Rock Hill & Fort Mill Home Buyers | Is Square Footage important?

Purchasing a home can be a complex transaction.  Review the Home Buying Process flow, and you can easily see that a home purchase is not as simple as putting a home in your cart and checking out. The realtors at Homes in the Piedmont know that York County SC homebuyers are looking at multiple properties, and those purchasing a home in Rock Hill SC or Fort Mill, South Carolina look at a number criteria to help in their decision making. 

In York County's MLS, the square footage of a home is included for all residential properties in Rock Hill SC, Fort Mill, SC, and Lancaster, South Carolina. Square footage is included in the Multiple Listing Service along with other value criteria like number of rooms, baths, and upgrades. 

While home value can be more accurately determined by the price of the land, amenities, types of materials, and builder cost per square foot, home buyers frequently attribute value to the total number of square feet.  However, the cost per square foot can vary significantly based on its location in the home.  For example, suppose that average cost per square foot is calculated at $100 when the total square footage of a home is taken into consideration.  That $100 includes expensive and costly areas such as kitchens and baths.  When considering areas such as bonus and bedroom, the cost per square foot would not be calculated or valued at the same cost nor have that average value. Valued at even less is any footage BELOW GRADE. In today’s plans, two story foyers, open living spaces and floor plans that flow from one area to the next affect the livability of a home.  Bonus areas are used to add space.  These desirable options may not necessarily reflect value offered.

While sellers and listing agents make every effort to provide accurate verification of represented amount of square footage, the measurement of a home and the square footage can vary depending upon the opinion and expertise of the individual performing the computations. When a home purchaser feels that the number of square feet is an important factor to the purchase, the buyer should make it a contingency in the offer to purchase.  It is then incumbent on the purchaser to have the home measured and independently verified.