Sunday, February 7, 2010

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  Sunday, September 25, 2011
• When the earth moves under our feet

  Sunday, September 11, 2011
• The Truth About TRIM Notices

  Saturday, July 30, 2011
• Friends, Romans and countrymen

  Sunday, February 27, 2011

It's early in the year. You still have time. Between now and next Christmas, Santa could forget how bad some of you boys and girls have been.

And I'm not talking about those of you who still think it's possible to get a Realtor's license, Bruce. There are 30 current listings that include the term "licensed Realtor."

The problem is, there is weird and unacceptable data showing up in listings in the Multiple Listing Service and in some appraisals that made their way to my desk recently. These practices will make Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac frown. Not to mention the ill effect on your buyers and sellers.

There could be a big difference between Gross Building Area (GBA) and Finished Living Area (FLA). It's no stretch that Realtors are supposed to use the FLA for the square footage figure in listings.

Decades ago, local Realtors adopted and defined square footage guidelines. The official definition is "the total square footage will be the total enclosed area and is capable of being heated or air conditioned."

How do we know what number that is? As an organization, we Realtors pay for a subscription service from First American. They produce a Property Detail Report. The measurement we want to choose has the title "Under Air Sq. Ft."

Using the one with the title "Gross Bldg Area" is wrong. Go ahead. Use it. Be bad! Save Santa the stop next year.

Gross building area includes extra "stuff." It may include patios, porches and other things.

The city of Key West uses GBA to figure out whether it will permit the homeowner to add a pool to their backyard, for example. They permit the owner to use up only 60 percent of the GBA. The city calls that the ground coverage ratio.

For example, if the GBA is 1,738 and the lot size is only 2,460, the ground coverage ratio is 70 percent. Realtors might include in the listing, "plenty of room for poo." But if you add an "l," start practicing saying in front of a mirror, "Well, your honor."

The way to really ruin an appraiser's day is to pick up the phone and find the Florida Real Estate Appraiser Board on the other end of the line.

"Ms. Appraiser, I see you used 1,738 square feet for the home size. Where did you get that number?"

"I got it from the MLS" is a bad answer.

The other outbreak that popped up recently is including attic space in normal square footage counts. According to my bible, the Appraisal Institute Appraising Residential Properties, Second Edition, "FHA, VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ... finished basement or attic areas are not included in total gross living area."

If any part of the space does not have a normal ceiling height, don't count it.

I agree that the public might pay a little more for a home with this finished space than an identical one without. They might think it is a cute reading or sleeping nook.

Realtors and appraisers must treat these spaces separately. The marketing comments in our multiple listing service would be a great place to tell potential buyers that there is a finished attic.

Most appraisers already know to separate the finished attic from the regular square footage. They may find that the public enjoys this area and maybe they can prove it is worth a few bucks extra.

Beware the ire of Fannie, Freddie, HUD and VA, however, if the attic is included with the regular FLA.

Imagine putting all the Realtors and appraisers on one side of a scale and all the lawyers on the other side. The lawyers will weigh more. Well, of course, they eat better than the rest of us. Still, there are lots of them. They flourish by scrutinizing such details. This is an excellent time to become very fastidious about the data presented.

What do you think?

Regina E. Corcoran, SRA, is a Florida real estate broker, state-certified residential appraiser and residential contractor. She is president of AmeriRealty Corp. and vice president of AmeriMortgage Corp. She can be reached at ReginaECorcoran@cs.com. Corcoran writes her column exclusively for The Citizen. It appears every other Sunday.