Man Bites Dog — Real Estate Edition; or
How Big is Too Big?*

First, a stipulation:  in my experience selling residential real estate in Minnesota for over a decade, something like 95% of the time a listed property’s square feet on MLS is accurate to within a few percentage points, max, of the actual square feet.

Of those 1-in-20 cases where the square footage is wrong, which way do you suppose the error (assuming it is) lies?

tapeYup, on the high side.

In fact, I’d say that’s the case more than 95% of the time.

The .25% case (= 1 in 400)

Which leaves the genuinely rare, 5% of 5% case (that would be 1 in 400), where the home’s square footage in understated.

Sometimes, intentionally so.

I encountered just such a home last week in Wayzata.

9,000 FSF Listed as 7,000

After previewing the home for a client and being surprised (shocked, actually) at how large it was, I called the listing agent to verify the home’s size (it was listed on MLS at just over 7,000 finished square feet).

According to the agent, the home in fact measures closer to 9,000 square feet, but she intentionally reduced it so as not fish storyto scare off prospective Buyers.

She was right to be concerned — the home WAS too big for my client (and no doubt, the vast majority of other Buyers out there as well).

P.S:  In the same vein, men who misstate their height invariably exaggerate it.  See, Tom Cruise, John Wayne, et al.

The one exception I’m aware of:  Bill Walton, former NBA star center (and later Stanford law student, where I ran into him).

Apparently, Walton was self-conscious about his 7′ 1′ height, and insisted that he be listed on his team’s roster at only 6′ 11″.

*The vast majority of time, homeowners paint rooms light colors to maximize how big they feel.

So, when can you safely use dark(er) colors?

If a room feels cavernous, and you want to make it feel smaller.

About the author

Ross Kaplan has 19+ years experience selling real estate all over the Twin Cities. He is also a 12-time consecutive "Super Real Estate Agent," as determined by Mpls. - St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Magazine. Prior to becoming a Realtor, Ross was an attorney (corporate law), CPA, and entrepreneur. He holds an economics degree from Stanford.

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