How Many Square Feet Are In Your Home?

As the Tallahassee housing market begins to heat up for our normal seasonal selling period, I am starting to get more and more mail and comments from our readers (keep 'em coming :)). Yesterday, a new reader asked me a question about home size and value, a topic that long-term readers know is very near and dear to me. Linda asked

Joe, I have been trying to sell my home in Tallahassee for the past two years. My real estate agent recommended that I enclose my screen porch because it would add enough extra [heated and cooled] space to make my house more than 2000 square feet, which according to her is important for selling the home. Do you think this will help get my home sold? - Linda

Square Footage And Home Values

Linda, first of all, great question and thank you for sending it to me. My short answer is "I doubt it," but I would have to see your home before I committed to my response. As a general rule, there is no "magic" size for a home to get it sold. Maybe your agent thinks your home needs the porch converted to a bedroom and that more bedrooms might make your home better than others with which it is competing.

The following short real estate video explains the basic use of square footage as a rule of thumb in home value estimation. Increasing the size of your home might not increase the value (proportionately) to what you are spending.

The key to remember about home size, price per square feet, square footage, etc. is that these measurements do not consider specific features of a home and therefore are not accurate as a stand-alone technique for determining the value of a home. The types of amenities in a property as well as the location of the home site are far more important in determining the value of a home than merely looking at the number of square feet a home has and multiplying it by some random factor.

So Linda, I hope this answers your question. If you want to sell a home in Tallahassee, make sure you execute a superior internet marketing campaign designed for real estate and make sure you choose a home price that makes you compare well with your competition. Generally speaking, major changes to a home will not be returned in a home sale unless a home's condition is poor to begin with.

*Joe Manausa Real Estate is a brokerage company headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida. Its unique business model provides specialists to both home sellers and home buyers, and the results speak for themselves. JMRE has significantly more 5-star reviews on google than any other local competitor. Joe Manausa Real Estate is a leader in internet marketing and utilizes search engine optimization, email marketing, social media and data analytics to get their clients’ home sold faster and for more money than any other Tallahassee brokerage firm. For more information, visit www.manausa.com or call us at (850) 366-8917.