuring, etc!

[chet everett]

Appraisal reports generally will state measured room sizes and the foot print of the home -- that is generally a good enough comparison basis. Of course homes with wider than normal staircases, multiple staircases, large number of closets, thicker walls are going to come up with bigger "non livable" area...

Don't sweat it, really. If you want a lawsuit there are easier basis to break contract...