Recently I’ve been involved in a couple of transactions where the square footage of the house, as indicated in the listing, was considerably different, and always larger, than the square footage as shown by the Pima County tax assessor.
There are a few reasons why this occurs, some legitimate, others questionable, at best.
In Tucson, all MLS listings indicate the square footage and the source of that square footage figure. The source can be the tax assessor, the home owner, an appraiser, the floor plan company that measured the house and did the floor plan, or it can be listed as Other, whatever that is.
The most reputable source is the tax assessor. If the listing shows 3400 sf and the assessor shows 3400 sf, it’s reasonably certain that the entire house was built with Pima county permits and that county inspections were performed during construction.
In the questionable category, for example, when the listing shows 3400 sf and the assessor shows 2900, there’s probably something amiss. And what may be amiss is that a room was added without the benefit of building permits and county inspections. Or, more often, an existing space that was not heated/cooled, and therefore not considered living space - like a workshop, storage room or garage - was converted to a rec room or guest bedroom, also without benefit of permits, and AC and heat were piped in, and it’s now being listed as ‘living space’ by the owner.
And however cozy it may be, in either case, Pima county is not aware of, and has not approved, that 500 sf of additional ‘living space’. And if you buy the house, you inherit the liability and the responsibility of having the county inspect the property and doing what needs to be done to bring it up to code. And if you don’t, when you decide to sell the house you’ll be obligated to disclose, as is the current owner/seller, that the addition or conversion was done without county permits and approval. And if the house is on a septic system and the added space is a bedroom, the county will also likely require that a new larger septic be installed.
In the worst case scenario, of an addition built without county approval and in flagrant violation of the building codes, it’s possible for the county to require you to tear down the non-complying structure.
Other, more benign, differences in square footage occur when an appraiser or the floor plan company or even the owner measures the house and comes up with a figure that differs slightly, maybe 150sf or so, from the assessor. That’s fairly normal. Have any three people measure a house and they’ll almost certainly come up with three slightly different measurements. And it’s probably nothing to be concerned about.
The big square footage differences usually crop up in older homes that have been fussed with over the years, back before anyone took this stuff too seriously. But, now and then, I’ve seen them play with the square footage in brand new one’s too.
A few years ago I represented the buyers of a brand new spec home that was listed as 3929sf and for over a million $$. But it sure didn’t feel like 3929 sf, unless you counted the 3rd garage bay that had a vent for heat & AC, the floor painted and some furniture thrown in there as a kind of rec room featuring a quick-get-away roll-up garage door.
And in the amazing, but true, and truly greedy department, they not only counted that garage bay as living space – they also listed the house as having a 3 car garage. The ultimate flex space I guess.
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When we purchased our house in February, we ran into both issues, the square footage on the loan was reduced by almost 500 sq ft - A former carport that had been remodeled was deemed storage not living space.
The guest house also caused an issue, since it was attached to the house and had a stove. I still don't understand why but having a second kitchen was deemed undesirable.
Bottom line, they were picking apart the appraisal item by item. The deal collapsed several times. With out the sheer tenacity of us, the seller, both brokers and especially our mortgage broker, the deal would never have proceeded. It literally was a war of wills that lasted for months.
Unless you have cash, be prepared to fight for what you want. There are some incredible deals out there but you have to be prepared and be willing to battle to make it happen.
Posted by: PK Steffen | July 22, 2009 at 10:54 AM