Whether selling your residence alone or offering your residence with an agent, the secret component to a easy sale is an truthful account of your residence's actual features in writing. A key step in the development of obtaining an truthful account of your residence is obtaining an truthful measurement of inhabitable area, a key step that is sadly lost on some. As one of the first phases in determining a residence's selling amount an agent will provide a Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) which lists selected transactions in the nearby area. However, without an truthful calculation of your residence's living area, the agent's CMA will not be very helpful.



In the USA, the majority of agents establish the price per sq.ft. of a residence on gross living area size. Livable area is defined as the part of a residence which is air conditioned, immediately accessed from the inside of the residence and possessing the quality of construction identical to the original residence. Livable area is calculated from the exterior walls, not from the inside walls. All real estate professionals are to follow the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standards for single family residential units when finding residence area, which recommends physical measurement.

Furthermore, one of the largely familiar lawsuits in real estate now a days is falsification of livable area size. I've been to homes under contract where the residence's contents are packed up and the seller is ready to move only to be told that their house's living area was not truthfully embodied to start with. The sales agreement then has to be renegotiated or is completely dead| with no obligation for the buyer to continue the sale. The seller's residence sells for thousands of dollars below the original price. For this reason you should not allow the realtor to declare your living area based on county records, an old set of plans (which can and are altered sometimes during construction), or an estimate of what the typical residence size in your development.

Here is an issue: A 1,500sf residence is put up for sale @ 123 Fox Run Dr. The residence is offered at $120/sf x 2,000sf = $240,000. Rather than physically measuring the residence to find an truthful living area, the gross living area was calculated using county records. The residence receives a contract for $240,000. However, the appraiser delivers his appraisal showing 1,840sf and an appraised value of $220,800, some $19,200 less than the sales price. The sellers are informed that they will have to renegotiate the sales amount due to the living area is actually 1,840sf, not the stated 2,000sf. The sellers are angered and file a suit the previous owners for misrepresentation of living area.

Can this actually happen in transfers? Yes and it does. This is why it is so crucial to get your residence measured by the person listing your home, whether by owner or by agent, or preferably, by an appraiser. After doing so, you will have written verification of your true living area.

Unlike a real estate agent, an appraiser has no vested interest in what amount for which the residence is sold for. Appraisal fees are determined by efforts to develop the report and not a portion of the selling amount. Therefore, a professional appraisal can often help homeowners make the best decisions setting a decent sales price for their residences size. Whether you're thinking of listing for sale by owner or through an agent, it is always a wise idea to get an appraisal prior to listing your property.