Whether it’s about purchasing a home or selling one, square footage plays a great role as it helps in driving the real value for the property based on the area it covers. Thus, it is important that an owner knows the actual square footage of a house, as it will come in handy during renovation, renting out, and selling. However, the main issues occur when a person doesn’t know about the total area of personal property.
If you are also not familiar with the square footage of your house, then no need to worry about that as the procedure of calculating is quite easy. All you need is a measuring tape and you have to measure the length and width of a room. Once you have gathered the necessary data, you need to put them into the online Square Footage Calculator and it will show you the correct area of a room. There are several formulas for each shape that you can learn and calculate manually. However, online calculators will save you from this hectic as all it requires is the necessary data and you are all good.
Every time you look at a real estate listing, you will probably pay attention to the square footage. It indicates the overall covered area of the home and helps you to get an insight into whether it will meet your requirement or not. It also confluence the price of the home as properties are sold and bought as per the total square footage. So, it helps in determining the real-time price of a home and whether it will be enough for you or not. That’s why you should make use of the online Square Footage Calculator and find out about the total area of your house.
1. What is considered liveable square footage?
If you want to really find out what amount of square footage will be sufficient for you, then you have to ensure that you are measuring the total area in a correct and consistent manner. There’s not a single standard of calculating a property but the majority opt for Gross Living Area (GLA) in which only those spaces are included that are actually liveable. For instance, an unfinished garage or basement is not included while measuring through the GLA method.
Contrary to what people believe, not everything that falls under the roof is counted while calculating the square footage. Plus, the different standard makes it more difficult as there’s another one in which all the space that uses the same heating and cooling system in a house is counted. It even includes bathrooms although you may not spend a lot of time in yours. The same goes for the stairways and closets as they will be counted. With so many spaces to count, it is better to make use of Square Footage Calculator to measure the total area with utmost ease.
When it is about porches and other outdoor spaces, they are only included if they share the same heating system that the rest of the house does. Other spaces like guest rooms, sheds, garages, pool houses, are treated like garages and not included while calculating the total square footage of the house.
However, if the space is not included in a home’s square footage, then it doesn’t mean that it is not valuable at all. You can mention them separately in your listing as a bonus space which will attract a lot of interested customers to your ad.
2. Different Standards for Measuring Square Footage
The square footage of your house completely depends on the approach you choose. You can take an example of the National American Standards Institute (ANSI) in which detached single-family homes are calculated by the sum of the finished area of each level.
As for the attached single-family homes, square footage is equal to the sum of the finished areas of each level which is measured to the outside wall or from the centrelines between the buildings. ANSI provides comprehensive guides about calculating areas that are adjacent to unfinished spaces, garages, and other complicated spaces.
Multiple Listing Services (MLS) is a service used by estate agents which doesn’t include garages and other spaces that are not officially permitted on the property. Every MLS has a different approach but they are coming to the common ground so that accurate data can be provided while listing the property.
3. Hire a Professional to Find Out Accurate Square Footage
If the procedure of calculating square footage sounds difficult for you, then you don’t have to worry about it as you can hire an appraiser for a few hundred dollars. They have the expertise and know the rules about measuring the total area of the house. In that way, there’s won’t be any margin for mistake and you will get to know about the accurate square footage of your house. But if you can’t afford them, then you should simply make use of the online Square Footage Calculator.
