Rules for square footage on MLS (Charlotte: for sale, how much, houses)

[greenbayou]

I justed wanted to toss this one out to the realtors. The square footage on sites like carolinahome.com is now listed in ranges. What gives??

[south.charlotte&union]

This was a change that was voted on and approved by the CMLS Board of Directors. The reasoning was that square footage has been given too much importance in our region. It has apparently been used very successfully in other regions. Once the property is closed, we can see the square footage reported by the listing agent.

We realtors still need to measure the house and enter a number for the square footage of the house. The formula for calculating ranges is 10 percent down then rounded to the nearest hundred, and 5 percent up then rounded to the nearest hundred.

[Megax]

Originally Posted by south.charlotte&union

This was a change that was voted on and approved by the CMLS Board of Directors. The reasoning was that square footage has been given too much importance in our region. It has apparently been used very successfully in other regions. Once the property is closed, we can see the square footage reported by the listing agent.

We realtors still need to measure the house and enter a number for the square footage of the house. The formula for calculating ranges is 10 percent down then rounded to the nearest hundred, and 5 percent up then rounded to the nearest hundred.

Thanks for the explanantion.....so what is the benefit to the consumer?

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Hard to say-maybe none? When I sold my last house, their appriaser came up with a different sq ft for the house, and smaller, than what was on the listing (which I had taken from the paperwork when I bought it). So, we had another appraiser come out and measure - still a 3rd figure! And it was larger. The buyers had originally wanted to reduce the price due to this "error" but we finally agreed on no reduction. A range would suit me since I would at least know if a listing was in the ballpark of the size I would be looking for.

[south.charlotte&union]

Originally Posted by Megax

Thanks for the explanantion.....so what is the benefit to the consumer?

Personally I'm not sure if it's good or bad -- but as another poster said, when you have two people measure you will have two different numbers I suppose time will tell. I think they were trying to limit the focus on square footage and try to highlight that there are other things that may be just as important to a potential buyer (i.e., lot, upgrades, age of home).

[md to nc]

I can say that when we were looking to buy in 2006 our realtor used that square footage figure like it was gold. We never even really looked at it until we met her. She would tell us the best price to offer based on this number by calculating how much we were paying per square foot and base the offer on that. That could be why we lost out on so many houses and that is why I would never use her again.

[Weedydidi]

Interesting. I always thought we had more square footage than reflected on our tax records (and thus our MLS listing.)

[Charlottean]

Tax records are not an accurate source for the info. I've seen them off by 1000 sq.ft. before.


I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that we went to a range.

[Weedydidi]

Originally Posted by Charlottean

Tax records are not an accurate source for the info. I've seen them off by 1000 sq.ft. before.

I always thought that the #s for our neighborhood were off. There were people who had houses that I didn't think were as large as ours whose square footage #s were higher. Our next door neighbors didn't have a living room and had a smaller kitchen than ours, but their square footage was listed as 300-400 more than ours.

[Swimmom32]

yep same here Weedy, there are a few houses here for sale that are my model and larger than mine? but hey have 1 less bathroom or bedroom...I have to say I dont like this new system..