Land valuation.square footage or frontage feet.

[kathybee]

I am currently appraising a property on a heavily traveled commercial area street. I am in a quandary between price per square foot or frontage foot valuation. I typically do square footage however since this is on this high value street I feel FF value would be appropriate.

That being said, my site is close to twice the size of my comps however close in FF. I believe I need to adjust a positive to my subject for it's size even though the FF is the same. Correct?

Thanks all.

 

[Michael S]

When you look at your comparable sales is there a greater correlation between price per square foot or price per front foot? I've occasionally looked at price per front foot but the only time I've found it relevant in my practice has been when looking at residential lots in a subdivision where the 60' wide lots sold for more than the 50' wide lots but less than the 70' wide lots.

If your site has the same frontage as your comps but is twice as large then I assume it's twice as deep. If your site is 200' wide and 200' deep that's probably not that big of a difference from a site that's 200' wide and 100' deep. Now if it was 50' wide and 200' deep versus 50' wide and 100' deep that would probably make a bigger difference.

 

[Deleted member 126639]

I am currently appraising a property on a heavily traveled commercial area street. I am in a quandary between price per square foot or frontage foot valuation. I typically do square footage however since this is on this high value street I feel FF value would be appropriate.

That being said, my site is close to twice the size of my comps however close in FF. I believe I need to adjust a positive to my subject for it's size even though the FF is the same. Correct?

Thanks all.

You determine the unit of comparison in your analysis based upon the behavior of market participants. Ideally, you should be speaking with one or both parties involved with the transactions you cite as comparables. If that isn't possible, you should speak with a number of local brokers familiar with this high value street and obtain their opinion.