In many areas of the United States, square footage size is one of the primary and common measures of value comparison used by agents, buyers and sellers. It offers a way to evaluate and compare homes of similar size, quality and location. Agents and buyers use the square footage in this manner because it is an easy characteristic of a house to understand.
Sellers want to count as much square footage as they can when selling a house, but want to count as little as possible for the County Assessor If the seller says a home has 2,500 square feet and after the buyer moves in he finds out it has 2200 square feet, the seller might have a lawsuit on his hands. Some Realtors® are unwilling to provide square footage information on their listings for fear of being sued for damages for representing properties to be larger than they really are.
Most Realtors ® aren’t experts at measuring a home, and 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. Different people can arrive at very different measurements; even the experts have different ways they do it.
Some architects measure square footage from the interior wall to the interior wall.
Some tax assessors measure it from the outside wall to the outside wall.
Some builders and even surveyors will sometimes do it both ways.
And don’t assume the tax records are accurate, they often times aren’t.
You may wonder how hard can it be measure a house. These are just a sampling of some of the issues that come up:
If you have stairwells, do you include it on the main level or the upper level?
Do you include closet spaces?
What do you do with fireplaces?
What do you do with an attic that has been converted to a bedroom? What about a garage conversion?
What do you do with an office that is set up in an unfinished basement? The basement has carpet on the floor, heat, but the walls aren’t finished. Is this section considered finished or unfinished?
What constitutes above grade square footage?
How do you count a walk-out basement?
When does an enclosed porch count in square footage of the house?
Does a room have to have a closet to be counted as a bedroom?
Practices vary around the country as some multiple listing services don’t put
square footage in their property information; others allow Realtors to put in a range. Not all states require Real estate licensees to fill out a square footage disclosure form, but this is a required Real Estate Form in Colorado. Even though Colorado has a disclosure form, it’s still important for both buyers and sellers to understand the form and its implications.
A real estate licensee in Colorado is not personally required to measure the square footage of a house.
A real estate licensee in Colorado who takes actual measurements doesn’t have to take exact measurement. But, the real estate licensee's objective must be to measure accurately and calculate competently in a manner that is not misleading.
A real estate licensee in Colorado must disclosure the manner or methology in which the measurement is taken.
The buyer and seller must be advised by the Real estate licensee in Colorado that measurements are for marketing and not for a loan.
The Colorado buyer and seller must be advised that if exact square footage is a concern, the property should be independently measured.
