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I don't know if I have any recourse or if its a big deal but I purchased a home in Florida and the heated square footage is off by 86 sq ft. The lanai was included in that figure of heated space. The title company's appraiser also included the sq footage w/lanai in his report. There is a difference of approx $8,000 more, I paid for, that is not heated space.
Is there anything I can do or should I just let it be.
You had every chance to measure the space before you bought to make sure its accurate. If it was not you could have backed out of the deal. The house is the same, this number of sqft is just a technicality of specs. The report can easily be corrected, but dont expect any money.
You paid for a "house". You didn't pay be the sqft so you will not be refunded by the sqft.
If you were buying bananas and they were priced by the pound, I could see your point, but you were not.
This is my first house that I bought, so please know that I am still new to all this. I totally understand I will not be receiving any money. I based my offer on the comparable rates of the houses selling in the area. My real estate agent would talk price/sq ft in living area not the whole home. So that is where I was taught on how much a home was worth, with the normal features included. Anything elaborate would make the value of the house more.
Live and learn... And it's not a big loss... Well I could have put that money to new kitchen cabinets. LOL
Honestly, a thread like this about square footage pops up once a week at least. It's a misunderstood specification by many including some in the industry.
If you have 10 professionals (real estate agents, builders, appraisers, assessors, home inspectors, etc) measure a home, they will most likely get 10 different answers. Sometimes, the answers aren't even close to each other. This is common in the industry.
It sounds to me like you are saying the listing and the title company agreed with each other and you are measuring it differently. Is that the case? Or did the title company measure it differently from the listing agent? Did you have an inspection? They usually measure it too. What does the county assessor say for square footage? Those numbers could easily all be different. If you got hold of the floor plans, they might be different too.
Accept it and move on. Know in the future if this is important to you, measure it yourself.
Also, listings usually have a disclaimer on them somewhere that says something like "information included is reliable but not guaranteed". That basically means buyer beware. If you want to know for sure, check for yourself.
As for price per square foot: We have people who call us all the time (we build custom houses) and want to know how much we charge per square foot. We answer that since we can build a 1500 square foot home for either $150k or $500k depending on what we put in it, that isn't a question we can answer for them. It isn't just the finishes, either. For example, a large house with 3 bathrooms and a kitchen will cost considerably less per square foot than a small house with 3 bathrooms and a kitchen. Those are the expensive rooms, so more square footage spreads that cost out more. If you were making an offer based purely on price/square foot, you were doing it wrong. It is only one factor of the equation.
Yes it comes up and I tell the same story. In my last home, the builder filed the sq ft with the county. Well he filed on the base models when optional finished rooms were allowed. My model had an optional FROG (finished room over garage) that added over 300sq ft. My home was 300sq ft more then any record showed.
Example of different forms of measuring. One room house. Outside measurement of 12ft x 12ft, 144 sq ft. Now measure the inside of that one room. Based on wall thickness, my quick guesstimate is the room will measure 11ft, 8in x 11ft, 8in or about 138ish sq ft. Where did the 6sq ft go? Now take that times whatever. Do the math yourself.
The measurements that my house was based on was the outside dimensions minus garage, outside entry way, and SHOULD HAVE been the lanai. So, then you would not have to worry about the inside dimensions based on thickness of wall. In my opinion, measuring the outside dimensions would give a more accurate heated square footage, than measuring each room inside the house. But each person has their own way of measuring sq. ftg.
Accurate square footage is an important consideration when buying a home in terms of comparable pricing AND because empty homes tend to appear larger.
Most listings include a disclaimer advising buyers to verify all dimensions. This is excellent 'buyer beware' advice. When one is comparing their current home with a new home, they should have the measurements of their current home in-hand, and measure the comparable rooms in the new potential home.
While one doesn't 'buy homes by the pound or foot', square footage is still a big selling point when it comes to resale. Nobody looks for a new home that only 'appears larger.'
Accurate square footage is an important consideration when buying a home in terms of comparable pricing AND because empty homes tend to appear larger.
Accurate and square footage are two difficult things to pair up. There's a lot of variation amongst different trades and even people in the same trade in terms of what is an appropriate method of measure square footage. If there can be no one generally accepted practice for measuring then it's impossible to have anything termed accurate square footage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jghorton
Most listings include a disclaimer advising buyers to verify all dimensions. This is excellent 'buyer beware' advice. When one is comparing their current home with a new home, they should have the measurements of their current home in-hand, and measure the comparable rooms in the new potential home.
If you add up the space inside every room 99% of the time you'll get a different square footage total than what you're provided. That's not a method many people use to generate total living area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jghorton
While one doesn't 'buy homes by the pound or foot', square footage is still a big selling point when it comes to resale. Nobody looks for a new home that only 'appears larger.'
If you buy a house and it's marketed as 3,000 sq ft when you go to sell it (so long as you haven't added on) then it's still 3,000 sq ft. Living area is not going to just get up and walk away while you're living in the house.
1. Do you like the house? If yes, great
2. Are you planning to re-sell the house in the next few years? If no, great
Enjoy your house and don't sweat the small stuff. Pricing by square footage is just one way of determining value, it's not the only way. There's a lot of intrinsics that feed into a house, too -- supply/demand, neighborhood, schools, proximity to work centers, etc., etc.
Stop worrying about it and start enjoying your home. You didn't leave any money on the table -- in fact, you probably thought you had a pretty good deal until you whipped out your tape measure. :-) 86 sf is basically a rounding error.
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