basement
227) Basement Value
01/31/08
Dear Henry:
I am currently appraising a single family home in South Florida. It has a partial basement which is rare in this market. This basement area does not have A/C and is 500 sq ft., of a 6000 sq. ft. home. The owners use the space for storage.
How would I value the basement area as there are no comparables for this feature?
Lee Jennings silkv@aol.com
Dear Lee,
Since the area is below ground, it would not be included in the GLA of the house. You should describe it in the comments section of your appraisal report as additional storage space.
Unless there is evidence that basements add value to the property, I would not add any value for this basement. The reason most houses in south Florida do not have basements is that they do not add value equal to or greater than their cost.
H2
I am currently appraising a single family home in South Florida. It has a partial basement which is rare in this market. This basement area does not have A/C and is 500 sq ft., of a 6000 sq. ft. home. The owners use the space for storage.
How would I value the basement area as there are no comparables for this feature?
Lee Jennings silkv@aol.com
Dear Lee,
Since the area is below ground, it would not be included in the GLA of the house. You should describe it in the comments section of your appraisal report as additional storage space.
Unless there is evidence that basements add value to the property, I would not add any value for this basement. The reason most houses in south Florida do not have basements is that they do not add value equal to or greater than their cost.
H2
144) Basement Space in GBA
11/05/07
Dear H2,
I'm having conflicting views regarding calculating gross building area based on information from my supervisor vs. what I read in text books.
We recently appraised a two family house where Apt #1 utilizes the first floor and finished basement and Apt #2 utilizes the 2nd and 3rd floors. My supervisor claims that I cannot include the basement square footage into my GBA, yet everywhere I look I see that I can.
Who is correct?
Thanks for your time,
TF (name withheld by request)
Dear TF,
I agree with you. One of the differences between Gross Living Area (GLA) and Gross Building Area (GBA) is that GLA cannot include basement areas and GBA includes basement areas that are finished and heated like the rest of the building.
I would add a comment on the appraisal report explaining how this space is used (as the lower level of a 2-story apartment), to make sure that the information is not misleading.
H2
I'm having conflicting views regarding calculating gross building area based on information from my supervisor vs. what I read in text books.
We recently appraised a two family house where Apt #1 utilizes the first floor and finished basement and Apt #2 utilizes the 2nd and 3rd floors. My supervisor claims that I cannot include the basement square footage into my GBA, yet everywhere I look I see that I can.
Who is correct?
Thanks for your time,
TF (name withheld by request)
Dear TF,
I agree with you. One of the differences between Gross Living Area (GLA) and Gross Building Area (GBA) is that GLA cannot include basement areas and GBA includes basement areas that are finished and heated like the rest of the building.
I would add a comment on the appraisal report explaining how this space is used (as the lower level of a 2-story apartment), to make sure that the information is not misleading.
H2