How many stories in a split level?

[xm39hnu]

Got the ground floor, the split down, and the split up. What do you put in the URAR block for # Stories?

On the one hand, you've got a 2-story half-a-house with another half-house sticking out to one side. On the other, you've got a half-house with two half-story-high elevations.

So I'm trying to find out what most of you enter to describe one of these on the URAR. (Don't worry, though, I'll narrate it properly. Just want to know what the rest of the world does.)

 

[Bill_FL]

To me, a typical split level has the lower level at least partially below grade. In that case, it is a 1 story home, on a basement.

 

[jay trotta]

Jim

this is not the end all, but Splits are the most difficult to breakdown; here in my area there are so many different styles (based in part on Era & Builder) that we decided to follow FNMA guidelines a little more.

Based on the Comps. U use - include all finished area as GLA and explain what you did & why. To date, we have not had any negative feed back on the issue, but realistacally, You need to decide what approach is best.

Good Luck

 

[Couch Potato]

I put "1spl" and give appropriate comments.

 

[Brad Ellis]

Jim,

This is a question that I often ask of a class when they had had time to digest their lunches- just to engender an argument and wake them up if they need that. I have found over the years that the class usually splits down the middle with some calling it 1 story and the others calling it 1.5. It can get spirited.

My take on it is that, if the lower level is below grade at all, making it a basement by both ANSI and Fannie pronouncements, the it is a 1 story- a split one story. If the family room is fully above grade, it is a 1.5 story.

It is not called a split level(S), it is called a split level (singular).

My take anyway,

Brad

 

[Greg Bell]

If ANY of the lower level is below ground (Even a foot),it's a basement.Went a few rounds on this one with FNMA..

 

[Mountain Man]

On number of levels, I put 2. My software doesn't like 1.5 for some reason. Then I describe the split level floor plan and address the lower level as basement if below grade or of lesser quality.
In the market grid, I lable it SpltLvl with functional adjustment as indicated by market data.

For Tri-levels, I do the same thing. The middle and upper level are shown as GLA, the lower level is usually labled as basement.

 

[Ross (CO)]

There goes Fannie again.....using their wonderful choices of wording. They have us answering to "# of Stories" when the word that I'm sure they meant to ask for....was "Levels". I will place the cardinal number which is fitting of (better) describing the structure and type the word "Levels" after that number.

If I had a true 4-Level house (called here by our county as "split-level") with an upper and main level above-grade, and a lower level (garden level windows) and a basement level below grade......I would fill in the form field by inputting "4 Levels" and below that the design as "4-Level".

If one were to put in merely a "4", or the word "Four", readers would take the liberty of envisioning a monstrosity of a 4-Story structrure and then get all wierd when they phoned to say the photos do not appear to match the description. Yes, their form says "# of Stories", but at times we have to be diligent enough to protect them from their mis-understandings. Has anybody noticed if the recently-released updated Selling Guide gives a definition of.......a "Story" ?

I'm sure you will make this property and structure clear for your reader.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

include all finished area as GLA and explain what you did & why

Amen. I agree and I think the guidelines have been misinterpreted and skewed over the years. I do not agree that a splitlevel that is partially below the GROUND level is below GRADE. GRADE means the grade of the building plan and can be elevated or sunken...
I have even heard teachers say that. Nonsense. That makes every berm house a basement. That makes many split-levels some tiny little home with a great big basement. Even the tri-levels become extraordinarily goofy with a garage "on grade", a "finished basement", a second story over the garage, and a the third 'split' being neither fish nor fowl.

Don't mistake "grade level" for "ground level"..and speaking of 'grade', its used interchangably with quality level and that obfuscates the problem even more.

A split level is built and sold generally as a 2 level property and that's what it is two levels, 2 / SPTLEV - not as basement unless the finish is different from the upper level. And I don't even recall being in a split level where the lower level was anything different that the upper level.

 

[DJBanas]

If the 1st level is finished and comparable to the 2nd and 3rd floors I use "3".

The house I live in is a split. The 1st level is the garage and laundry room in the front with the family room & pdrm behind the garage. It is on a slab and is not below the ground level at any point. The 2nd level is the kitchen, dining room and living rooms. The 3rd level is bedrooms and bath.

I could not describe it as anything other than 3 stories, in my mind anyway, but the key to me is the "split" which should indicate to the reader of the report what the layout is.