How to calculate square footage in Condos?
 

I bought a presale condo. It advertises 780 square feet and finally took possession of my unit. I read the fine print of the contract and it says the builder can build my place 0-3% less than advertised without compensation. 4-9% i will get a compensation depending on the formula they outlined. >10% I can back out of the contract.

After taking possession, I walked around measuring each room, hallway, and my walls and came up that it was 2.4% short (including balcony) and exactly 10% short if I do not include the balcony.

I was being very liberal with my measures, giving more than what it actually was. But I think I may need a surveyor to give official report. No idea how about in doing so. My question is - does the limited common property (balcony) is included in advertised square footage? And if no, who and how and how much are surveys?

From the best of my knowledge and history from friends, the balcony SHOULD NOT be included in the calculation (unless originally, the contract or advertisement stated that the balcony was included in it).

However, this could change of the balcony is completely enclosed with wide open windows.

My balcony is open (top part is covered by the balcony above me)

Well, the agent you bought your condo from is YOUR agent.

Call them up, and ask them to come over and walk through your apartment with a measuring tape and how you exactly how the square footage is calc'd.

It's not a dumb question by any means, especially given that maintenance fees are calc'd off the same number. Any missing square footage is a bill every month until the building falls apart.

i agree - dont think balcony should be calculated in the sq ft. there's always that fine print disclaimer on the floor layout sheets they give you that "these are an approximation" as their cover their ass line

You know, to open this up to a slightly larger question...do you know how stupid people are when they buy pre-sale? Way stupid.

That pretty girl that greets you at the door? She's hourly. When you ask her a question and another pretty woman comes over to talk to you? She's on commission. How does that work? Well, she's a licensed realtor(tm). That means she wants to show you something shiny and distract you from the real questions. What is the commission structure, and is that negotiable? Should I have my own realtor? Your realtor is free fyi.

There are several types of real estate transactions....buyers market...sellers market....and even. People walk into a pre-sale and say, sign me up! They are asking a price...well, everything in this world is negotiable. In a sellers market, they tell you to pound sand. In a buyer's market, they suck your yoohoo to get your money. In a mixed market, its a crap shoot. Are you willing to walk away? Are they?

**edit And Gnomes, I'm not actually calling you stupid by any means. You are actually working out the math which is great.

:ifyouknow:

on a serious note. i went to one of those with my friend b/c he showed me the unit he got...i was thinking to myself what role all these girls have as i kind of felt like i was at cactus club or something :lol

No harm done. If I can redo this, I will not get presale. I tried my best to maximize what I can get but it's a game I cannot win.

Square footage never includes the balcony. And if someone tells you it is, run.

I didn't think so. I know that they play games with having "indoor" space that functions like building space because I've done 3 different apartments where my job was to remove exterior grade doors to make the space part of the apartment again. Two were actually in the same building as a guy saw me with the doors from one place and hired me to do his.

But Miss_C, you should be in the know...where does his square footage owned actually start and stop? Drywall surface to drywall surface? I would assume internal partitions are included, not that 5" of wall thickness would make a huge difference.

Does he have a case that its off? And more important, now that its closed and I assume he's done his walk-through inspection, would he have any recourse?

balconies are common property, therefore not used.

wall partitions while they are your property, they do not get included in floor area calcs. by any definition, anyone who tells you that is either speaking about a warehouse or is a complete idiot.

^^As i said, I was making an assumption on its calculation.

So it is literally walkable, floor space. So Gnome got screwed?

What does your strata plan say for sq.ft? This is the floorplan that is registered at Land Titles and will show what the developer measured sq.ft accounts for. It's measured in square metres so multiply by 10.76 to get square feet. Report back.

I have never gotten a "proper" response as to how developers measure for sq.ft. I've been told both inside walls including/not including partitions, halfway between your wall and the neighbouring wall, even measuring from the exterior walls. Talk to the builder to see how they measure first and go from there.

This, it shows whats registered at the land titles office. And the developers do not measure it, a surveyor measures it. Like bonka says, it's usually done in metric so x 10.76.

PS. this is not the same as your unit of entitlement.

Having trouble spotting the cubic meter on my Land title act and all documents from my notary, form A and form B (unless it's another form). Only thing I see is registered is strata Lot 99 block 99 section 99 Town on hastings suburban lands strata plan EPS9999.

Reading through the contract, they mention proposed strata lot and final strata lot plan is different. It appears its something I need to get answer from developer directly. Waiting on their reply.

Do you have any "under height" areas (eg. sloping ceilings)? I don't know what the actual definition is, but those don't normally count against the square footage.

Were you provided a Strata Plan at the time of Completion? Or from the developer? If not, you can order them online or at the land title office.

Find a strata plan | City of Vancouver

Old thread but I was taking off a Condo today where they had the unit SF on the floor plan and thought of this thread. I was trying to figure out how they came about it on this plan and it looks like edge of exterior wall to middle of corridor and party walls. It will very from architect to architect but I can almost guarantee the builder will use these number as his advertised SF, as you can see that footage goes through the walls.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps0fb3c930.jpg

Bastards!

windows based take off software, fancy!

For what I do it's the best software out there IMO. Combined with Quick Bid it makes pricing, figuring out material orders, labour and printing reports so easy.

The only problem is it is very expensive, don't quote me but I think it's something like $7,000-8,000 per user plus the annual fees for support for two programs. When you start adding multiple estimators per office it gets spendy but it's necessary.

BIM is just around the corner, 3D takeoffs are going to be awesome. It will make my job so much easier, as is I spend so much time going back and forth between building sections, elevations and details wrapping my brain around how things go together. It took a long time to visualize flat images in 3d, when you have square boxes it's not hard but when you get into slopes, varying elevations and what not it can be confusing. It comes a lot easier now but I'm pretty sure BIM is the future of construction estimating.

BIM's been around for a while I've toyed with Revit but haven't used BIM for any estimating.

ya estimating tools are expensive. that's why i don't get to use 'em. i use free DOS ones :lawl: