Our House Is Smaller Than We Thought!

[taubel]

We bought our house nearly 8 years ago. It was advertised as being approximately 1500 square feet. It seemed huge to us at the time, since we had only one child and were moving from a small apartment.

Now that we have three children, the house has begun to feel smaller and smaller in the past year or so. But of course I've been thinking - our house is 1500 square feet. Most people live in much smaller spaces.

But one day I measured our rooms (minus closets, bathrooms and hallways) and our house is more like 1100 or 1200 square feet.

On Zillow, it has always listed our house as 1505 square feet, and of course we're paying taxes on this size house.

Well, the other day I checked Zillow, and it now lists our house at 1100 square feet and has dropped the value way down.

I know Zillow is not always accurate, and our house is the same size as it was 8 years ago, but I'm a bit disappointed in the drop in value. Also, I feel that we agreed to pay a certain price for our house based on the size we were given, which was obviously wrong. Not to mention, we're paying taxes on more square feet than we own.

Is there anything I can do about this?! Should I call the town and complain? Or does this type of stuff happen all the time?

Thanks!

[Callimom]

I think for real estate purposes the sq footage is measured using the outside dimensions of your home.

We just bought a house which has 2 foot thick stone walls. The agent told us that the sq footage is misleading - inside living space is about 600 sq ft smaller than "advertised" because we lose so much to walls.

Not sure if that helps but it might give you a starting point for figuring out the discrepancy.

[taubel]

You are right. Our real estate agent told us the same thing. That they measure the outside of the house. Measured that way, I believe our house would be 1500 sq ft. So I'm just wondering why it would be listed at 1100 all of a sudden on Zillow. This knocks our home value down! I noticed that most of the houses on our street also got "smaller" on Zillow.

Guess I'll have to call Town Hall!

[amma_mama]

I would not take anything from Zillow to heart. They use algorithms to calculate values and such and do not necessarily reflect actual market conditions in your immediate neighborhood. Same goes for the "official" assessed value, though if you think that your property value has gone down, you can usually ask for a re-assessment for property tax purposes - you should check when they last did an assessment on your property. Our appraised value (from our lender) was much higher than the assessed value as they use different data sets to come up with the numbers.

As for the size of the property, when they advertise houses, they use a variety of alternative measures (with/without stairs, with/without partially finished basement, enclosed sunrooms, etc.), so you never know exactly from a listing as they never tell you what is included or excluded from the measure. I would check the local property records, which I would deem to be more accurate, though they can also be "off" in terms of livable space, depending on what they "count", which is not always just based on the building footprint. Our property records give a breakdown between the main living areas and the basement, so you can sort of see what they are and are not capturing in the numbers.

[VisionaryMom]

We had both an assessor and inspector come out to measure before we bought. I completely believe it's worth having your inspector do it. Though we technically hired the assessor, he really worked for the bank. It was interesting to read his report & neighborhood comparisons, though! I believe with most places you can request an assessor visit if you think your taxes are based on wrong information.

[Callimom]

Originally Posted by taubel 

You are right. Our real estate agent told us the same thing. That they measure the outside of the house. Measured that way, I believe our house would be 1500 sq ft. So I'm just wondering why it would be listed at 1100 all of a sudden on Zillow. This knocks our home value down! I noticed that most of the houses on our street also got "smaller" on Zillow.

Guess I'll have to call Town Hall!

I guess I am confused at your confusion but I don't know anything about Zillow. Your house size hasn't changed.  The basis on which you pay your taxes hasn't changed (external sq footage, # of bathrooms etc).  The value could drop for any number of reasons. Why would Town Hall care what sq footage Zillow has it listed at?

[ChristyMarie]

Gently, I think you are getting upset over nothing.

First, your hallways, bathrooms and closets are living space - of course they count!  Your square footage is measured off of the entire footprint of your house - not just the main rooms.

And Zillow?  I wouldn't take anything they have listed as fact.  I just checked my house - square footage is approx right but they are missing a bathroom.  Value?  Eh, lower than our last appraisal but in the ballpark.  Other interesting things on Zillow is that my neighbor to the north is listed WAY bigger than it is (guessing it includes the basement) and they have the neighbor to the south valued $1M lower than it should be.  I would really not take anything on Zillow too seriously.

However, if you truly feel your house value is not accurately represented in the assessment you can apply for an adjustment.  It helps greatly to have a current appraisal.

[zebra15]

You say you measured your home at 1200 sq ft minus hallways, closets and bathrooms. If you add those in you will  probably get close to that 1500 sq ft the house was listed at.  Bathrooms, closets, hallways are all 'living space'.

Zillow is just another internet tool out there, your assessors office also places a value on the property for tax reasons.

Your house may 'feel' smaller now that your family is larger but the house is still the same size.  Whats really happened IMO is the internet has gotten larger and more websites are popping up with false info on them.

[Maluhia]

There have been some interesting articles on the measurement of homes and all of the different measuring techniques that are used, and what they mean for all involved.  e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/realestate/19cov.html

[stelly]

I'm a real estate agent in NJ and we're not allowed to list sq footage on anything other than brand new construction for this reason - it could be off and nobody wants to get sued 4 years later.

You'll probably find that your tax assessor is more than happy to talk to you and answer any questions you may have.  But please don't waste time looking on zillow - it's the bane of my life, so inaccurate and misleading yet I constantly get clients presenting info to me from there as if it were fact.

[Jaxinator]

Originally Posted by stelly 

I'm a real estate agent in NJ and we're not allowed to list sq footage on anything other than brand new construction for this reason - it could be off and nobody wants to get sued 4 years later.

You'll probably find that your tax assessor is more than happy to talk to you and answer any questions you may have.  But please don't waste time looking on zillow - it's the bane of my life, so inaccurate and misleading yet I constantly get clients presenting info to me from there as if it were fact.

Are there any other rules on that? I just bought a house in NJ, and the square footage on many of the homes we looked at was listed, including the one we bought. On proper realty websites, not just something like zillow.

[cschick]

Zillow gets their information from various public record sources. I believe the information they have on our house (sq footage, number of bathrooms, etc) comes from our county's property tax database (which is public). If you're concerned about what is being listed, whichever government level your property tax assessment is at would be a place to start, to see what their records state.

[taubel]

Spoke with the tax assessor. 

They have our house listed at 1500 square feet. 

Our house is a split level, so they have our main and upstairs levels totaling around 1100-something.

Then they have our lower level (not the basement), just a lower level next to the garage at 376 square feet.

They do measure from the outside corners of the house.

Problem now is, our lower level is nowhere near 376 sq ft. We're lucky if it's 200 sq ft. I think they may have included the one-car garage (which is not a living area) in the estimate. They are willing to send someone out to re-measure. Having less square feet would probably lower our taxes a small amount, but we are planning to sell our house in the next year or two. So maybe it would be better to leave it at 1500 square feet? Would our house be worth more then? 

BTW, I am aware that Zillow can be highly inaccurate. But people around here DO look at it, so I want my house to show as being the right size on there!

Thanks for all the responses. I appreciate all of your opinions.