True Gotham

Well here is my live National TV debut.  Be gentle.  I think I did a good (ok...decent) job and hope to have the opportunity to do this again.  It was a lot of fun!

Big thanks go to my friends and colleagues who helped me with this segment:

Jamie Goff, President and CEO of Douglas Elliman Florida

Gregory Morris, REALTOR, Long And Foster Real Estate, Inc. Baltimore, MD.

Jay Thompson, Designated Broker, Thompson's Realty, Phoenix, AZ.

Posted By Douglas Heddings | Permalink | 14 Comments

All of my readers know that I'm a huge fan of videoblogging and hope to have some new and interesting episodes of TGTV coming really soon.  I recently participated in a panel discussion and Q & A at Inman's Real Estate Connect NYC 2008 (register now for San Francisco in July) on this exact topic. 

The complete video is below but despite the underlying theme of my co-panelists who seemed to convey the difficulty of producing a good video, I, perhaps naively so, remain a very strong proponent of the video tour and video blog as I have had great success with very little working knowledge of the technology that takes place in the background.  I continue to believe that a well done video tour brings a much needed transparency to the real estate industry and can be achieved with a good camera person/editor and some on screen practice.  And more importantly, sellers LOVE video as a marketing tool for their homes!

Here's the panel discussion with more tips from me and my colleagues:

If you want more information on each of the panelists, check out their blogs/websites here:

• Rachel Natalie Klein-IntoTheBox.TV (excellent video blogging on a daily basis!)
• Daniel Rothamel-The RealEstateZebra.com ("Zebra" comes from referee as in Basketball referree which is Daniel's other life)
• Mike Price-MLBroadcast.com (THE site for the real estate pro interested in videoblogging or podcasting)
• Jeff Turner-RealEstateShows.com (Check out Jeff's site for an alternative to the full blown on camera video tour)

Posted By Douglas Heddings | Permalink | 1 Comments

Last week in our 4th episode of TGTV's 5 part series on Square Feet we delved further into understanding why consumers can't seem to get an accurate approximation of square footage for the properties that they are seeing.

In our final episode of this 5 part series our panel discusses possible regulation of methodology and approximation of square footage with suggestions on just who should police those responsible for overstating and how they could go about doing so.  Check it out:

As I stated last week, I could do weekly episodes on this topic forever (or at least until the problem went away) but I'm eager to move on to other interesting content.  The surprising conclusion that I have drawn from this eye-opening series is that the methods of measuring are already relatively standard (with the exception of new development condos) and the discrepancies in stated square footage almost always come from me and my colleagues. 

The first step to correcting these gross inaccuracies is to hold accountable those who overstate square footage by a certain amount (do we say +-5%?).  I believe that all real estate agents should be mandated to have their properties measured by an "approved" entity (licensed architect, floorplan illustrator, appraiser).  Furthermore, they should be required to share that precise measurement with the consumer.  In time, I believe you would see fewer discrepancies and more honesty surrounding stated square footage. 

Exaggerating square footage isn't salesmanship, it's lying.

Posted By Douglas Heddings | Permalink | 4 Comments

Last week on TGTV we discussed the various methods by which square footage can be measure with an emphasis on the liberties that developers sometimes take in adding common areas, etc to an apartment's stated square footage.  Don Meade also shared that he has been asked by real estate agents to provide a measurement from outside walls which would obviously yield a higher number than measuring the interior perimeter.

Check out this week's episode as we travel further down the path of who seems to be responsible for the overstating of square footage as we determined that the physical measurement (at least by our panel) was calculated using very similar methods of measuring the exact same interior space.  There does seem to be some confusion however on exactly what is defined as gross living area (click the link for the Google search and check out the definitions and some of the forums for appraisers who even question the definition)  Gross living area for a house seems to be different than gross living area of an apartment...

On the final episode of this TGTV series on Square Feet we will explore ways in which to hold accountable those who grossly overstate square footage in the real estate industry.  It's a shame I can't do another 25 episodes on square feet because this issue has a lot of holes and loose ends that definitely need to be addressed and tied up.  Will do a little bit of that next week. 

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In last week's episode of TGTV, our panel of experts shared the results of measuring a property and we suprisingly saw that each of them came up with numbers relatively close to one another.   It appears that each of them measured the property the exact same way by calculating "interior perimeter"...hmmmm?   Can you say "standardization?" 

In this episode, you will hear our panel discuss more reasons for the lack of standardization across the market with a particular focus this week on new development projects and what factors contribute to stated square feet in these projects.  Don Meade also touches briefly on real estate agent "wants and needs" in terms of square foot calculations.

This comment after last week's episode from Justin Patwin, a Los Angeles based Architect, sheds some light on one way to "police" the standardization of stated square footage:

I am an architect from L.A. who has extensive experience in what are A.R.O. (Adaptive Reuse Ordinance) projects in our city. Those are existing historic buildings that have been retrofitted to accommodate residential "lofts". We have this conversation with our clients constantly due to lawsuits so I am interested to see how NYC handles this issue, because a buyer will always measure differently from a developer. Developers (and their architects) use a method that begins with how the City Planning Dept. and Building and Safety assess how large a potential project can be (known as F.A.R.- Floor Area Ratio). Developers then turn around and charge buyers for whatever they build to the extent the law allows(with mark-up of course). Typically in L.A., we measure from center to center of the demising walls (walls that divide units), and include the exterior wall and the corridor wall. If there is a stair, then the opening for that stair is not included as well as any other floor penetrations. Other than that columns, interior walls, etc. are included...

...The one thing that would really alleviate the guess work is if BOMA were to create a standard for residential condos which right now they do not have. Do you plan to address this specific issue? Great that you are tackling this subject and I like that you have a few different professionals however I would have a developer too since the architect does not represent their point of view.

Would have been nice to have a developer on the panel but it appears that in NYC we would have had to poll several developers and their architects to get a sense of how each  calculates square footage.

Tune in next week for more as we explore accountability as it relates to overstating of square footage.

Posted By Douglas Heddings | Permalink | 4 Comments

In last week's pilot episode of TrueGotham TV we met our expert panel,  Jonathan Miller from RadarLogic and Miller Samuel Appraisers, Yungie Hahn from H2 Architects, and Don Meade from Quality Floor Plans, and saw exactly how they go about measuring property.  Surprisingly, each of our experts used similar methods of measurement and measured only the interior perimeter of the property.  Why is that surprising?  Because if they all measure the same interior space, why can't the consumer ever get an accurate quote for square footage?  Check out this week's episode to see what each of our experts calculated to be the square footage of this property and learn more about their methodology.

Tune in next Thursday for more of our panel discussion including why our experts think this is such a frustrating topic for consumers.

Posted By Douglas Heddings | Permalink | 6 Comments

If you're a regular reader of TrueGotham, there's no secret to how I feel about discrepancies in square footage and the lack of standardization of measurement (or is there?) in the marketplace.  Buyer frustration permeates the market as prospective purchasers continue to ask, "why can't we get an accurate quote of square footage?"

In our inaugural episode of TrueGotham Television (TGTV), we explore the methodology of measuring square footage.   Jonathan Miller from RadarLogic and Miller Samuel Appraisers, Yungie Hahn from H2 Architects, and Don Meade from Quality Floor Plans join me to share their methods for calculating and their thoughts on square footage inaccuracies.

Tune in next week for each professional's findings and the first part of our panel discussion on methodology and the lack of accuracy in square footage quotes.  

Posted By Douglas Heddings | Permalink | 11 Comments