Garages are excluded from liveable sq ft calculation.

Home appraisals are required to follow ANSI standard Z765-2021 when calculating the living area. There's no telling whether the builder's calculation followed the same method or which is in error.

@User, not sure what it means by legslly habital. The sunroom just looks like a small room with 2 windows with ac/heat snd light

@Charles Ross Homes, so , that can cause 300sqft difference ? The appraiser has the accurate information then , correct ? i do not understand how owners appraiser got 3400. feel like we are behind deliberately blindsided.. there anything we can do here ?

I don’t really understand your concern or what you think you need to do about it. Is it: you thought you were buying 3,400 sq ft of living space but it turns out you are buying only 3,200 sq ft of living space?

What difference does it make? The price is the same, right? You got all the rooms and features you were expecting, right?

If the ”official” footage is only 3,200, that’s a good thing for your real estate taxes, isn’t it?

Ask three different appraisers the square footage and you will get four different answers.

Did the room sizes and house size seem sufficient for your needs when you made your offer? Does the fact that one person says it's 200 sq ft smaller change your ability to live in it comfortably in some way?

How were you deliberately blindsided? The owner sent you the report with the number they had. They had no reason to question it.

BTW--are any of the spaces 2 stories? That is often a source of different numbers. It could also be the sun room or loft space. And yes, the builder might have included the garage. It's not common, but it happens. Builders tend to over state sq. ft.

Given the significant difference,  you could try to negotiate a seller credit to lower the price. However,  you also risk the deal falling through and losing the house. If you're ok with that, I would negotiate maybe a meeting in the middle. Calculate a fair price based on 3300 sq ft and acknowledge that the seller had no idea it wasn't 3400.

@sn na,

The determination of living area requires some basic math to be performed. A basic math error while performing the calculation could be the issue. Another source of error is if one appraiser calculated the living area based on the plans and another based on field measurements. Building a plan "substantially as per the plans and specifications" can result in dimensional differences from the plans.

While appraisers, assessors, and Realtors tend to dumb down the value of a home based on the square footage, what matters is whether the home meets your lifestyle needs and budget not it's cost/SF.

You should first determine what, if any, rules apply to the measurement of floor areas for appraisals in your community.

As of April 1, 2022, Fannie Mae has required the use of the ANSI® Z765- 2021 standard. This standard is also used by the National Association of Home Builders.

The ANSI standard uses "Finished" area and does not mention Gross Living Area.

I suspect the more recently calculated area might be based on the ANSI standard and the older one based on another method like measuring to the outside of the exterior walls.

The appraisals should contain a statement regarding the method used. What a builder or owner uses for advertising is usually not regulated.

Whatever the case, the floor area calculation method shouldn't affect the appraised value of the house.

The numbers for our new house finally showed up on the tax assessors site and our house is 232 sq/ft bigger according to them! I'll have to check how they measure and do my own math.

They probably measured to include the thick layer of stucco and/or the overhanging eaves! ;-)

Now I have to figure out what we can use that extra 232 sq.ft for! lol

"Now I have to figure out what we can use that extra 232 sq.ft for! lol"

Maybe you can sell it to the OP. Hopefully the builder did not charge you for the extra sq ftg?

My last home was custom built in 1994 and had a lot of two-story space. In the Pittsburgh area, tax assessors do not come inside the property. They measure the footprint. In my case, I think they multiplied this by two. But the entry and formal living room were two stories, so we appealed successfully and received a nice tax reduction. OP may be able to use the lower square footage to obtain lower assessment.

@rrah, The reason i said deliberately is they did not have any SQFT on the real estate sites when we offered and it got accepted. when we asked, they said it's around 3300/3400 (they did not say weather it includes loft/sunroom or not ) and asked to look at website which said base is 3160. so, it added and we made decision on that. but when they sent all their documents including their original sale( from when they signed a year ago ) , we notices they signed for 2750 based model SQFT. they added sunroom and loft to that. when we questioned , they went back to builder and i was sent and email conversation from builder saying that once some homes were build, they had inspectors did some audit and based on that, SQFT was adjusted and this particular model got biggest adjustment which became 3150 from 2750( base , without additions ). their appraisal report said 3400 so, w were okay to continue with the deal for that price considering the footage. If what builder is saying is right, it is around 3550. when our report showed 3200, we are bummed. Our appraiser has all the details and math, diagrams which make sense mathematically. they never sent their full appraisal. they just sent a screenshot of appraisal which says 3400SQFT.

@T T, we tried that and they are not ready to negotiate and sticking to "our report is showing 3400" but where as the original document they signed with builder has only 2750 base , making it 3150 ish with additions. To start with, this house is a compromise and not what we intended but because we couldn't find anything, we okayed it. Now, the issue is it is high priced ( even for crazy market ) knowing that it is around 3200 and not 3400-3500.

It sounds like you aren't happy with the purchase and you are trying to blame someone else for how you feel ... "this house is a compromise and not what we intended but because we couldn't find anything, we okayed it." No one forced you to buy the house or pay a high price in a crazy market.

It doesn't really matter what a floor plan says, but what matters is how the spaces work for you and your family.

Before building we looked at a house that was listed as being 5500 sq.ft. We looked at it twice, and the second time my spouse said we could make it work, but he would need to get a storage unit for his hobby stuff. I said it was the wrong house for us if we couldn't fit our lives into it without getting extra storage! We passed and kept looking. It had nothing to do with the 5500 number, but with the fact that the spaces/rooms in the house were not arranged in a way that worked for us.

