Following up on our last blog What Is Square Footage I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to explain how to calculate the square footage of your home/rooms. Square footage is going to be calculated in some way, shape or form by your listing agent. Since there are multiple ways for this to happen it is never a bad idea to do the calculations on your own in case you have questions about their numbers. 

Let’s start by calculating on your own. All you have to do is measure room by room the length times the width and you have the square footage of the room. So, lets say your room is 20x20. This means your square footage for that room is 400 square feet. Once you go through each room in your home you can add up the numbers and you will have your total square footage for the home. 

Now we move on to the different ways your listing agent could choose to figure out the total square footage. They could, like you visit and measure each room. They can also measure around the outside base of the house. Using the foundation size they should be able to calculate the square footage. Last but not least, they can rely on government records or past MLS listings - this leaves a lot of room for mistakes as this will not take into account any updates that have been done. 

No matter what way it is done by your listing agent there is always room for inaccuracies which is why it is not a bad idea to do your own measurements. This allows you to know when to speak up and ask questions about how they got the square footage they did. You can find out what they included and what they didn’t, which could easily differ from what you included.