What’s the square footage of your home? Are you sure?
Overstating the size of a home or condo is common. Make sure it does not happen to you
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Overstating the size of a home or condo is common. Make sure it does not happen to you
When Pam Whelan purchased her Calgary home in 2007, she thought it was ideal — a good location with acreage, nice layout and reasonably priced at $800,000 in a hot housing market. She also thought the living space on the main floor totalled 2,500 square feet, but on that point she was wrong. Whelan learned her home was much smaller when she was thinking about selling it five years later. It turned out the listing realtor had changed the square footage, increasing it by 25 per cent, to 2,580 from 2,094 square feet.Whelan’s situation isn’t unique. In Canada there is no standard for what’s included when measuring a home. In some cases, the square footage is calculated based on the length and width of a home as measured by its outside walls. Sometimes it’s calculated by adding up the size of each room in the home to find the total living space (whether you omit bathrooms and hallways can change market to market). Just about the only thing most everyone agrees on is that basement (or sub-grade) living space should not be included. As a result, this has created a patchwork of inaccurate and often misrepresented home sizes across the country. It’s a problem that also impacts condo and new build homes, where the cost-per-square-foot is often the de facto method for comparing one unit to another. Even though resale homes rarely use square footage costs that doesn’t mean size isn’t an important factor when pricing a home. As Whelan learned the hard way, our default perception is that larger homes should command higher prices. In the real estate industry, caveat emptor is the standard response by those defending this patchwork process. It’s a response that’s supported by one sentence fragment in the sale document (known as the Purchase of Sale Agreement). It states: “This information may not be accurate.” At present, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), a trade association that represents real estate boards across the country, is currently working to develop international measurement standards but only for commercial listings. Since residential real estate transactions fall under the mandate of provincial real estate boards, there are still no plans to standardize measurements for residential listings. Given that the onus is on the buyer to verify the information, here’s a few ways to protect yourself.
Click here for more tips on how to buy a condo Click here for the top 10 mistakes new build home buyers make Click here for six mistakes new condo investors make
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