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Why is it allowed to include the finished basement square footage in the real estate listing?

I recall that when we were searching for a home years ago, the basement wasn’t included in the square footage. In the rare instance when it was, there was an egress window in a room that qualified as a bedroom. The listing would however share how many finished space was below grade.

I noticed during Covid this started to change. Homes that I knew could only be 1500 sq feet were listed at 3000 sq feet. I just checked my home on redfin and even my listing (now off the market) includes the basement sq footage (it didn’t when we bought this home). I’m just curious and I know this seems like a weird question but it feels like another ploy to get people to pay for a home. And seems dishonest to me as well. Especially since some basements are at risk for flooding, I don’t see how it’s fair to include that in total sq footage.

submitted by /u/Frosty-Incident2788
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/z04rbc/why_is_it_allowed_to_include_the_finished/

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