Ron, thank you for making the point about the square footage disclaimer. As far as the Redfin/CLAW c

Since August, I ve been posting up to five times a week on this blog about real estate trends in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Westwood.  Redfin gives us bloggers leeway in what to blog about, but when we re writing about specific properties, it asks us to include several details that readers always want to know about.  Among them:  square footage and lot size .
I ve been handicapped in this endeavor, because the Combined english shortface tumblers in united kingdom L.A./Westside Multiple Listing Service, a.k.a. CLAW MLS, which covers L.A. from downtown to the ocean, almost never includes square footage or lot size in its online listings.  This is in contrast to other MLSs, such as CRISnet and SoCal MLS, which serve the Valley and Long Beach, which include them in every listing, from what I can see. Click here for an example of what I mean CLAW listings english shortface tumblers in united kingdom almost always have dashes where the square footage and lot size should be.
To get square footage and lot size, I ve relied on the great site Property Shark , which gives you everything you d ever want to know about a property.  But Property Shark includes only data from the last sale, so if the place has been remodeled, that square footage english shortface tumblers in united kingdom won t show up.  Also, it s time-consuming to chase information that should me at my and your fingertips.
I ve wondered all along why CLAW doesn t include this information.  In fact, I blogged about it  when I first started.  I asked a local agent about it recently. I won t mention the name, since the agent didn t give me permission to quote what was said.  The agent said that CLAW doesn t require english shortface tumblers in united kingdom square footage, and that that was fine with many agents who feel that listing square footage would work to their disadvantage.
Unfortunately, my voicemails, phone calls, e-mails and, finally, a visit this week to CLAW s Robertson Boulevard offices yielded no response.  So I still can only speculate as to what its reasoning is.
Maybe this post won t make any difference to the way CLAW does business.  But if you ve noticed and/or been frustrated by this omission, voice your opinion, either to CLAW directly or on this blog.  Agents can urge CLAW to change its policy and include the information in their personal listings.
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Thanks very much for bringing this up, Cindy. The fact that they don t disclose english shortface tumblers in united kingdom square footage in the listings is one reason that I ve simply stopped even looking at listings in the City. It s just another deceptive sales practice from an organization that I ve come to have little respect for.
AS a longtime Realtor member, I can tell you straight up. Lawsuits. People do take advantage of anything they can. Appraisers measure outside diameter to get the square footage. Now builders may just use the living area or inside dimensions, but I doubt it unless the permit cost is based on living area. Some attics and basements, well don t count as that would cost more on permits, water fees, etc.. so why confuse the public when all we get for telling the truth is problems from a litigious society.
Just as an FYI, many real estate brokerages forbid their agents from posting interior or lot square footage from the fear that they will be sued for misleading information. It has happened in the state of California. Either way, it s annoying when it s not in the listing,,,,
Sorry, Tom and Colin, I just don t buy that argument. All you need is a disclaimer that says Square footage is approximate; buyer is responsible for determining actual square footage or something like that. That s what KB Home does; that s what other MLSs must do, because english shortface tumblers in united kingdom they don t seem to have a problem including that information. When you buy a house, you ll get an appraisal, which will list actual square footage; at that point you can back out of the deal if it s a problem.
To tom: that is why CLAW has categories by which to classify what the source of the square footage is. I.E. OW for owner s estimate, AS for assessor VN for vendor enhanced, etc. CLAW is very good about protecting it s members from lawsuits. It s agents that make mistakes, or fail to prevent their own clients from misleading buyers.
english shortface tumblers in united kingdom Cindy, if you re really so angered by what you feel is a deceptive practice, english shortface tumblers in united kingdom and you re not getting any answers through normal journalistic avenues, why not ask one of Redfin s agents who are members of CLAW to address the issue?
Ron, thank you for making the point about the square footage disclaimer. As far as the Redfin/CLAW connection, I don t know anything about that. I m sure Redfin agents will see this, and if they feel the same way, they can take it up with CLAW.
My purpose in putting this out there was to try to persuade CLAW to rethink its policy. If enough english shortface tumblers in united kingdom member agents and consumers agree with me that it needs to change, maybe it will, and everyone english shortface tumblers in united kingdom will benefit.
I think CLAW is just hurting itself with this practice. Anyone who is surfing the web to look at houses can easily jump over to zillow or propertyshark or even the LA County assessor s website to look at sq. footage if they want the information.
