Why Would a Listing’s Square Footage Differ From the Appraisal?
If you’re buying a home, the listing likely includes the square footage, a key selling point. But if you make an offer that’s accepted and you’ve moved onto the home appraisal step in the process, you might be shocked to find out that the appraiser‘s square footage is different from what’s on the listing. What gives?
Square footage, you may recall, is calculated when you measure how much floor space there is in a home. At its simplest, you multiply the length of a room by its width, then total the rooms together. So how can two different pros come up with different numbers?
While this could sound like someone is fudging the figures, there are some perfectly logical reasons why the square footage measured by an appraiser would differ from what’s on the listing. Here’s why this happens—and how to handle it.
