Is it THAT obvious?
Then why measure comps unless you're involved cases that will go to court.
Everytime I do an appraisal this issue comes up. Only about 1 in 100 public property records lists improvement characteristics. 5,500 square miles and there are only two places to actually go and look up hard copy and then it is hit and miss anyway. Some areas are controlled by groups of Realtors who live in mortal fear of litigation over GLA or lot size errors so they don't list them. Half the time you can't see improvements from the street or only small portions of them.
"Measuring from the street?" I would think that's worse than a good guess with some back up from listing and selling agents. I've never had an agent blow me off on this issue even if they didn't know for sure.
I guess I worded that wrong. Actually I didn't know there was the potential of going to court when I did the assignment. I did the report for another appraisal company where the other appraiser was approved with the lender and I wasn't so he had to sign off. He had agreed to go to court and I was to go with him to testify. No big deal though. I went on vacation :laugh: he testified, and then relayed to me that it was the measuring from the street that won the day.
You are right that a lot of houses are not visible from the street in most areas, but when appraising the densely populated areas of NJ (the nation's most densely populated state even though nearly 1/2 of it is dedicated to the Pine Barrens where it is quite barren, and other portions are dedicated to fruit and vegetable growing, hence its name The Garden State, where the taste of the locally grown produce is exceptional due to the rich soil), there are few houses not visible and measurable from the street - especially in Jersey City which is the locale in question. And having done a lot of appraisals there where I measured listings/pendings for comps at the street and then had to physically measure them later for the appraisal, it was my experience that it was better to measure from the street than to guess or ask agents, etc.
But I know how you feel. The first time someone told me they did it I thought he was nuts. He was also the first guy who told me he actually used the Marshall & Swift Cost Guide Handbook, so this guy was totally crazy! I just rolled my eyes and laughed. But then, one day, I said to myself "Well, if it works for Scott, I'll try it". And I found it worked quite well, both the measuring and the M&S.
Today I still use the M&S but Florida public records are pretty darn reliable relative to Jersey, and the agents if the PR are off will often disclose it in the MLS writeup and/or tell you when talking to them about it. No more measuring from the street now.
The agents in Jersey were not the most adept at getting an idea of living area, nor helpful on the topic. There were other methods. Like before I started measuring at street level I would multiply the room dimensions in the MLS (the agents in my area were goog at providing interior room measurements) and then multiplying that by 1.2 to account for the exterior measurements, bath rooms, laundry, foyer, mud rm, etc.. But it quickly became my experience that it wasn't as accurate as running up along the side and measuring.
Before public records access I measured hundreds, if not thousands of comps. I can't believe nobody is considering this. I would always knock on the door first, give them a card and explain who I was and what I was doing there. The number of people who refused to let me measure had to number less than 10 or so. Just yesterday, I had to knock on a couple of doors to verify private sales for a particularly difficult property I'm doing where there were few sales in the MLS. I talked to owners at both houses, got interior information and even verified closing costs/mortgage data for the sales. No problem.