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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 12:38:30 GMT
I know that each floor is around 700-750 sq ft. We have two finished floors and a unfinished basement. So we have between 1400-1500 sq footage of living space and 700 of storage space.
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Post by compeateropeator on Aug 27, 2018 12:52:23 GMT
Yes I do now, but I am not sure that I did when I bought it many years ago. I found it in an ad in the paper and purchased it through a private sale, so there was no spec sheet or anything. I am sure that it must have been documented on something when I got the loan but I really didn’t pay attention to it.
Years later when I refinanced I had to go looking and found that it is 980 sq ft townhouse/ condo.
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Post by Crack-a-lackin on Aug 27, 2018 13:51:50 GMT
If you don’t know sq footage how do you brag about your house to friends, coworkers, and complete strangers ? 😄 That seems to be the one of the first things mentioned when people talk about their house, most often when discussing general home prices (they’ve gone crazy in many urban cities the past few years).
As others mentioned, it’s a good comparison point but I think a lot of people neglect to consider other, often more important factors, like location and layout. Or maybe it just makes people feel better about their house to be able to say it’s 5000sq ft, even though they spend 2-3 hours a day commuting.
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Post by Darcy Collins on Aug 27, 2018 13:56:54 GMT
In estate agents' listings, the room sizes are mostly included. Actually I just had a look at one of of our local estate agents' website and the total floor area is listed. It's just not something that is important in our criteria for buying. The usability of the space is much more important than the amount of it. I've just recalculated and removing the unheated conservatory and the staircase, our house measures 1150 square feet. Is that considered spacious in US terms? I have no idea.
In British terms, it has 3 bedrooms and a box room, a family bathroom, an ensuite and a loo under the stairs, and a good-sized kitchen. Again that is by British standards - it's big enough to have a table at one end, which most kitchens don't. The average new house size in the US is 2,700 - so over twice as big. In addition to difference in real estate listings, our property size is also on our tax bill - and I think that's been true of most locations we've lived. So I've always known the square footage of our houses.
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Post by gorgeouskid on Aug 27, 2018 14:00:57 GMT
1011 sf
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 27, 2018 14:01:04 GMT
We know how to work it out but we tend to look at each room size individually rather than the overall square footage. If I was looking at buying a house I would want to know the length/width of the kitchen, the sitting room etc then the bedrooms etc because then I can compare it to my current home. If I read that it was, for arguments sake 1000sq feet I would have no idea if that was bigger or smaller that where I live now. It’s just not how we do things 🙂 The overall SF of the house is listed but also the actual length/width of the rooms are listed as well on the sales sheet here in the US. You can't include a below ground basement in the calculations, although I've had realtors that would include one if it had windows to the outside and one that wouldn't. The total property size is also listed. When I'm looking to buy, I place a minimum on overall SF like I want nothing under 1200 SF. For me, I'd also place a minimum on the lot size. *I also place a minimum on bedrooms (no less than 3) and bathrooms (not less than 2). Then look at the results, which almost always have photos of each room attached. I usually keep the room dimensions in my head for about 6 months, then promptly forget them until I want to paint and have to remeasure. I usually round overall SF of the house and keep that in my head. I can tell you the SF of my previous 3 houses. Yes to all of this. The app we mainly used while house hunting lists not only the total finished square footage but also the dimensions of each room and which level of the home they are located on, dimensions / size of the lot and so much more. When we were looking, we filtered the listings by the finished square feet, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garage stall spaces, and lot size because we didn’t want to waste any of our time looking at something that wouldn’t meet our basic must have requirements. This is the last house we plan to live in, so we were willing to wait until we found exactly what we wanted. It makes it so much easier to compare apples to apples when you’re looking at the actual measurements. ETA: Funny story (well, not so funny to us). We’re in the process of finally getting construction bids for our cabin renovation which has taken over two years just to get the plans done, long story. Anyway, when the IL’s bought it back in the 1970’s it was just a basic, 400 square foot one room fishing cabin that was sectioned off to add a kitchen and bathroom. After they bought it, they had an addition put on one side to create three bedrooms. They gave the builder the interior dimensions they wanted for the three rooms, and because they were thrifty folks, they sized them to fit the bare minimum for beds and furnishings. Needless to say, when the builder was done, he used those measurements as the EXTERIOR dimensions, meaning once the rooms were finished they were all 10”-12” smaller on the inside! The kid’s rooms were so small the twin beds barely fit.
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Post by Merge on Aug 27, 2018 14:01:16 GMT
Ours is 2400 sf, small for Texas, but on the larger end in our neighborhood of 1950s bungalows (previous owners added on).
I could use a little more closet space, but other than that, it’s the perfect size for us.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 14:04:58 GMT
In Oklahoma, only heated/cooled space is counted in the square footage. Not many people have basements here either.