@chispa, Yes, we compromised on the house but we compromised other things and not on SQFT we would never compromise on SQFT because we knew exactly how much SQFT is needed considering our family. I'm not blaming anyone here.. The fact is that the house actual SQFT is 3200 ( from physical measure ) and the owners did not know that it fell short by 350 SQFT but they knew what they signed up for originally which was 2750 and not 3160. and they did not give us that information until after we signed and offer got accepted. Till offer was accepted, they asked us to look at the builder's website for details ( which was showing 3150 ).

Since it was closed just 3 days before they put it on market, there were not public records to show any facts.

First, prices are not based on $ per Square Foot. That is a misguided metric used by realtors and tv shows. If you want a commercial property, that's a different story, but not in residential.

So this is what the process of determining the square footage would be something like:

A tract house build was given a deposit by the purchasers a year ago. Closer to the end of that build, the plans were used to detemine the square footage for appraisal of the property, in preparation for their closing. This was math from paper drawings provided by the builder (probably sales department), which may or may not have been actual construction documents, nor perfectly representative of what was being built. The appraiser didn't visit in person, because the house probably wasn't finished yet. Then the house is completed; the closing occurs. The tax assessor has reviewed the permitted construction documents, has the closing price, and might have visited the site for visual verification and maybe a measurement of the footprint.

After closing it is immediately put on the market by the purchasers. Typically, a MLS listing pulls all the information from the tax assessor for square footage. The detail of an MLS sheet is much greater than the tax assessor has, so the realtor has probably filled in the blanks themselves (e.g. all the room sizes) and is only a representation. If for some reason the time period between closing your new appraisal was not sufficient for the tax assessor to update it's system or make a site visit, there may be a discrepancy in getting those official numbers. But the tax assessor's numbers are the only numbers that matter.

So the listing agent may have had to use the original appraiser's square footage estimate based on unofficial numbers and confusing marketing sheets showing optional add-ons. Your current appraiser may have obtained the correct numbers from the tax assessor, or measured/verified those numbers themselves, or not (it could have been a drive-by). If you have issue with square footage, find out from the tax assessor, your appraiser, and request a copy of the permitted construction documents.

@sn na, you aren't understanding what I am saying. A well designed 3000 sq.ft. house can feel much larger and live better than a badly designed 3350 sq.ft. house.

Didn't you walk through the house?

350 sq.ft is roughly an 18' x 18' family room. Didn't you notice that space was missing?

An example of the old adage, ” figures lie and liars figure.” It all depends on who is holding the pencil.

If you don’t want the house, forfeit the contract. Or complete the purchase and then sell it.

I think you just don’t want the house. It either works for you or it doesn’t. If you toured the home, and you didn’t think it was missing 350 sq ft, then who cares what your appraisal said??? Like others have said, it could work in your favor and give you a tax reduction. The tax assessor appraised my house 400 sq ft less than the builder. The flooring company a few years measured somewhere between the two. Either way, my house lives exactly the same for me regardless of what number the appraisal has. Now if the number dramatically reduced your appraised value causing you to have to bring additional cash to closing, then I would be upset. But your argument that your family needs x amount of square feet to live is childish. It actually sounds as though you just want to say you have 3500 square feet so you can win bragging rights with someone. Where do you need those square feet to be? In the kitchen? The family room? The bathrooms? The bedrooms? The office? The sunroom? An extra bedroom? A pantry? A mud room? The answer is different for every single family. Houses are made of rooms, not blind square feet. Square footage is almost never guaranteed. Many listings say if it is important to you, then measure yourself.

Square footage is immaterial to the issue here. Either the house works for you, or it does not. Either get busy making it yours and being happy you have a house, or get busy selling it and searching for a very expensive needle in a haystack in which to also live as an unhappy person. The perfect house is not going to make you happy. Neither will 300 extra feet in a house that you resent buying so much that you cannot even accept that you own it. .

"...we would never compromise on SQFT because we knew exactly how much SQFT is needed considering our family."

Do you? My first house was much smaller than my current house but was laid out much better -- sometimes size matters and sometimes it doesn't. I love where I live and have a house I'm quite happy with but will tell you in parts of the house the layout makes we wonder who the bonehead is that designed it -- lot of wasted space and poor flow. But that wasted space and poor flow is all part of the square footage.

I agree with all the comments above -- either the house meets your needs or it doesn't and you're happy with the house or you're not, regardless of the square footage.

Most buyers do look at dollar per square foot when deciding on what to offer,  so I can see the concern that it may not be worth as much to a number of buyers if you resell.  I would say most people look at specs on paper,  such as square footage and number of beds/baths.  The average buyer is not as discerning as people on here in considering usability of the rooms, efficiency of layout,  etc.  If you feel you already compromised with this house and the square footage is a big issue, I would back out and look for something else.

@TT,

Your comment is spot on. A $/SF metric is a dumbed down metric that would only be useful in comparing identical, builder's model homes on similar lots. Too many things can skew a $/SF metric.

It's the Realtor's job to help prospects ascertain the "fit" for their purpose including value for money if that's a criterion (and it usually is.) Unfortunately, they typically open the home, turn the prospects loose, ask "what do you think?" before racing to get the car started up for the next home on the list. The good news is that Realtors who do that now have Uber or Lyft driver as a career alternative.

In what state is the house in question?

When the property is in a central city, sq footage is important for pricing.

For the most part, you tour a home; it fits your needs; sq footage report is mute.

What are questions asked by a realtor? How many bedrooms, how many baths, living room, family room, separate dining room...buyer checks off and tours a house meeting all the requirements. I don't think at any time the sq ft measurement of the house is questioned.