Median gap between the printed and the measured area
Houses that measured under the previous figure
Square feet, the largest single overstatement
The claim
“Everyone rounds up, and buyers expect it.”
The figure on most particulars on this coast comes from the last particular, which came from the one before it. Somewhere in that chain a garage was counted as living space, or a terrace was measured to the balustrade, and the number has been copied forward ever since.
Buyers do not expect it. Their surveyor measures in week ten, and a house that has lost three hundred square feet between the brochure and the report loses the buyer’s confidence with it. The renegotiation that follows is rarely about the footage. It is about whatever else might be wrong.
What we did
Every house measured by a licensed surveyor before the entry is written.
We compared our measured figure with the one the previous agent had printed on eleven houses this year. Every one came in under. The median gap was nine per cent, and the largest came from a guest wing counted twice across two brochures.
Three of the eleven
Printed 3,610 sq ft, measured 3,280
Garage counted as living space
Printed 3,450 sq ft, measured 3,280
Terrace measured to the balustrade
Printed 2,960 sq ft, measured 2,620
Guest wing counted twice
None of the three owners knew. The figure was simply the one they had been given when they bought, and it would have been the one their buyer’s surveyor took apart in week ten.
Written between viewings · Havilon & Co.