Need help with house appraisal

[35remington]

About to sell a house. Bought it 6 years ago. At the time, it was listed as 1790 square feet. I was a first time home buyer and didn't know my head from my azz. Turns out the appraisal, which was delivered to my house while I was sitting at the title company's closing table, came in at way less: 1624 square feet. I never even read the 18 page appraisal report; just added it to my files after the closing. No one told me the appraiser found 166 less square feet, and I didn't know to ask.

From what I can tell, there's a workshop off the garage that the listing agent included in the square footage. It is not insulated, heated, or cooled.

Fast forward to 2016 and we're about to list the house for sale. We were throwing some numbers around with our prospective agent and he mentioned getting an appraisal up front so we knew where we stood. I said I'd go look for the old appraisal and that's when I found the 1624 sq ft document. At current market rates, I think this is going to be a $20K bath.

I've been paying property taxes on 1790 square feet for 6 years.

Any help from anyone who knows anything about this stuff would be appreciated.

[60 Deluxe]

Get with the appraisal district and ask how they arrived at their number. If they stick to that number, use it in the listing. If they change it based on a mistake in their original assumptions you can get a portion of your money back. I think that the limit is two years in most cases. I looked at a lot of real estate lately and it is common to see the square footage number taken from the county tax rolls. I own a rental property that the real estate agent calculated at 1476 but the tax people say 1300. I like the 1300 for taxes so I am not arguing about it.

[JasonS]

I had my house re-measured and gained almost 100 square feet. The realtor I used said many houses in my area were listed as smaller on county tax information, house builders did it that way. It cost about $150 to have re-measured, so with extra feet I gained, it paid for itself.
I bought my house used, and my first appraiser did not actually measure the house themselves. They used the house builders blueprint and documented square footage.
It may be worth getting it re-measured. See if you can find original blueprint
measurements, compare them to what the tax office shows (see if square footage changed throughout years). The 1790 may have been from the original builder. So, try to contact them and see if they have records. At least you could see where the differences where. Measure some of the rooms yourself and compare all the numbers.

[35remington]

Helpful so far. Thanks.

[mmoses]

Can you get taxes back from the county?

[JHT]

166 sqft is basically a walk in closet. I can't see you taking a $20K hickey on the difference in the sqft'age from your prior appraisal to the new one.

If I had to guess your agent just went with information already available to him/her. Live and learn kinda deal.

I wouldn't sweat it too bad.

[4x4 AG]

i would just list it at the appraisal district number. they have backup for it and have been paying taxes on it. if the buyer gets an appraisal and find diff, i would default to what the county is showing and what you have been paying against. Likely when you bought it this is what they were doing.

[Slingingsticks]

I wouldn't worry about appraisals much I sold two houses in Marion and one in schertz for well over appraisal value also they were listed for what I was wanting not what my realtor recommended and used same realtor for all three. Also depends on location as well, just my two cents.

[Codie]

the market appraisal has nothing to do with the appraisal districts appraised value. Check with the appraisal district and see what they show as your living space square footage. Long story short it sounds like you are going to have to take a loss unless you can find another buyer that doesn't pay attention to the documents they are signing and is paying cash or puting down a lot of $ towards the purchase. If the buyer is using a lender to pay for the property at 80% or higher Loan to Value then that appraisal would have stopped the entire transaction unless the buyer had extra cash to put down or was able to use the appraisal to negotiate the sales price lower. Unless you paid cash or put down a large % of the purchase when you bought it I don't see how you could have not known it appraised for lower than the sales price.

[35remington]

I can't see you taking a $20K hickey on the difference in the sqft'age from your prior appraisal to the new one.

166sq ft X $117/sq ft = $19,442

i would just list it at the appraisal district number. they have backup for it and have been paying taxes on it. if the buyer gets an appraisal and find diff, i would default to what the county is showing and what you have been paying against. Likely when you bought it this is what they were doing.

This is what I'm considering doing, assuming my realtor is on board. The appraisal district square footage is a defensible number. I called the district this morning and they said they have been using the same square footage on this house since 1955.

the market appraisal has nothing to do with the appraisal districts appraised value. Check with the appraisal district and see what they show as your living space square footage. Long story short it sounds like you are going to have to take a loss unless you can find another buyer that doesn't pay attention to the documents they are signing and is paying cash or puting down a lot of $ towards the purchase. If the buyer is using a lender to pay for the property at 80% or higher Loan to Value then that appraisal would have stopped the entire transaction unless the buyer had extra cash to put down or was able to use the appraisal to negotiate the sales price lower. Unless you paid cash or put down a large % of the purchase when you bought it I don't see how you could have not known it appraised for lower than the sales price.

I'm having a hard time reading your writing, but it looks like you are confusing a difference in appraised value versus apraised square footage. When I bought the house, it appraised for the contract price. That's no surprise—appraisal values are a rigged game. It did not appraise for the advertised square footage, and the listing overstated it by 166 square feet.

[Codie]

166sq ft X $117/sq ft = $19,442



This is what I'm considering doing, assuming my realtor is on board. The appraisal district square footage is a defensible number. I called the district this morning and they said they have been using the same square footage on this house since 1955.



I'm having a hard time reading your writing, but it looks like you are confusing a difference in appraised value versus apraised square footage. When I bought the house, it appraised for the contract price. That's no surprise—appraisal values are a rigged game. It did not appraise for the advertised square footage, and the listing overstated it by 166 square feet.

gotcha, does not make sense, but gotcha - If they appraised it at 166 sq/ft less than what it was listed at then it should have come up short on the appraisal (in most cases), which would have put a stop to the process due to the appraisal coming up short. You have two different issues that I can tell. You are selling a home at 166 sq/ft less than what you bought it for and you POSSIBLY (depending on what living space sq/ftg the appraisal district shows for you) have been paying taxes on a larger home than you actually have. I hope it all works out for you and you are able to get it sold without taking any losses

[35remington]

gotcha, does not make sense, but gotcha - If they appraised it at 166 sq/ft less than what it was listed at then it should have come up short on the appraisal (in most cases), which would have put a stop to the process due to the appraisal coming up short. You have two different issues that I can tell. You are selling a home at 166 sq/ft less than what you bought it for and you POSSIBLY (depending on what living space sq/ftg the appraisal district shows for you) have been paying taxes on a larger home than you actually have. I hope it all works out for you and you are able to get it sold without taking any losses

Exactly. It is kind of a crappy situation.