Can/should we sue? Listing lies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously they counted the basement as living space. Sort of a win win win. You get more living space. It isn't counted in your tax assessment- so lower taxes. You don't have to pay the painters as much and they will use less paint. You like the house.

This is all there is to it. Move on.

This and RE listings routinely add the sqft of livable basement space. I thought most people understood that. And I'm not an agent.

Some do add it in the listing but you would see the discrepancy with the taxable living space, so you would know that they added in the basement. I've seen it done both ways and always understood it. In this case - the listing matched the taxable living space. I just wonder if the 900 sq ft is in fact correct and the painters were WRONG. I think OP should check on her own.

[Anonymous]

And absolutely get your realtor involved. He/she has a good amount of responsibility here.

[Anonymous]

Phone Matthewl Moore, esq, of Potomac and do a free 15 minute consultation/conversation. We did for other reasons, it is helpful to know your rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And absolutely get your realtor involved. He/she has a good amount of responsibility here.

Realtors are always conflicted; they just want you to shut up, close the deal and give them their exorbitant commission check.

[Anonymous]

My realtor doesn't want to get involved, and basically says we should just look at the taxable living area. The taxable living area is listed as 1,800 square feet - something that my realtor claims does not include the basement (which would make the listing accurate). But since the house has a legal certificate of occupancy, I'm thinking it DOES in fact include the basement, making the 600 square feet per floor more accurate.

I just read six pages and am still confused by this. OP, are you saying that it was listed as 2700 feet but it is in fact 1800 above grade and 900 below grade? or are you saying that it is in fact 1800 total--1200 above grade and 600 below grade?

for the first, that seems like you don't have a chance. many listings include basement in the square footage, even if tax records do not.

in the second, yes, the listing agent misrepresented the size of the house, but not sure what you can do about it. But perhaps you need to measure it yourself or ask your appraiser if he/she measured it accurately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And absolutely get your realtor involved. He/she has a good amount of responsibility here.

Realtors are always conflicted; they just want you to shut up, close the deal and give them their exorbitant commission check.

And OP said realtor didn't want to get involved. Which pretty much stinks. Realtor COULD get involved as far as figuring out the correct sq footage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - I think you should A) see what the appraisal says or perhaps get a third party to measure for you. At least it will ease your mind if the house actually is the size the listing states.

I don't know the answer about the certificate of occupancy although I am curious it too

Some people are saying it doesn't matter, others are asking why I keep harping on the subject. Yet I can't seem to find a definite answer. I'm looking on the DC govt website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And absolutely get your realtor involved. He/she has a good amount of responsibility here.

Realtors are always conflicted; they just want you to shut up, close the deal and give them their exorbitant commission check.

And OP said realtor didn't want to get involved. Which pretty much stinks. Realtor COULD get involved as far as figuring out the correct sq footage.

Would you want to get involved? If OP's realtor is wrong then OP will sue him/her, too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, unfortunately you aren't liking the answers but they are pretty consistent. There is little you can do.

You didn't get 25% less than the home is worth. You made an offer that apparently was worth it to you, based on your assessment of the house. A house is worth what someone will pay for it.

I'm unclear why you only spent 10min there. Did you go home and write up the contract that afternoon? Typically a realtor will say "We're accepting offers until such & such a time/date", often 5pm the day after the open house which means you had time to see the house, think about, maybe even go back the next day with your realtor.

We did an addition a number of years ago that increased our house from 1100 to 2200 square feet. The difference of 1,000sf when you're talking smaller houses is huge. It appears that perhaps your impressions of sizing are off if you werent visibly aware of the difference between 1800 and 2700sf? What's important, I would think, is not whether it's bigger or smaller than you thought in terms of measurements, but that it's big enough to meet the needs of you and your family. And, since you put in a very aggressive offer, it appears that you believed it was big enough.

I'm sorry you are upset. It always feels bad to be misled or to have miscommunicated. But, I think you have little recourse here.

OP Here. Thank you for a more thoughtful reply.

And yes, it is very easy to not see the difference of 225 square feet per floor if the house is divided up into many rooms. The floorplan isn't open or anything, so it's easy to assume that there is more room in other places, etc.

