Square Footage: Give an Inch, Take a Mile
When I bought my first and second homes, I wanted to know what the square footage was. Is it 1400 square feet or 2400? Do you measure the outside of the house and add, or measure rooms and add them up to get the square footage? According to an attorney who visited our office today, none of the above.
His advice to agents? YOU should never measure a house yourself. While it seems straightforward, figuring out the square footage of a dwelling can be tricky business. There is no standard methodology for measuring - in fact three different appraisers, a professional measurer (is that a word?), an appraiser, and an agent could quite possibly ALL come up with a different number.
His next bit of advice? If you publish the square footage of a home, always attribute where you got the number. If it’s from the tax records, say that’s where you found it. Additionally, agents would be wise to state in the MLS listing, “Information here not warranted or guaranteed” and add, “If square footage is important to you, you need to measure it yourself.”
Interestingly, in Texas - and perhaps other states - state law prohibits real estate agents from revealing the square footage according to the attorney today. While I was unable to find evidence of that via my friend Google, I did see that square footage has not been listed for years in California.
Here’s an interesting discussion about the subject with points of views from many states.




