Lake Norman Real Estate and NC Homes for Sale

A rather significant change to the data provided about Mooresville Lake Norman homes will take place this week.  On March 27, 2008, the display of square footage for all active listings will change from an exact number provided by the listing agent to a RANGE. 

The quoting of square footage has been controversial and problematic for Realtors as well as home buyers and sellers for years.  I remember when got my license in 1991, due to a lawsuit, many of the local real estate firms had stopped providing any square footage numbers at all.

Then we progressed to a database that required us to provide an assessors figure, a seller’s or a figure obtained by an appraiser and we had to state the source of the figure.

When I moved to Mooresville in 2005 I was truly amazed to discover that the North Carolina Real Estate Commission required every listing agent to provide the actual square footage obtained from his/her own measurement. We did sample problems in our broker license classes and not one person came up with the exact same measurement!  (I ALWAYS hire a professional to measure my listings).

While this requirement has not changed, starting this Thursday, March 27th, the Charlotte Multiple Listing Service will change from displaying an exact figure to a range.  The range will be determined by the following formula:

• 10% down then rounded down to the nearest hundred, and 5% up and rounded up to the nearest hundred

What hasn’t changed: Listing agents will still input an exact square footage into the MLS program and searching by square footage will work just as it has so when searching by square footage, only listings that include the actual square footage input will come up in the search results.  Once a sale has been recorded the exact square footage number will replace the range on all reports.

A few interesting facts:

• The Residential Square Footage Guidelines put out by the N.C. Real Estate Commission indicates that “deviations of less than 5% will seldom be cause for concern".
• A room must have a ceiling height of 7′ for it’s square footage to be counted.

If you would like copies of the articles regarding this change: Charlotte MLS Conversion to Square-Footage Range. 

It will be interesting to see how this change is received! 

Related Articles about Buying an Selling Real Estate in the Lake Norman Area:

Stop, Dual Agency!  Proceed with Caution!

Lake Norman Buyers:  What you should know about Agent Bonuses