He might have separated the basement below grade from the basement above grade. On the section that says, "Basement & Finished Rooms Below Grade," he put a general "sf" figure and then a "sfwo" The sfwo matches his 14' wall floor plan. I thought the first figure was supposed to be TOTAL sf on the basement and the sfwo would be a part of that. There is one unfinished room about 19' wide next to the finished part that would just about compensate for the difference between the two figures, which is why I read it that way. But,t hat unfinished space is also a walk-out space.
So, is the first "sf" figure ONLY supposed to be below grade and the "sfwo" (sf walk out, I know) additional above grade, or is the first figure a cumulative first floor sf? I assume there's a standard to how these figures are listed.
If these two areas are differentiated then that means all the rooms on the first floor have a "value boundary" going right down the middle. The 14' facing the view is sfwo but the rest of the room is just finished basement?! What happens if you have a basement that isn't finished? It should add some value.
This brings up another dilemma if he actually did it correctly. For his "Additional Comparables" he used a home which we looked at ourselves to buy. It has a concrete basement 2/3 the size with nothing finished and totally below grade. Awesome place for storage, but it isn't true living space with a full bathroom and there ain't any daylight getting down there. He only credited $6,000 for the difference in these two spaces. How can one fully finished (except for a 19' wide space) and much larger space be worth only $6K more?! This is also a house that has AMAZING reclaimed wood floors compared to the old carpet in ours. I would have thought our carpet would have reduced the value of our house, which I know used to be the case. I'd like to think that when we put in hardwood floors it's going to make a difference in the value of the house! It's a lot of money to pay for something that doesn't matter to an appraiser.
Why don't I order another appraisal? Because I already paid $700 for this one less than a month ago.
Thank you all for your responses and help! Your help is greatly appreciated As you can tell, it's somewhat confusing to me. It's a wonderful house, and if we need an appraisal in the future we'll obviously have to get a new one, so in the long run this one really doesn't matter, but I would like to understand. Maybe I should just call him and ask him to help me understand his figures.