My last house, which we built custom, had 2256 s.f. according to the building plans. However, it probably ended up with more because we changed 2 windows to be bay windows and bumped out the back wall of the breakfast nook to be 1 or 2 feet farther out. That house had 3 BR, 2.5 baths, 2 dining, and an office.
My current house has only 2076 s.f., but our sunroom is not counted in the total because it only has a window A/C unit. However it feels bigger than the last house because of the way the rooms are laid out, although the living room is smaller. This house is 4 BR, 2.5 baths, 1 dining area, an office, and a sunroom.
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Post by auntkelly on Aug 27, 2018 14:06:41 GMT
I think financing is one of the big reasons square footage is so important. A lender is not going to want to loan money on a house that is priced significantly higher per square foot than other similar houses in the area.
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Post by librarylady on Aug 27, 2018 14:08:05 GMT
Yes. Just last week I had reason to look at the tax roll information and discovered that we are being taxed for a much larger amount that the number used when we purchased the home. I have yet to decided if I want to fight that dragon or just let it go. Our taxes are frozen at what the amount was when DH reached age 65, so the amount we pay won't change.
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Jili
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Post by Jili on Aug 27, 2018 14:15:24 GMT
I actually am not sure. I've seen our real estate listing (we bought over 20 years ago) so there's that. But.. our neighborhood is fairly cookie cutter. I've seen other houses exactly the same as ours with a different square footage listing. So I'm not sure. I'm unclear whether our garages would be considered in the square footage. They might be, as our home is a raised ranch model.
So, it's 1200 to 1500, maximum.
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Post by belgravia on Aug 27, 2018 14:25:02 GMT
I remember when we sold our last house (5 years ago) the listing agent used price per square foot as a comparison tool when determining listing price. Our house is about 4100 square feet...and we use all of it! I guess we like to spread out
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AmeliaBloomer
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Post by AmeliaBloomer on Aug 27, 2018 14:27:21 GMT
I actually have no idea, so never have any context when I read it mentioned here.
Didn’t know for our first house, either. Twenty to twenty five years ago, I don’t think it was listed around here for old houses (just room sizes), BUT I often heard friends mention it about much newer houses, and still do.
I just went and looked; it IS now noted, prominently, in my neighborhood listings, but I still don’t hear anyone mention it. So, from my anecdotal, limited, regional experience, it seems to have started with new construction at some point and not caught on - culturally - in older neighborhoods.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Aug 27, 2018 14:32:50 GMT
I've always know the square footage of our homes. Our current house now has 2,364 (all original), which is considered a nice size house in a neighborhood of 1950's ranch homes. That does not include garage space as it is detached and not climate controlled. We have less than half the square footage of many of our friends. It's been our preference to stay smaller to keep property taxes lower, utility bills smaller, and much less work to keep it clean. Basically we downsized from the get go! I'd rather spend that extra money on travel! I wonder if the fact that US houses tend to be bigger and size is often a selling point here is partly why sq ft is so important to include in listings here? In Texas, as in many other states, the amount of property tax you pay is based on your square footage. The bigger the house, the bigger the tax bill. That is one factor in why listings include square footage. It also makes it easier to make comparisons between homes. Not every 3 bedroom home will have the same size bedrooms, etc. Another difference between the US and other countries is that unless a room has a closet (not a freestanding armoire, etc) it cannot be classified as a bedroom.
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Post by angie3dpea on Aug 27, 2018 14:46:50 GMT
Mine is just over 1800 sq ft. It’s a 3bed/2 bath
Honestly I’m in the market for something bigger. My kids rooms are small and there’s no real way to reconfigure the space for a reasonable cost. Plus I work at home 3 days/week and I would love to have a dedicated office space. My junky desk is in my living room and it drives me nuts.
So next summer I’m house shopping. Hoping to upgrade to something in the 2200-2400 sq ft range with a 4th bedroom or study area.
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Post by jlynnbarth on Aug 27, 2018 15:05:13 GMT
Yes, we down sized from 4K sq ft on a half acre corner lot, to a 1850 sq ft home on a 1/3 acre corner lot. The sq footage doesn’t include the 2 car attached garage that would put it over 2k sq ft. We also added a 24’x 30’ shop for my dh’s boat and man cave area that of course isn’t part of the sq footage.
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Post by malibou on Aug 27, 2018 15:14:36 GMT
My house is 1800sqft, and many Americans would consider that a small house. I have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It's sized right for the three of us.
If I were to go looking to buy another house, I can use the total square footage to inform my decision. If I wanted bigger bedrooms, I know that a 3 bedroom 2 bath house that is 2400sqft will have bigger bedrooms. Basically most 3 bedroom 2 bath houses will have the same number of other rooms, so I know based on total square footage about what sizes those rooms will be.
