Buyer Beware: Verify the Square Footage
What should a buyer do when a mortgage appraisal comes back with a significant discrepancy from the measured square footage and what was listed in the MLS entry?
Melissa Hunzeker advises that the buyer and the REALTOR® should go back to the seller’s agent to find out what happened.
“The source of your square footage can be changed to be from the seller or builder. For this home the source was listed as the seller. I phoned the agent to find out how the seller got his square footage. The agent didn’t know and admitted to me he didn’t verify his client’s information. The client told him a number and that is what he entered.
The discussions with the other agent quickly deteriorated to ‘my client doesn’t measure square footage for a living and it is the buyer’s responsibility to verify square footage during the option period.’ And you know what? He was right. As unfair as it is, it is the buyer’s responsibility to verify the information provided in the listing, and I am certainly here to help with that verification process.
What are your options if this happens? As your Realtor, I try to renegotiate. And sometimes a seller will compromise. Ultimately though, the house hasn’t changed and the price hasn’t changed and in this case we have an independent valuation in the appraisal. It can be frustrating but price per square foot is only one way to determine the value of a home.”
To prevent this kind of costly error, the best advice to buyers is to be aware of your responsibilities, verify information, and choose a Realtor that you trust to work hard for your best interests.
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March 06 2010 06:09 pm | Real Estate News
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