Trying to sell a home with wrong square footage (documentation, appraisal, agent)

[skrduncan]

I want to sell my home. I had a real estate agent come look at my property and he discovered a major discrepancy in the sq. footage. He measured the house twice and confirmed that the house is not 2700 sq. feet but rather 2,073 sq. ft. He notified the owner of his real estate company about this matter immediately. I have requested a mediation package be mailed to me through my local Board Of Realtors so that I can present this to an arbitration board.
I bought the house for $479 k. Based on this new sq. footage discovery my agent said he could sell it for around $417 k. Has anyone out there filed a suit and won a case like this? Any advice would be apreciated. I did put a call in today to a real estate attorney but have not gotten a return call yet.

[Gretchen B]

Since when are real estate agents experts at measuring a home??? What did your appraisal show to be the square footage? There are numerous ways to measure the square footage of a home. It is definitely not a matter of measuring each room and adding up the totals. Licensed appraisers have strict guidelines they use when measuring a home. A builders set of blue prints might show a slightly different number. And the county assessor may have yet another number. I don't think I'd act too hastily based on one person's opinion. I suggest doing a little more research and digging before I jumped into mediation, arbitration, or a lawsuit.

[johnrex62]

I am not clear on what you are asking or trying to mediate. You bought a house, how long ago? Now you want to sell it and discover you thought it was bigger. Who will you be suing and based on what documentation?

Normally, you would be responsible for proving you were intentionally deceived in order to win against the seller. In most cases a property survey would have discovered this type of error before you bought the house. If the seller provided plans or written statement to the size of the house and it is not correct, your title policy obtained from the Title Insurance company when you bought the house (You did get title insurance, right?) would cover any material defect unintentionally misrepresented that should have been discovered.

I have never seen this type of problem occur after a closing before, since I have always obtained a survey before hand. I would expect you will only be able to win any damages if you can show the misrepresentation was intentional.

[sablebaby]

As far as I know, it's the buyers responsibility to verify the square footage when buying the home. That means you were responsible for this before you bought your home, not the seller.

[VMH2507]

I find it sort of hard to believe that you could not visually tell the difference between a 2700 sq ft house and one that is 2000 sq ft. I owned a house that was listed on the appraisal districts records as being 1200 sq ft. Anyone walking into the house could tell that it was over 1700 sq ft. This same house was recently on the market again and the listed sq ft was 1950. My point is that 700 sq ft difference is usually recognizable.

[jimj]

In our state you would be out of luck. All listings clearly state that square footage is an estimate only and not to be taken as representative of actual footage, it is the responsability of the buyer to confirm the figure.

Good luck!

[Northwoods Voyager]

All above posts contain valid and reliable information. In Missouri, it is also, only an estimate and not to be taken as representative of the actual footage as jim states.

For demonstration purposes, I had agents in my office each measure a home and present to me their findings. Only two agents out of 6 agreed. some had measured the outside perimeter, others had measured each individual room. Another had measured each room and the halls and closets. This was a great lesson for all of us.

So, which method did we use? Put on the listing sheet the outside measurement and the indivisual room sizes and that was all. Gave the potential buyer(s) some idea of the size, not the actual. for carpeting, other flooring or placement of furniture, etc.

[palmcoasting]

I'm confused also. What has mediation with your local board of realtors have to do with anything? Who are you trying to go in to mediation with? Where'd you get the 2700 sq ft to begin with? Was it total space or living space? What do the county records say?

[Roma]

We had this issue also but for us it's in our favor. We bought our house almost 3 years ago on the assumption it was 4,200 square feet. Come to find out it is actually 4,550 square feet. It's not that big of a difference to us personally but it will be in our favor when we sell. Price per square footage.

[Beth56]

What about checking city records? That's what I did when I bought my home. I was also able to check if any permits were taken out for work done on the house. It's free to look where I live. Just a suggestion.