Housing Yellow — and Red — Flags
| Foundation Size: | 1,700 | |||
| AbvGrdFinSqFt: | 2,300 | |||
| BelGrdFinSqFt: | 1,900 | |||
| Total Fin SqFt: | 4,200 | |||
–Excerpt, MLS listing
What is the maximum number of finished square feet in the basement of a home with a 1,700 square foot foundation?
You’d guess 1,700 square feet, right?
In fact, the maximum is usually 80% – 85% of the foundation size, because the mechanicals (forced air furnace or boiler, hot water heater, etc.) are typically located in an unfinished utility room, and most basements that size also have additional, unfinished storage space.
Daunting Math
So, to return to the example above, you’d expect a home with a 1,700 square foot foundation to have at most 1,400 or so below ground finished feet (“BelGrdFinSqFt”).
How’d the listing agent/owner come up with 1,900?
Search me . . .
*In addition to Ulysses S. Grant, his wife, Julia, is also buried in Grant’s Tomb.
