Most of the listings here just use the above grade numbers from the SDAT website (State tax department). The immediate problem for home inspectors is that many if not all of these properties have a finished basement. Additional work I have to allow for in my pricing.
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This is exactly why my fee is for ‘Total SF’ not habitable sf.
“Finished” or not, if I’m inspecting it, I’m getting paid for it!
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Just last week the house I was inspecting was listed as having a 2,000 square foot finished basement. It was closer to 1,000 square feet finished. It didn’t change the overall footprint of the house, but my client the buyer wasn’t too happy about it. When I looked up the plans that were submitted to the City for the permit sure enough the plans had a full kitchen and bathroom plus other areas that never got finished.
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Wow, good point. I’d guess that the two numbers usually roughly correlate and the difference would come out in the wash, but not always. There’s a lot more unfinished attic space to inspect in a sprawling 1 floor 3000sq ft home than there is in a two story 3000 sq ft house, for example.
Edit: we don’t have basements down here in TX. Maybe you were alluding to that footage, Jeff
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Exactly JJ
Finished SqFt (Above Grade): 1323.00
- Sqft Total Finished: 1936.00
Sqft Total Unfin: 710.00
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Lots of good info. Thank you, gentlemen.
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Primarily, yes, but also attics/walk-up attics, unfinished bonus rooms (no drywall), unpermitted rooms (above garages), crawlspaces, etc. etc.
Do you charge for crawlspaces? Why? (No difference from charging for above SF).
Hi Michael - Why was a real estate lawyer involved? Was it property an estate sale? Just curious. Thanks,
I think it was just a conversation with a friend who happened to be a lawyer.
You can print out a copy of the tax parcel for the property & provide it. That is public information typically & usually easy to access. Then you have an official number that the local accessor uses & you have simply provided them a copy as a service.
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Ditto: What Roy said.
I put square footage in my reports noted as sourced from the appropriate County Assessor. I base my pricing on the assessors square footage. Listing footage is almost always more or less than the assessor. And the owner, or usually the would be buyer, has another number. I have some clients who think the unfinished areas are less work to inspect. I educate them.
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I would ask the RE to refer to the county records. You could explain you are not in the survey business.
I would just say they don’t allow me to do that. Be careful of people who ask you to work for free or rescuing damsels in distress no matter how compassionate you are to their plight. As a contractor I’ve learned that customers would often ask or sometime plead with you to fix something beyond what you bargained for and even if it is something as simple as installing a well placed screw can backfire into an ordeal where you own a situation you’ve never bargained for and didn’t get paid for. Learning how to say no in a nice way is a very good life skill…
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Take the measurements if you want but be sure to include that it’s an approximation only and not exact. Measuring a house is not rocket science we do it on every house for FEMA.
Last year I had a Realtor ask me to send her the square footage of a house I had previously inspected because she was having a dispute with the Appraiser, and she told me to be sure it was on company letterhead.
I told her to pound sand, but I did it in a nice way. 
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Couple of friends asked me to do that years ago. Haven’t seen them two in years and have no idea what happened to them. But I ended up marrying that damsel. 37 years later the rest is history!
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Simply measuring from outside wall to outside wall, rather than the Real Estate Inside to Inside, has an error factor in the 100’s of SF.
You decide…
Good story Bob!!
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I’m lucky she’s put up with me that long!
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Yep, we’re fortunate that way, eh, Bob?