I'm looking at a house - sq ft question

[MissB]

So, the real estate listing (sorry, no link) shows the size of the rooms. I can calculate a rough square footage from that, plus roughly figure out the size of the bathrooms and hallways.

My current house is, in theory, smaller by about 200 sq ft. The main rooms and bedrooms are slightly smaller than my house. I have several more actual rooms (office, den) but one less bathroom. Still, I can’t quite figure out where the rest of the sq ft is in the other house. It’s off by almost 1,000 sq ft, even with generous allowances for the bathrooms and hallways.

What am I missing? It’s a one story house. I suppose they could’ve finished the attic space but nothing in the listing leads me to think they did. The garage is not finished.

So, before I ask the realtor a stupid, somewhat aggressive question, any ideas what I may be missing???

[leftieNanner]

1. Not a stupid question

Is there a basement? We bought our downsize house last year. The listing said 1900 sf, but the actual house is only 1500. Unfinished basement counts for the rest

[MissB]

2. No! Just a crawl space

Good question though!

[ZZenith]

4. In most states I don't think they're allowed to list unfinished square footage.

It doesn’t seem fair to do that - at the very least they should include a “finished” square footage figure as well as the total.

[we can do it]

22. Basements only count toward square footage if walkout.

[ZZenith]

3. I don't think your question is aggressive in the least.

It’s the kind of question a good realtor would be happy to answer and if they didn’t know the answer immediately they’d find out quickly.

You have the right to know every tiny detail about a purchase this substantial.

[GP6971]

5. Have you checked with your county

Assessor's office via online? They might list total sqft, taxes etc.

[mobeau69]

7. Yes, and they can be wrong.

[MissB]

12. I did- listed as the same

It was built 12 years ago, assume the builder determined the square footage.

[mobeau69]

6. Why do you think it's a stupid question?

Never trust a realtor. In reality they don’t work for either the buyer or the seller. They work for themselves.

Check out your county’s proper tax website. Many show sketches of the structures. It’s all public information.

[Enter stage left]

8. That is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen on DU...

"never trust a Realtor"?

We sign a contract discussing in great detail who we represent, how we will represent them and to whom our loyalty lies.

I was a Realtor/Broker in residential real estate for over 25 years. I managed & taught real estate law and sales techniques for over 5 years.

We had bad apples, and they were sanctioned, fined, ordered to take classes over, or even referred to the Dept of Commerce to have their licenses revoked.

The Realtor code of ethics is so detailed and the consequences so severe that (I throwing out a number here, no stats) that I will guess 95% of all elected officials would not stand up the the ethics we HAD to live by.

I also served on the "Professional Standards Committee, that would hear cases brought be the public or other Realtor's about code violations.

PLEASE do some research before painting the Realtor professionals with such a broad brush.

Proud Realtor, professional salesperson.

[GP6971]

11. So true.

Thanks for posting.

[Meadowoak]

13. My realtor was excellent, he took the time to explain everything

Gave excellent advice, like a father would give. He made buying my first home a really good experience.

[Enter stage left]

14. Thank you.

[mobeau69]

15. What if they are in that group that you've acknowledged are bad apples?

Just write it off to bad luck or what?

[Enter stage left]

18. I'm glad you asked that question...

First, go their Principal Broker. They can reassign another Realtor to help you if you are unhappy with your current agent.

If your agent should happen to be the Principal Broker, go straight to the Dept of Commerce, Real Estate Division. (but the odds of your agent being the Principal Broker are extremely small)

If you are so unfortunate to get the 5%, I'm very sorry, but we seem to think 5% bad cops acceptable?

If ONLY 5% of the population was corrupt of dis-honest, we'd be in a much better country, wouldn't you agree?

I didn't mean to attack you, but I'm tired of attacks that aren't backed up by facts.

Oh yeah, if you got one of the 5%, don't buy any lottery tickets.

[mobeau69]

21. I never said they were crooked. It's that sometimes they are just wrong about things. For example,

I was looking at a property that was listed as 9 acres. Looking at it on a website it was obvious that the area enclosed by the lot lines was smaller than other adjacent properties shown with the same or even smaller acreages. I new something wasn’t right. I mentioned it to the realtor. She called me back and said it was 9 acres. She used the sellers property tax records and said the county confirmed 9 acres. That was proof positive to her and she wouldn’t listen to me. I still knew something was wrong. I used the measuring tools on two different websites and both showed it to be about 5 acres. I then called the county and the lady there said it’s 9 acres. I said please listen to me! I convinced her to go to their website, use their measuring tool and check it with me. She did and then said she saw what I was talking about and that she would get back to me. The next day she called and said the 9 acres was wrong and had always been wrong from the time it was originally plotted. The seller was pissed to say the least. Taxes had been paid on 4 acres for years that didn’t exist!

The seller, the realtor and the county took the 9 acres as gospel just because it was always recorded that way.

I spent a good deal of time trying to convince the realtor to no avail. Not saying she was crooked but just like everyone else involved refusing to use their own eyes and to challenge the county’s incorrect records.

You assumed I was implying she was crooked but that, as I’ve tried to explain, is not the case!

[Ocelot II]

20. Aren't there a few "bad apples" in every line of work?

Does that mean we must never trust anybody who provides services? Never trust a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, a dog groomer, a hairdresser? Never get on an airplane because it might be flown by a "bad apple" pilot?

[we can do it]

23. Thank you.😑

[Ocelot II]

19. That's a pretty unfair and unkind thing to say.

[Enter stage left]

9. Ask your Realtor anything you want to know or are worried about...

If they can't or won't answer, talk to their Broker about getting out of any contract you may have signed, including a "Buyers Representation Contract".

If you had your own Realtor, not the listing agent, they work for you. The "listing agent" works for the sellers. Never try to buy a house without your own agent.

[moniss]

10. Incorrect info

in real estate listings like on Zillow are very common. I've made many calls asking about things that made no sense. The big one I see all the time is lot size. They'll claim an acre or so but the square footage on the plat doesn't come close. So which is wrong? Their typed in claim or the plat? So you call and they feign ignorance about where the mistake could have come from and then they instantly begin to pressure you to look at the property anyway. Same thing happens with autos. You see an ad for a late model vehicle in nice shape looking at the pictures. But you get to the dealer and there's rust holes, dents and ripped seats. But the pictures made everything look fine. So you ask the salesman what gives and he claims not to know anything but tries to pressure you into the vehicle and claiming they will fix anything for you. They just Photo-Shop the pictures. Some just use a "stock photo" of what the car looked like in some original dealer ad when it was brand new. All scams to get you to call, come looking etc. and to get your info like name, address, phone number etc. I remember talking on one car deal where the salesman had a form pulled up on his screen. Before we even talked about price he was asking me if I owned a house, my payment, mortgage balance etc. I told him the car was only priced at a little over $2500 and I was just going to pay cash for whatever we settled on. He claimed I had to give him the info anyway because it was "policy" before a deal could be made. Obviously I left. But people like this use that info to get an idea of how much of an equity loan you could get and then they pester you every few months to buy a car.

Deceptive and manipulated purposely false text and graphic images are very common in all areas of commerce anymore.

[mobeau69]

16. Yep, I've seen photos on Zillow that were photoshopped.

[Ocelot II]

17. It's a perfectly reasonable question to ask the realtor about - not aggressive at all.

Just tell them you've tried to compare the square footage of your house with what's on the listing, and as far as you can tell there's a 1,000' discrepancy (which is quite a lot), and you'd like to know how the number was arrived at. I don't think any realtor would take offense at the question.