Claw RE agent here. I find that a majority of the listings have sq ftg. info posted in the areas I track. Sometimes if there has been some remodeling and the sq ftg isn t known, then the agent won t post it. Sometimes if the place is really small the agent won t post the sq ftg. But other than that I find that most listings will have the information posted. Is it specific regions you find this happening in Cindy?
Scott, if you go to Redfin.com and punch in 90024 in the Search field, which is Westwood s ZIP code, the area you cover, you ll see that the square english shortface tumblers in united kingdom footage field on homes for sale is blank. ( Sold properties do include the square footage.) So I don t know how you can say the majority of listings include square footage, because, in my experience in doing this every day for seven months, almost none do. Redfin takes its information directly from the local MLS, so if square footage isn t listed, it isn t listed on Redfin either. Maybe you could ask CLAW folks about this and get back to us.
I apologize but I cant speak for how Redfin pulls the data from the MLS, but I can speak for the information I get directly from the CLAW MLS. There are 19 listing active english shortface tumblers in united kingdom in 90024 according to CLAW MLS. 18 out of the 19 have all the square footages posted. Only 10405 Holman Avenue english shortface tumblers in united kingdom doesn t have the sq ftg. posted for either lot size or house size.
Scott, it may be true that the square footage and lot size is included english shortface tumblers in united kingdom in the data that agents see, but on Redfin, which gets its information from the MLSs, it does not show up. Same is true on realtor.com. So if you know of a consumer-accessible site that provides square footage and lot size on CLAW listings, please post the link.
Well I just wanted english shortface tumblers in united kingdom to clear up that CLAW/agents do post the information and it is available. I do not know why when Redfin pulls its data feed from CLAW that the sq ft information is not given. May have something to do with policy between the two sites. Complete information is available through agents and I do not know of any consumer english shortface tumblers in united kingdom accessible sites that has complete info. Hope that helps.
This is yet another way realtors fail to provide good service for their clients. As Scott McIntosh seems to imply, realtors have access to square footage, whereas buyers do not. Why? So that realtors can pretend they add value. Without square footage, buyers can t do comps without undue effort. It s in realtors interest not to have buyers be clueless and in the dark so that they can increase english shortface tumblers in united kingdom their fees.
Scott, english shortface tumblers in united kingdom we KNOW agents have this information. The point of my post is that CLAW is failing to share this information with consumers. Other MLSs, like SoCal and Crisnet, DO share this information. english shortface tumblers in united kingdom The world has changed: People like to shop online for homes. It doesn t help anyone to withhold information that consumers need and deserve to know. CLAW would serve buyers and sellers better if it simply provided all relevant information about a property, just like other MLSs do.
Cindy, I definitely don t disagree with you that times are a changing. I m not sure why they choose not to include english shortface tumblers in united kingdom square footage as part of the public data feed. I wouldn t see a problem with including it. Hopefully for the communities’ sake, things will change regarding that. As a realtor, I believe it’s the intangibles, knowledge and service that provide value. Not with the coveting of public information. I freely english shortface tumblers in united kingdom distribute information all the time at my open houses, on my doorknocking material and my blog.
Scott, I m glad you agree in sharing as much information as possible. Maybe you could help by impressing upon the folks at CLAW how important this is to people, and maybe the powers that be will revise this policy.
Abe Chang, Erin Eckert and Erik Van Joosten are agents on CLAW roster who are listed as working from the Redfin office. I cant think of a better way to institute thoughtful change like you re provoking than by working from within.
I ve repeatedly been a buyer in West Los Angeles. While most agents do not list the square footage in the MLS, they almost always will tell you face to face however it is incredibly unreliable and never matches what the appraiser comes up with during the inspection period. I ve seen it off by 20%.
I wanted english shortface tumblers in united kingdom to take this opportunity english shortface tumblers in united kingdom to chime in as a virtual tour (interactive english shortface tumblers in united kingdom floor plan media) provider. This withholding of square footage and other data is a huge inconvenience for us and all users associated. I too have tried to think of reasons why CLAW would withhold this valuable information and I can t find a reason myself. We work with many MLS systems across the country, and this is the only one that seems to make our every day lives difficult. I hope this blog posting makes a difference and CLAW conforms to the standards across the countr