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Post by Basket1lady on Aug 27, 2018 15:39:33 GMT
Yes I do. We just moved in a year ago and it was on the listing. I used it to help decide what houses to look at. But I was mostly interested in knowing the layout of the main floor.
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cakediva
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Post by cakediva on Aug 27, 2018 15:44:16 GMT
Yep - we know!
Although mostly because we built and were choosing from builder subdivision plans, so it was listed on all the paperwork.
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Post by NanaKate on Aug 27, 2018 15:47:33 GMT
Not exactly but I know it’s a little over 1500 square feet.
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Post by JaneB on Aug 27, 2018 16:05:49 GMT
If you don’t know sq footage how do you brag about your house to friends, coworkers, and complete strangers ? 😄 That seems to be the one of the first things mentioned when people talk about their house, most often when discussing general home prices (they’ve gone crazy in many urban cities the past few years). As others mentioned, it’s a good comparison point but I think a lot of people neglect to consider other, often more important factors, like location and layout. Or maybe it just makes people feel better about their house to be able to say it’s 5000sq ft, even though they spend 2-3 hours a day commuting. In my experience? Number of bedrooms, followed by bathrooms, with either shower and/or bath (en suites are perhaps not as common), downstairs or second loo, number of rooms downstairs/in general if it's a bungalow, size of the kitchen/gas or electric or both, a garage or parking space, the general area.
Another UK pea who has no idea of the square footage of her bungalow but it's bigger than next-door's
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Post by bc2ca on Aug 27, 2018 16:34:52 GMT
Our house is about 2400 sq ft. It is only one factor used in valuing a house. Every other factor you mentioned gar comes into play here as well. IME when house hunting, you usually determine the neighborhood you want based on schools, proximity to amenities, view, etc. (AKA location, location, location). Then you narrow your search based on filters like square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms. We were looking at apartment listings in Greece a few days ago and they all had the size (square meters) prominently displayed.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 17:19:00 GMT
4456 square feet.
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Post by chaosisapony on Aug 27, 2018 18:22:44 GMT
Yes. 1300 sq ft. It's always in the listing when you buy a house.
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melissa
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Post by melissa on Aug 27, 2018 18:36:09 GMT
Might I ask what is a box room is used for? US pea with an approx 3200 sq foot single level home. Our basement is approximately the same size as the actual upstairs, but is not included in the calculation. It would be in the neighborhood of 6000 sw feet if it all counted. Neither is the attached garage. Our basement is partially heated. As an aside, we were advised not to completely finish the various rooms we have in the basement as they would add to our already high property taxes. Those taxes are determined by sq footage. I am sitting in a large room in the basement as I type. It has a finished ceiling and it has a floor. The floor is not considered permanent as it can be rolled up (it's a type of a padded gymnasium flooring, something we put in when we moved in with an active 4 year old who thought nothing of trying a tumbling pass she saw on TV!) We have another room that is used as a gym. Left the ceiling open and used large interlocking thick tiles (I forget what they are called).
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Post by mimi3566 on Aug 27, 2018 18:36:34 GMT
Yes, I do....our stick & brick house is 1594 square feet with 2 additional rooms that's not part of that number. There is a 196 sq.ft. 3 season room that I use mostly as a utility room and a 420 sq. ft. screened in patio.
My RV or Tiny House is 250 sq. ft. I <3 my tiny house so much more....it's simple living as you can only have the things you absolutely need and it made us realize that at the end of the day, you don't "need" much. It's so easy to maintain leaving so much time to adventure and explore.
In 2 years we plan on selling the stick & brick hose and live fulltime in our tiny house on wheels spending several years filling our lives with experiences instead of things.
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Post by betty on Aug 27, 2018 18:42:13 GMT
1938sq ft.
I know the square footage from the listing add, the tax bill and the online property records. Zillow, the real estate online site, also lists your sq. footage base on county or city records.
It is handy to know. We recently had to replace the HVAC units in a rental house we own. The first thing we did was look online to see what size unit we would need for that size house in that climate. Then we called a few companies for quotes and made sure they were quoting us the correct size unit at comparable rates.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 18:43:49 GMT
I know mine and about 2,ooo of my neighbors.
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Post by KikiPea on Aug 27, 2018 18:50:30 GMT
2,100 sq ft. We asked for nothing bigger that 2,500, so we were paying attention to the numbers when we purchased our current home.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 19:08:38 GMT
This is the kind of thing you get on a listing in the UK ...just a random house picked from an agents listing. In addition to this you also get the photos of the inside and details re decor/ kitchen appliances if included etc etc. An overall square foot info to me wouldn't be that useful as it does not necessarily equate to a well designed inside.Two houses could have the same total square foot and as an example, one could have a large spacious hall and a small dining room the other could have a smaller hall and a fairly good size dinging room. If I was then choosing which one I would like to view I would choose the one with the decent size dining room, to me having a spacious size hall/entry way would be a total waste of useful living space.
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