THE quirks of residential layout dictate that any measurement of square footage in a house will be debatable at best, agents and other experts say.
Assessors, who measure living space as one of many variables in computing home value, follow guidelines set by the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance. These guidelines, to take just one example, automatically exclude the basement from any calculation of living space.
In an appraisal one of the requirements is the appraiser measures all living space and garage and out buildings. Why is the public record SF of your home different from the actual SF? Contact the appraisers at www.socalappraisalserv.com for questions or have a licensed appraiser measure your property.
No matter how spectacularly well remodeled that basement may be — lavishly enough, perhaps, to increase the assessor’s ultimate determination of property value — its location in the house makes it irrelevant as square footage.
This may come as a surprise to buyers relying on real estate Web sites like Zillow and Trulia that make a feature of the “price-per-square-foot” calculation. Trulia, especially, considers price per square foot so significant that it highlights it right alongside the number of baths and bedrooms.
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Green Real Estate Appraiser 