Funny comment from homeowner about measuring

[CANative]

Sometimes it's pointless to spend hours and hours measuring a wacky, complicated house. Especially houses which have intentionally bizarre architectural designs. There's little to compare them to, no one can tell for certain what the precise GLA is (not even the designer in some cases), if a buyer wants that house in that location they have to buy what's there instead of something else and are not concerned with piffeling differences in GLA and even if they were there's no way to quantify in an appraisal with the microscopic amounts of poor data that's available.

I'm fairly good at measuring properties with my 100' tape but sometimes they are just too overwhelming for the amount of difference it's going to make in the end. Just disclose what you did and why you did it.

 

[Restrain]

Did one once, had a 45 in it to make it fit on the corner lot. I measured, calculated and came up with 4000 SF. Tax appraisal had 5000 SF. Tax appraiser couldn't measure anything other than a square house.

 

[TEL2002]

I'm fortunate with my counties. They all have 'online property records' and sketches.

Bad news is that they are frequently wrong.

But it is nice to take that sketch into the field and write my numbers on it as I am measuring. Saves a little time.

 

[murray stroupe]

Re; Measure Re

Did one once, had a 45 in it to make it fit on the corner lot. I measured, calculated and came up with 4000 SF. Tax appraisal had 5000 SF. Tax appraiser couldn't measure anything other than a square house.

============
How convenient, the tax appraisal had a higher figure.[5,000 SF]

 

[Pamela Biggers]

Just got the construction plans for a house I will have to measure. It is a two story dome with over 10,000 sqft under roof (at least thats what the plans said). This one is not just round and has cut outs and extentions for porches, storage, car storage, etc. This monster will be on 5 acres with nothing like it for MANY miles. Measuring this one will not be a one person job. My co-workers laughed when they saw the plans. I just hope that when I have to measure this one it won't be during the summer in temperatures over 100 degrees.

 

[CGgonnabee]

I did an inspection a couple of days ago...the folks have had two appraisals done in the past 3 years and shared them with me. Both of the appraisals reflected dimensions/sketches identical to the tax assessor. Surprise: Their house is about 300 SF larger than it was last August, and there is NO new addition They quietly asked me NOT to tell the assessors office.:icon_biggrin:

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I work with requires us to personally measure and provide a sketch with every listing we do, it never matches builders drawings or what the county data states.

I frequently find that simple houses match fine, at least to the foot and I don't try to create false accuracy by measuring much closer than ½ foot.

no one can tell for certain what the precise GLA is

See quite a few of those...2" measurement difference in an upper ½ story, dormers you cannot measure on the outside, Plan & Specs measured to the center of the wall, geodesic domes, log homes (which log is "accurate"?) and houses that are out of square. Saw one out of square by 3" (¼') - figure it up on a 2500 SF house.

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

I've only seen one I couldn't measure.
It was on a hill, was maybe 3,000 or 4,000 SF.
Every room was on a different level, lots of stairs.
No right angles in the place either.

Some architects dream after eating some funny mushrooms, or something. :Eyecrazy:

I was appraising for a couple years then, but I doubt the last 14 years of practice would make it easier, or possible. I hope I never have to find out. :laugh:

 

[Tom Woolford]

Especially when it squares up without pulling your hair out. :new_smile-l:

I get a charge out of it when the client opens up the sketch in my report and says something like, 'Good grief! Glad it was you and not me!'

A couple of times in the last few years I have hired a friend of mine just to help me measure very large complex properties. We did one over 10,000 sq ft (including the indoor basketball court) that had angles, curves, bays, three levels and dormers. Took us 2 hours just to measure with a combo of Disto, 100' tape and 25' tape. By the time it all came together it only lacked 0.1" to close and I'm sure it was in the curved bathroom wall that we had to measure from the outside because we could not measure the chord and rise. I got a really good fee for that one, Rich got a nice chunk for his time and we drank GOOD beeer after that one.

There is no excuse for not measuring, only lazyness.

 

[Rufus]

There is no excuse for not measuring, only lazyness.

I concur. The measuring and drawing of the sketch is actually my favorite part of the appraisal process. I took two years of mechanical drawing (drafting) in high school and would have taken more had it been offered.