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Any easy way to distinguish above grade square footage?

Since we bought our current home (years before the pandemic), real estate now seems to be a completely different ballgame in so many ways so bear with me if this seems like a dumb question. The website we used back then (realtor.com) showed every home’s above-grade square footage at the time, whereas Zillow sometimes had more added on for the basement, but usually it was the same. It was easy to find the non-basement square footage.

I’m not sure if this was just our state/region. Many homes in my town are older (60s) and didn’t have fully or even partly finished basements anyway. This area is also notorious for seepage and even flooding, and basements were mostly for laundry, storage and such. Well, that seems to have all changed. LOTS of properties nearby have been flipped, with the basements fully finished and a bedroom or two downstairs along with maybe a bathroom.

So on all the websites now the square footage seems to have exploded on homes in our searches, with finished-basement ranch starter homes and split-levels. But I just don’t see my family utilizing the basement as primary living space. One home I thought I might like was advertised as 4300 but in fact it’s only 2700 not including the basement, and the basement isn’t even finished! It ends up being close to the size of our current house, so I’m having a hard time deciphering the listings that are within our range of price and preferences or even what a home is worth around here these days.

Ultimately I want to be able to find a two-story house that’s first and second levels are larger than my current two story home. But it’s super tedious now that so many homes are including massive basements in their square footage. Any easy ideas to filter for this or figure it out? Do some websites show square footage differently? I don’t want to have to keep asking about every single two story I find. Tia!

submitted by /u/april_eleven
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/15w4wal/any_easy_way_to_distinguish_above_grade_square/
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