Discrepancy in sq footage (Houston: real estate, loan, townhomes)

[thuymj]

We bought a townhome in the Houston Heights in 2005 and at the time we were told that the sq. footage was 2,832. Since then the home has been a rental. Last year we tried to sell it and our realtor hired an appraiser who said the sq. footage was 2,125. Therefore, we were not able to sell it for the price we were hoping bc the realtor said a bank wouldn't approve the loan for any buyers. Therefore we were kind of forced to drop the price a lot. It never sold, so we got a new tenant.

We would like to sell the home this summer, but now unsure of what to do about this sq. footage issue. 2 questions. One, would the higher sq.footage cause our property taxes from years prior to be more than it should have been if the 2,125 sq ft estimate was indeed correct. And second, would it be in our favor to get a higher or lower sq.footage estimate when it was time for us to sell again? Would that mean we could sell it for a higher price so that we don't lose money on the sell?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

[wclanton423]

Did HCAD have your sq ft at 2832?

[trbstang]

Look it up on www.hcad.org and see what the estimated square footage is on the appraisal district website. That is what your taxes are based on. They use an external measurement calculation and segregate out the living space from garage space if it is attached. If their estimate is withing say 150-200 sqft of your number, then your taxes should be good. Usually they are compared to other townhomes close by, especially if there are several of them that are almost the same as yours. You can also estimate your sqft yourself by using your room measurements. If the HCAD number is quite a bit higher than the actual, you can get it adjusted for future taxes, but in order to get past tax charges adjusted, it has to be over by a large percentage.

A 700 sqft difference is a BIG difference. That is a 20 x 35 room, or almost the equivalent of a 4 car garage!

A higher sqft number generally means you can command a higher price, but then again if it is much larger than comps in the area, you will not get the full value, but it should be more. Hopefully there is an error in the second measurement.

[Komeht]

That's a big screw up somewhere...

[cheryjohns]

Real estate is sold on a square foot price basis.

Even if HCAD has your square footage at the higher size, once a buyer has it under contract, their lender will order a new appraisal - which will come back at the lower size (I am guessing - I assume the last appraisal was correct). At that point, you more than like will be asked to lower the price accordingly.

Like trbstang said, that is a huge difference. 700 missing square feet MIGHT be hard to notice in a 5000 sq ft house. Pretty hard to mistake 2125 for 2832. Did you get an appraisal when you bought? If you got a loan, the lender would have ordered one.