Yes, there were 5 bids on the house before we put in ours. I think we beat out 10 other bids.

I'm also really disturbed that the LA can say whatever he wants on the listing. Does this not bother anyone else?

No, not at all. Because everyone else understands that it's caveat emptor. Why you did not, I'm not sure. But this isn't the listing agent's fault, it's yours. Moreover, you're basing your entire freakout on estimates given to you by painters, who may very well be wrong (an error that would be in your favor, btw). How much are the painters charging you, btw?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously they counted the basement as living space. Sort of a win win win. You get more living space. It isn't counted in your tax assessment- so lower taxes. You don't have to pay the painters as much and they will use less paint. You like the house.

This is all there is to it. Move on.

This and RE listings routinely add the sqft of livable basement space. I thought most people understood that. And I'm not an agent.

Some do add it in the listing but you would see the discrepancy with the taxable living space, so you would know that they added in the basement. I've seen it done both ways and always understood it. In this case - the listing matched the taxable living space. I just wonder if the 900 sq ft is in fact correct and the painters were WRONG. I think OP should check on her own.

In our case, the total square feet advertised (and in the appraisal and tax records) were just the upper floors, not the basement, even though the basement is very nicely finished with a full bath. So our house is on record as being 1400 square feet, when it really has 2100 square feet of liveable space.

[Anonymous]

OP you keep saying the agent can put whatever she wants, but the only "confirmation" you have that it is smaller is a guestimate from the painter. That's hardly "truth."

You need to get the house measured if this is a big deal to you. Basement and all, so that you can count usable sf versus actual.

You need to look at neighborhood comps. Housing isn't really priced per sf so much as it is a combination of that, location, beds/baths, conditions, and recent comps.

I guess if this is a huge deal to you then look into this more. But it sounds like you are just having regrets and looking for an out.

[Anonymous]

I feel like I keep repeating myself but again, why would anyone read what I write when they can instead busy themselves with thinking of names to call me? For the record: "moron", "fruitcake", "pleasant", and "confused" have been taken ladies and gentleman.

Again, the house is listed as having 2700 sq ft of living space - 900 per floor. The taxable living space is listed as 1800 sq ft total. Painters estimated it as being around 675 per floor, not 900. I was told by my agent that the taxable living space does NOT include basement. However, given that there is a cert of occupancy, I'm thinking he was wrong and it does. And if the tax living space DOES include the basement, the painters assessment of 675 makes sense.

SO my questions continue to be: does the tax living space take into account the basement when there is a cert of occupancy?
Second question - if we are getting 25% less house, what can we do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you keep saying the agent can put whatever she wants, but the only "confirmation" you have that it is smaller is a guestimate from the painter. That's hardly "truth."

You need to get the house measured if this is a big deal to you. Basement and all, so that you can count usable sf versus actual.

You need to look at neighborhood comps. Housing isn't really priced per sf so much as it is a combination of that, location, beds/baths, conditions, and recent comps.

I guess if this is a huge deal to you then look into this more. But it sounds like you are just having regrets and looking for an out.

Painters DID measure the place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously they counted the basement as living space. Sort of a win win win. You get more living space. It isn't counted in your tax assessment- so lower taxes. You don't have to pay the painters as much and they will use less paint. You like the house.

This is all there is to it. Move on.

This and RE listings routinely add the sqft of livable basement space. I thought most people understood that. And I'm not an agent.

Some do add it in the listing but you would see the discrepancy with the taxable living space, so you would know that they added in the basement. I've seen it done both ways and always understood it. In this case - the listing matched the taxable living space. I just wonder if the 900 sq ft is in fact correct and the painters were WRONG. I think OP should check on her own.

In our case, the total square feet advertised (and in the appraisal and tax records) were just the upper floors, not the basement, even though the basement is very nicely finished with a full bath. So our house is on record as being 1400 square feet, when it really has 2100 square feet of liveable space.

Did you have a certificate of occupancy for the basement?

[Anonymous]

If this is really bugging you, you should call a lawyer and ask them. You've received the same answer over and over but if it still doesn't seem right to you, call a lawyer and ask.

I think, however, that you bought the house and if you were in a competitive bid situation, you paid the right price. That's how market works.