If I asked you what size your home is, chances are you would reference the size the Auditor has listed on that web site. Perhaps, you live in a customized home, in which case you might refer to the size that your architect or builder gave you.
How certain are you of that measurement?
If you could choose a standard for the way square footage was measured for a home, which method would you prefer?
Outside measuring:
With this method, the outside dimensions are measured – usually with a wheel. Then additional measurements would be taken for a garage and subtracted. If the home is a 2-story rectangle, then the base dimensions can merely be doubled. If there is a vaulted Great Room then the portion without a floor above is measured and subtracted, although not always. I’ve been told that builders will sometimes count that air space in the square footage to increase the size and thus, decrease the price per square foot making the home “seem” to be a better buy. The small space for a bay window is calculated and perhaps added. So bottom line, this method mixes both outside and inside measurements.
Inside measuring:
Although not usually done, one could measure all the rooms and total the measurements. This is more likely to give actual usable space, but would you include closet space? What about the space allocated to stairways?
How would YOU measure?
If you were required to ACCURATELY measure the home you now live in, how comfortable would you be with the final measurement? What if your home looked like this? How comfortable would you be with final measurment? Do you think you could do such an accurate job that it would hold up in a legal court?
When a home is listed in our CBR MLS, the section on square footage is autofilled from the Auditor’s web site. Very often it is wrong. How can it be wrong? Well, a builder could have submitted a floor plan that was intended to be built. Later in the building design stage, bump-outs may be added or subtracted. Those changes aren’t always picked up by the Auditor. The architect could have planned on a specific size, but the actual dimensions may differ a little from the blueprint. Plus, because this measuring can be rather difficult, if three appraisers measured, chances are they would come up with three different sizes.
Buyers have sued and won
In our litigious society, do you know that a few buyers have sued because an MLS (from an Auditor) said the home was a certain size, and the buyer later found out that it was a couple hundred square feet off. Of course, they ONLY do that if the size is SMALLER. They keep quiet if the size is BIGGER. Hm-m-m-m.
If you were responsible for measuring the home in the above diagram, how would you feel if a buyer sued you because your measurements were off by a couple hundred feet?
Yeah … I thought that might be your response. 
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