Needing your property measured? Let Fincham & Associates, Inc. help.

Square footage is one of the few facts about a house that everyone relies on and almost no one verifies. Tax records, old listings, and builder plans all circulate as authority, and they frequently disagree with each other and with the building. A measurement service settles the question with a documented, standards-based measurement and a floor plan.

The standard we measure to

We measure to ANSI Z765-2021, Square Footage — Method for Calculating, the standard the Appraisal Institute teaches and the one Fannie Mae requires for appraisals of single-family properties in conventional lending, with an equivalent requirement at Freddie Mac. Measuring to a published standard is what makes the result something you can hand to someone else. A number with no stated method behind it is just a number, and the next person to measure the house will produce a different one.

Note that finished area terminology is changing as the industry moves to the redesigned appraisal report and the UAD 3.6 dataset. We report under the terminology applicable to the assignment and will explain which is being used.

What you get

A measurement of the improvements, a floor plan showing the layout and dimensions at the level of detail the assignment calls for, and a report documenting the standard applied and how areas were classified. Where the property has unusual features — split levels, additions built at different times, finished space below grade, accessory structures — the report explains how each was treated, because that treatment is where measurements diverge.

When people order one

Before listing. Listing a property on square footage carried over from a tax record is a common source of trouble, in both directions. If the record understates the finished area, you may be pricing and marketing on a number lower than the building supports. If it overstates it, the discrepancy tends to surface during the transaction, at the least convenient moment.

For a tax record correction or assessment appeal. Assessment records draw square footage from a variety of sources and it is not always verified. If the recorded area is wrong, a measurement documents the actual area. Whether a correction changes your assessment, and what the locality’s process is for requesting one, is up to the locality — we can tell you what the building measures, not what the assessor will do about it.

For agents. A measured floor plan gives you a defensible area figure for the listing and a marketing asset buyers use. It also removes a category of post-contract dispute that nobody enjoys.

For owners and builders documenting a renovation, addition, or conversion of unfinished space.

What a measurement is not

A measurement service is not an appraisal. It documents the physical dimensions and area of the improvements. It does not develop an opinion of value, and it cannot tell you what the property is worth or what it will sell for. If you need an opinion of value, that is an appraisal assignment and we would be glad to discuss it.