Rambler with Kitchen, Dining and Living room in basement...

[loveappraising]

main level consists of bedrooms.
The problem I'm running into with this is that there are no homes that are similar in layout and worst, this house is sitting on a 1.43acre lot (R-3) in a metropolitan area where majority of the houses are sitting on .25 acres or less. I've found a handful of homes with 1+ acres but nothing similar to the layout.

My initial though was to combine to the 2 levels and use that as a total living square footage without a basement. And explain why the appraisal was compelted this way in the addendum.

Any suggestion on how I can approach this?

HELP!!

 

[Pat Butler]

I'm not familiar with a rambler style- thought it was just a ranch on one level.

Anyway, FNMA does allow you to deviate from the typical GLA calculations if you feel it is necessary. See XI 405.06 "The appraiser may deviate from this approach if the style of the subject property or any of the comparables does not lend itself to such comparisons. However, in such instances, he or she must explain the reason for the deviation and clearly describe the comparisons that were made."

We have a subdivsion that has a lot of bi-levels houses. Some are built entirely above grade where you enter into the house after walking up some exterior stairs. Others were built with the lower level partially below grade. Our market recognizes no distinction between the two in a value sense, so we'll use the exception to combine the upper and lower levels so that the sales comparison approach doesn't look funky.