On 8 Oct 2004 23:23:51 -0700, someone wrote:


If square footage is useless, what do people use to decide on which property
is better valued?

Location, neighborhood, appliances, cabinets, finishes, layout, number
of bedrooms and bathrooms, yard, landscaoing, the list goes on. You
sound like you have pretty mechanistic approach to value - what, no
decision making ability of your own? - to decide which house to buy
merely, or even mostly, from square footage. Measure if you want to -
but can't you tell which houses are bigger or smaller, and which are
about the same size? If two are about the same size - you would
really choose on square footage no matter what the other factors told
you???

In my area, square footage has very little relationship to value. The
million dollar houses don't seem to be 5 times the size of the $200k
ones. Or put it another way, for the same $300k people will buy
houses of vastly different sizes. Size is only one factor.

-v.

(v) wrote in message ...
On 8 Oct 2004 23:23:51 -0700, someone wrote:


If square footage is useless, what do people use to decide on which property
is better valued?

Location, neighborhood, appliances, cabinets, finishes, layout, number
of bedrooms and bathrooms, yard, landscaoing, the list goes on. You
sound like you have pretty mechanistic approach to value - what, no
decision making ability of your own? - to decide which house to buy
merely, or even mostly, from square footage.

And you sounded like someone who likes to jump to conclusion a lot, some
know-it-all, someone who doesn't have anythong better in life to do then
to pick a fight in a public forum.

When too many things a different, you obviously can't compare them with
just one criteria. But I presume people would do such a cost/sq-footage
comparison for houses in the same neighbourhood.

Shame! An open-ended question attracts such a close-minded response!!

On 10 Oct 2004 00:33:45 -0700, someone wrote:

...But I presume people would do such a cost/sq-footage
comparison for houses in the same neighbourhood.

There is no reason to "presume" that most people do this. My
observation is the opposite. Somebody wants a 3-BR, 2-1/2 bath house
in a certain school district and not too far from work - and they pick
the "nicest" house of the comparably priced ones, without resorting to
detailed calculations of SF to tell them which is the best for them.
Of similar houses, the other factors appear to GREATLY outweigh square
footage. Gettting a "deal" on square footage is no deal if the family
liked the other house better because it had a nicer kitchen, layout,
bathrooms, yard, etc.

With commercial property, especially leased property, it is typically
the opposite. It is sold or leased by the square foot.

-v.