square footage

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3/10/14 poll – www.appraisalport.com

Poll Results

– Very accurate for most homes 869 votes – 16%

– Mostly accurate (about 75% of the time) 2495 votes – 55%

– Hit and miss (about 50% of the time). 1470 votes – 27%

– Not reliable (accurate less than 25% of the time). 475 votes – 9%

– The tax records do not usually show the square footage in my area. 127 votes – 2%

Total votes = 5,346

My comment: AMCs seem to be assuming that tax records are more reliable than appraisers’ measurements. WRONG!! I started appraising at an assessor’s office in 1975. We were no more accurate than any other appraisers and never thought that our square footages were exact.

I used to do a lot of relocation appraisals where 2 or 3 appraisers were hired to appraise the same property. Very, very seldom did the appraisers have the same square footage.

A few years ago, a local real estate agent asked me about an appraisal where the sketch did not match the house. Tax records sq.ft. was way off. The appraiser had “fudged” the dimensions to match public records.

Do many appraisers do this to avoid AMC hassles or they were taught to do this by their supervisors?

I have always looked at tax records sq.ft. as a cross-check, but never assumed it was more accurate than my measured sq.ft. In some neighborhoods and cities, they are accurate and are very unreliable in other areas as they often are not correct.