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I have had 2 appraisals done and in both cases they measured from the inside.
The guy walked around with a laser and measured every room.
Not saying you are wrong about what you saw, but maybe you are wrong about what you assumed was going on. When Appraisers measure inside, it is for floor plan purposes and for measuring sections that help them determine exterior measurements, too (offsets...strange things... inaccessibility...) Appraisers measure square footage from the outside. Then they often take interior measurements for floor planning. I was an Appraiser before I became an Agent. In GA though...perhaps there are regions that do it differently. So, yeah, you saw them measure inside. Did you not see them measure outside, too? Maybe they did and you just did not see them. Maybe they were lazy and did it wrong, using interior only? Or, maybe they measured inside (for any number of reasons) and added the thickness of the walls, to get their final number. I have done that when I needed to. For condos, most I know/knew use interior measurements only.
Square footage is a big deal here in Atlanta. 10+ years ago a realtor/broker was sued by the buyer because the square foot measure listed on the MLS was incorrect. The house was actually smaller than the MLS listed. The buyer won the lawsuit. After that, for many years NO square footage was listed at all. This made it very difficult when we purchased our home because it was hard to compare houses we viewed. We could only guess which home was the largest for the money. It is only very recently that some realtors now list the sq. ft. Certain developers do not.
The bad part for me is that Zillow uses the tax records to list the square footage. I don't know if realtors here depend upon their own measurements or not. Given that lawsuit years ago, perhaps they would be leery of listing the sq. ft. measure they computed themselves.
Zillow relies on tax records. Check your county records. If actual square footage is greater than the municipal records and you correct it, your property tax bill will increase.
Square footage is a big deal here in Atlanta. 10+ years ago a realtor/broker was sued by the buyer because the square foot measure listed on the MLS was incorrect. The house was actually smaller than the MLS listed. The buyer won the lawsuit. After that, for many years NO square footage was listed at all. This made it very difficult when we purchased our home because it was hard to compare houses we viewed. We could only guess which home was the largest for the money. It is only very recently that some realtors now list the sq. ft. Certain developers do not.
The bad part for me is that Zillow uses the tax records to list the square footage. I don't know if realtors here depend upon their own measurements or not. Given that lawsuit years ago, perhaps they would be leery of listing the sq. ft. measure they computed themselves.
Square footage is not a mandatory field in my MLS. I do not know of any Realtors who measure and populate the field. Some use tax records ( not always accurate) and make the source of the measurement clear to avoid liability.
A survey is usually required to close. They measure exterior walls and subtract for the garage, if attached.
Our local MLS does not post the square footage, liability issues, I guess. Having done some work with the county, I would never trust those measurements, just grab a tape and do it yourself.
Zillow and Trulia both often have tons of incorrect information on their sites. Square footage is just one example.
Just the other day though I saw two identical homes - same exact floor plan -same builder - one as 2600 SF the other as 4200 SF.
But if a buyer was looking for a 4,200 sq. ft. house, they probably wouldn't have looked at the home listed as 2,600 sq. ft. That's what worries me about selling my home, which is listed as being much smaller than it actually is. Hopefully, whoever looks at the house will be guided by their agent and that agent will be familiar with our neighborhood and the size of the homes.
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My appraisal was inside
