community for the discussion of real estate appraisal. Register a free account to be able to post and unlock additional forums and features.
They gave you a right to deviation. You can exercise that right any time you like. They can't make you go a different direction. Turn it around on them. So mountain homes all have no GLA?
www.iapmo.org
In your example, I would disagree with you. You can't take a 1400 sf ranch with a fantastic full finished walkout basement... same quality as the GLA, and call it GLA, then proceed to compare it to 2800 sf homes. It's not a 2 story. It's a 1400 sf ranch with a finished basement that you would compare with other 1400 sf GLA foundations. Calling it GLA doesn't mean it has more value. Below Grade can have the same $/sf as GLA. But you have to compare apples to apples in design/functionWHEN IS A BASEMENT CONSIDERED LIVING SPACE?
When is a basement considered living space boils down to the layout of your home. There are exceptions and you need to also consider the property value, not just square footage.www.advantaclean.com
If the house is built into the side of a hill, and there are finished basement rooms that are directly accessible from the above grade area, and they are similar in condition and aesthetics, and the fit in functionally with the above grade area, then they can be considered part of the finished living area or GLA. If you have to go through an unfinished area to get to the below grade finished then no, it is not treated like above grade finished. If it is unkept, with moisture and mold, then no.
And I have seen homes on the side of a slope with good drainage where only a corner of the basement is maybe 1 foot below grade, it has a couple of windows and the finished rooms are nice. It is rather difficult in such situations not to treat the room as above grade finished. And Fannie Mae allows for that.
What good is a standard if you can invoke a deviation whenever you'd like? As I previously pointed out way back in the thread, virtually all measurements will be deviations, but no appraiser will actually say so. ANSI is theoretical in nature. It doesn't address the real-world constraints of measuring an existing structure, such as what procedure do you use when you get back around to the starting point and find you are off by eight inches? The ANSI-compliant answer is that the structure is not square or to remeasure until everything lines up on site. Reconciling and squaring our measurement with a sketching program, which is what we all do most of the time, is not ANSI-compliant.
Well you have to have supported reason. Ansi is the best way 99.9% of the time. Standards are so that the user knows how the process went. But the best answer of appraisal will always be: "It depends"
As a forumite once said, "Just because the cat had kittens in the oven, doesn't make them biscuits."
