MEASUREMENT OF HOUSES

Home buyers are demanding more and better information when they shop for houses. The State of California has responded to this demand by passing a number of new laws which require more real estate disclosures. Although there is still no law that requires the disclosure of the exact finished floor area in a house, it’s probably only a matter of time before sellers and their agents are going to have to get out the measuring tape.The total floor area of a house is one of the most important things a buyer needs to know. But, until recently, there has been no national consensus on how to measure a house. For years, architects, builders, real estate agents, lenders and appraisers have been using a hodge-podge of methods to estimate residential floor area. In commercial real estate, where floor area is bought, sold and rented by the square foot, no one would tolerate this kind of vagueness and uncertainty. In fact, standards for measuring office buildings have been in effect since 1915.This tradition of ambiguity is based on the theory that sellers and their agents will avoid liability if they don’t make any claims about floor area. But some buyers think this is just another way that real estate sales people are trying to trick them.