Square Footage LIES!
 

So when we were looking at buying our first home in February (the one in which we now live), the fact sheet said 1637 sq. ft. We thought, okay so this is what 1600 sq ft feels like. We bought the home and haven't thought much more of it until we started thinking that maybe we could finish off the 28'x14' garage and add nearly 400 sq. ft. giving us almost 2000 sq. ft. of living space, then add a 2 car garage in the back.. So my neighbor is a real estate agent and buddy of mine and I ask him if he thought it was a good idea and so we measure the sq. footage of the house...... it measures just over 1400 sq. ft.

I think I'm going to ask the sellers for what I paid for.. I want an extra 200 sq. ft. or give me back 200 sq. ft. worth of the home. effers.

That said, we're happy with the house and it's plenty of space for what we need. We just thought we were buying more.

yeah, the first house that we bought together, when we did the walkthrough something didn't seem right. We asked the realtors to measure, and the house was over 200 ft smaller than the claimed square footage. The sellers honestly had no idea (they had bought the house thinking it was the stated size), and were devastated to find out the truth, as the change considerably decreased the market value of the house.

You seem to be taking the surprise pretty well. I think I'd be pissed.

Trust me, I'm plenty pissed off. I wish we had known to ask our realtor to double check the square footage. I'm not sure what we can do other than just try and make the best of it.

There are several ways where I have known sellers to attempt to add to their living area square footage:

-Calling an enclosed porch "living area"
-Calling a loft over a garage "living area"
-Calling partially-finished basement areas "living area"
-In a two-story home, doubling the footprint of the first floor to determine the living area, but not accounting for the vaulted ceilings
-In a deep garage, calling the separate workshop / laundry room in the rear "living area"
-Adding the sq ft of a detached guest room to the living area of the main structure
-In a standard home that has an attached garage, a small front porch and a medium rear porch, "accidentally" combining the sq ft of the porches and/or garage to the living area

when you sell it, list the house at about 1860sf. The increased price differential on the sale should compensate for your original overpayment.

If you had it appraised, the appraiser should have measured it. Check your closing docs for the appraisal and see what it says the square footage is. Let me know if you need help reading it, it's a confusing form if you don't know where to look.

I'll have to look at them and see what we have.. Thanks.