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In my area, I think closets, hallways, etc DO go into the square footage.
HOWEVER, if you have 10 appraisers or agents independantly measure the square footage, I GUARANTEE that you will get 10 different answers. On a 2000 square foot house, your answers will easily vary from 1800 to 2200. Some people will measure the exterior, some measure the exterior and subtract walls, some measure the interior, some subtract stairs, some count stairs twice, some just measure "rooms", some count 2 story open rooms twice in a two story house (the danger of measureing the foundation and multiplying x 2 without knowing the interior layout, that could cause a measurement to be off by several hundred feet)
Agents in my area are required to disclose on the MLS listing where they got their square footage from. Either building plans (as measured by the draftsman), tax records (as measured by the assessor), self measured (as measured by the agent) or appraisor measured.
Also, my MLS has a disclaimer at the bottom of every listing that says something along the lines of "Information not guaranteed". In addition, many agents put BTVAI at the end of their comments, which stands for Buyer To Verify All Information. Basically, it it's really important to you, check it out yourself.
My opinion: you measure the exterior, and if you have a two story, double the measurement and subtract any open areas, such as the stairs (once, so you don't get the square footage twice), and any 2 story living areas.
Is the garage attached? If it is, and it's not heated and air conditioned, here, if you measured the outside, you'd have to subtract the square footage contained in the garage.
I couldn't measure the inside because of tenants but I measured the outside (which I remember the appraiser that measured my new house measured the outside) of the house. Is this how you calculate it? The main foundation is 30' X 36' = 1080 times 2 for the second floor = 2160 plus the kitchen addition is 7.5 X 27.5 = 206 plus the mudroom addition is 8' X 5.5' = 44.
If I am adding correctly, isn't that 2410 sq ft? Of course that includes the closets, storage cabinets, hallways but it doesn't include the attic, cellar or garage. The town records say 1485 sq ft.
The new house I bought was listed as 1400 sq ft. NO WONDER WHY I COULDN'T FIT ALL MY STUFF IN MY NEW HOUSE .... IT'S 1000 SQ FT SMALLER!!!!
Your calculations sound like they are in the right ballpark, assuming your upstairs a full upstairs, or only a partial? You are right not to include the attic, cellar (unless it is a finished basement) or garage. If your upstairs is only a partial, like a bonus room over the garage, or whatever, then you are way off. Without seeing the house, I couldn't say.
However, I have to say that a modicum of common sense should have entered into this. You went from a 2400 sq.ft. house to a 1400 sq.ft house and didn't notice the difference upon walking through the houses you were looking at in the 1400 sqft range? Did you buy the new house sight unseen? Or did you convince yourself that it MUST be an illusion, since it was the "same size" as your house on paper?
The difference between 1400 and 2400 sq.ft. is HUGE. I can't understate this. Did you use an agent to buy the new house? Were they familiar with your current house? It isn't the agents responsibility to second guess your choices, but I would have thought it would have come up in conversation that you were downsizing, which would obviously have caught your attention as a red flag.
Your calculations sound like they are in the right ballpark, assuming your upstairs a full upstairs, or only a partial? You are right not to include the attic, cellar (unless it is a finished basement) or garage. If your upstairs is only a partial, like a bonus room over the garage, or whatever, then you are way off. Without seeing the house, I couldn't say.
However, I have to say that a modicum of common sense should have entered into this. You went from a 2400 sq.ft. house to a 1400 sq.ft house and didn't notice the difference upon walking through the houses you were looking at in the 1400 sqft range? Did you buy the new house sight unseen? Or did you convince yourself that it MUST be an illusion, since it was the "same size" as your house on paper?
The difference between 1400 and 2400 sq.ft. is HUGE. I can't understate this. Did you use an agent to buy the new house? Were they familiar with your current house? It isn't the agents responsibility to second guess your choices, but I would have thought it would have come up in conversation that you were downsizing, which would obviously have caught your attention as a red flag.
I did think I was slightly downsizing but each house is very different. The old house is a 2 story and the new house is a custom type ranch slightly raised with an attached garage that has 2 bedrooms over the garage where you only walk up 3 stairs to get to the bedrooms. All the rooms in the new house are slightly larger but several less rooms. I guess I fell in love with where my new house was and not the house itself.
I am going to remeasure tomorrow to make sure I didn't make any mistakes before I change the listing. Now I am afraid to measure my new house. It maybe only 900 sq ft! I admit I was a bit naive and believed my friend the realtor was completely doing her job and looking out for my best interest. Stupidly, I never questioned anything and thought she was the "realtor God". Wow, did I get a taste of reality, that was really dumb of me.
I'm wondering if your new house could have been undermeasured, actually. The way you talk about it sounds bigger than 1400 sq.ft.
My house is 1250 sq.ft. with no hallway at all, so it feels like closer to 1400 sq.ft. It has 2 bedrooms, a small office, 2 bathrooms and a big great room (kitching, living, dining), plus closets, and a small laundry room. That's it. Your house sounds like it has more rooms than that.
I'm thinking its possible that both your new and old were undermeasured. Maybe your old house is 2400ish and your new house is more in the 1800 range. That would account for furniture not fitting, but wouldn't feel like so much of a difference on a walkthrough.
You said the new place has several fewer rooms. If you figure a bedroom is going to be in the ballpark of 100-150 sq.ft, and a normal living area more in the 200-250 range, if you lost a living area and 2 bedrooms, you'd be looking at 400-550 sq.ft, which is a long way from 900. If you lost more rooms than that, you should have picked up that they couldn't possibly be the same square footage. 900 square feet is going to be like 2 living areas and 2-3 bedrooms fewer. Or 1 living area and 4 fewer bedrooms. My parents had a room in their old house that was 600 sq.ft. by itself. It was huge. It had a media area, a pool table, a foos ball table, a poker table, a bar, plus a lot of room left over. And that's only 600 sq.ft, not 900. 900 sq.ft. is a lot of space..
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