More on Square Footage Question...
Since the response to my question about square footage here was met with little response, I decided to pose my question to the Craigslist Housing Forum. I got some pretty good responses. One realtor pretty much said that it is the responsiblity of the buyer (and buyer's agent) to verify the true square footage. However, I did ask him what he would do in this situation - here is his response:
"Me? The first words out of my mouth, before I take a listing is "Did you do this work with permits?" Real and true. It's ok if they didn't get permits, most of the time it'll be grandfathered in, meaning they won't make you undo the conversion but you've got to disclose that the work wasn't done with permits.
As to the listing agent in this case, it must look pretty good for her to take the seller's claim at face value without asking for more details.
Assuming that I find out my client's did the work with permits, is it my job to get copies if they don't have them? Nope.
The disclaimer that you read "Buyer to verify" isn't put on by the agent, it's the MLS default. You are always urged to verify each and every piece of information.
One final note, that's why buyer's need agents. A good agent would have caught the conversion and asked questions."
That is a fair answer. I am still a bit disturbed that listing agent said it wasn't her job to verify the square footage. The way she said it, it seemed a bit deceitful - almost like she knew it was an issue. After all, if I was buying a car and the seller said the car has a new engine with 50,000 miles, but the odometer still says 200,000 miles, I would need to see the receipts for the new engine. I wouldn't just take it for granted that the seller wouldn't lie to me. If I were to buy the car and try to sell it, the next buyer would ask me the same question. For me, the moral of the story is to be extra careful and make sure you double check everything. Whether it is through an appraiser, an agent, whatever, just check. Don't take things at face value - there seems like there can be some deception if you aren't careful.
On a sidenote, I just noticed that the house in question just raised their price by $60,000. After 2 weeks on the market, the seller apparently decided that they could get more for the house. I am assuming it is mainly because they have looked at other homes that have just come on the market and decided that since their house is bigger (according to them), their home should demand an even greater premium. For me, this house is not an option. I didn't like the layout or the square footage/garage conversion issue. While I don't know the seller or listing agent, I have a pretty bad impression of them as well. If the seller is not truthful about the garage conversion, where else could they have skimped when they 'updated the home'? No thanks.
By the way, here is a link to the house.
posted by Blogger @ 4:14 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Hi, I saw you at CL housing forum, and I also run a group at livejournal.com called housing.
http://community.livejournal.com/housing/profile
Anyways, I loved what you wrote, and I learned a lot from it. In addition, I syndicated your blog to livejournal.
I also live in SF, and am disgusted. We're not poor, but we can't afford to buy here.
At CL's it says that the people looking at homes are either (wealthy) asians, or (wealthy) Middle Eastern people. I guess the rest of us (not as wealthy) are totally priced out. I have to stay because of my husband's job, or else we'd move.
Thanks for the encouragement. I don't know how some people can afford $6000-$7000/month mortgage payments. I guess that just isn't for normal people. I actually saw a condo in South Beach (SOMA) that was selling for $899K. About normal. BUT, the HOA dues were $721/month. That is just crazy if you ask me. I guess only Giants players can live there. I'll check out your livejournal blog.
I like your blog its great to see things from a buyers prospective. Its all evidence of a weak listing agent that is really leaving herself and her clients wide open for a lawsuit.
Any decent realtor will tell you to always use exactly what is posted on the title records. I always pull a title report on the listing then if there are any additions to the house I go to the city to research them and get copys of the permits to put on file for prospective buyers.
One time there was discrepance from the county records and what the seller is saying a differance of 400 sqft. What I did was hire an appraiser at the sellers expense to come out and verify the sqft. That way on the MLS you put Sqft per apprasier. Who ever you say the sqft is per that is who is going to be sued. For example most agents in this case would put Sqft per seller, buyer to verify. what the agent just did was shift the liability from him to the princibable which in my opinion is not looking out for his clients best interests.
Never are you supposed to count garage space, attic space or basement as sqft. If a seller insisted on such I would walk away from the sale as thats a real estate lawsuit waiting to happen.
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