Measuring a condominium for an appraisal is fairly simple and easy to do, that is unless you have a grain silo that’s been turned into condominiums. I appraised one of these units several years ago, which was quite the challenge due to the round walls. For this example I think we’ll stick to the traditional squared walls. There are two things to keep in mind that are different from single family housing.
First, is that the gross living area (GLA) is measured from the inside of the walls, not the outside like single family. Second, some condos can have fairly large utility rooms that aren’t usable living space and shouldn’t be counted.
However, it can be very difficult to ascertain as to whether the similar comparable sales listed in the MLS used the utility space or not. If the real estate agents that listed the homes on the MLS didn’t subtract out the utility space, then y0u’re going to have to include it in your calculation. This is what Fannie Mae expects you to do, see below.
The key to remember is consistency, if everyone within the real estate industry is using the same measuring standard, then the data will only be that much better and credible.
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