Are you selling your home? Listing your home can be daunting when filling out all the paperwork and collecting the information needed. What square footage should you use for the listing?
When listing my house, do I use the square footage from the original builder or from the county appraiser?
One example: When we built our house, the builder told us our house was 3099 square feet. The county appraiser uses 3391 sqft for tax purposes. Which number should I use when listing my house?
When you list your home there are several sources a seller can quote from in the MLS listing details.
You can choose either appraiser, builder, owner or tax record as one of the categories. Should you decide to quote from the appraiser it is best that you have that document available as the buyer may request it to review before making an offer on your home. They buyer will probably get their own appraisal done if they are getting a loan to purchase the home. Their lender will require an appraisal for the loan.
The larger square footage is more advantageous for you, AND it is the “official” square footage.
Any square foot source other than the county must be documented — by a builder’s floor plan, an appraisal, an official floor plan (there are companies that do this for a fee), etc. The county’s measurement is the only one that does NOT require additional documentation.
So I would definitely use the square footage from the county appraiser.
Do you have other questions about selling your home? Call us today! We are here to answer all of your questions.
Written by Darren Wilson, The Wilson Team
