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Monday, December 13, 2010

Exaggerated Square Footage

Too Much of a Good Thing

If you were a 5' 6" man, would you try to pass yourself off as 5' 9"?

I wouldn't condone it -- but I'd at least understand it.

But why would a 6' 5" man say he was 6' 9" -- unless, perhaps, he was an NBA player?

In a nutshell, that was my reaction showing a Plymouth home earlier today that appeared to be well below its stated 4,600 finished square feet (to my eye, at least 15% below).

Not only does such an . . . . uh, exaggeration hurt the Seller's credibility with prospective Buyers, it actually limits the pool of such Buyers.

That's because there are a lot more people in the market for a 3,800 square foot house than a 4,600 square foot house.

P.S.: The one exception I'm aware of to pro basketball players tending to pad their height is Bill Walton, the former UCLA and NBA great.

Self-conscious about being so tall, he reportedly gave his height as 6' 11" instead of the 7'-plus he really is.

At least, that's the story I heard when I was a Stanford undergrad, and Walton was at the Law School (I'd see him on campus occasionally, and he certainly looked 7'-plus. More often, I'd just see his gigantic bike in front of the Law School).

1 comment:

Chuck Harris said...

Exaggerating the square footage by such a large amount will certainly create distrust for most potential buyers. I for one would be pretty upset if I didn't find out until after closing that I'd actually gotten 15% less square footage than I thought.