What a Home’s Square Footage Can (and Can’t) Tell You

How much should a buyer’s home search be swayed by square footage? Let’s get to the bottom of this question, today.

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During any home search, buyers tend to set a number of expectations for the kind of property they’d like to find. One of these expectations, of course, relates to the size of the home. But how important is square footage to your home search, exactly?

When buyers are browsing homes online and see a figure like 1,526 square feet, it can be hard to visualize exactly what a space that size might look like. Though often misunderstood, a home’s square footage measurement does have its uses. The important thing to remember is that this figure doesn’t show the “whole picture” of a home.

In addition to helping buyers gain an approximate idea of a listing’s size, a property’s square footage is also used by tax assessors and appraisers to determine home value.

Two homes with the exact same square footage can feel entirely different in terms of their spaciousness.

Yet these two professionals each measure the property a little differently. Appraisers will not count the home’s garage as part of its square footage, but tax assessors will.

And this isn’t the only disparity in how square footage can be measured. There’s also the matter of questions like whether the home is to be measured from the inside or from the outside, whether closets are to be included, and more.

Truthfully, a home’s floor plan matters far more than its square footage. Two homes with the exact same square footage can feel entirely different in terms of their spaciousness, and it all comes down to how the home is laid out.

I’ve unfortunately seen buyers overlook fantastic homes simply because they didn’t think the square footage sounded sufficient. So while it is important to consider this figure, I encourage all of you to not make this same mistake in your home search. A home’s floor plan is what matters.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.