We'll be putting our house on the market in about 6 months so I've started looking at recent sales trends in the neighborhood to get an idea of what ours might sell for. In doing so, I've come across a bit of a weird problem...

Most real estate sites that one might search (Redfin, Zillow, HAR...) rely on data provided by the Central Appraisal District in terms of square footage and number of bedrooms/bathrooms. Turns out our CAD has our house listed as a 4/2 when it's really a 5/3.5 (there have been no modifications since the original build) So any valuations they might put against our house are probably going to be too low. We had a "competitive market analysis" done for us recently and all of the comps it pulled were 4/2's based on the erroneous CAD data.

There were about a dozen houses in our neighborhood (master planned community) built by the same builder with this same floor plan over a 2-3 year period back in the early 90s. The CAD has them listed as anywhere between a 4/2 and a 5/3.5 for the exact same house, with no apparent reason for the differences. The houses listed as 5/3.5 seem to be valued about $30k higher than ours listed as a 4/2 by both the CAD and the various real estate websites.

So my question -- is there anything I could or should do about correcting this data prior to getting our house on the market? Hesitant to go directly to the CAD and give them a reason to increase my tax bill for 2016. Once we put it on the market, would an MLS listing that accurately reflected our house as a 5/3.5 basically override the CAD data that all these websites are currently relying on?

CAD does not affect your home sale, so don't worry about being valued at what they show.

Zillow is trash, in Texas we are a non-disclosure state so Zillow's data is unreliable and likely way off reality.

The reason CAD probably has it wrong is the builder may have originally submitted plans to build the 4bd rm but ended up changing plans. Don't tell CAD or they will gladly increase your taxes lol

^ all of this.

So the CMA supplied by a realtor that relied on CAD data indicating a 4/2 is basically worthless, correct?

I'm not a realtor, but I've sold two houses and bought three. It would be a huge red flag to me if a realtor used CAD comps for the CMA instead of recently sold comps from the MLS!

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I'm not a realtor, but I've sold two houses and bought three. It would be a huge red flag to me if a realtor used CAD comps for the CMA instead of recently sold comps from the MLS!

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sorry for any confusion -- the comps were from the MLS, but it used the 4/2 data from the CAD on my house to help pick the comps, therefore picked a bunch of 4/2 MLS comps, not 5/3.5 comps.

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I'm not a realtor, but I've sold two houses and bought three. It would be a huge red flag to me if a realtor used CAD comps for the CMA instead of recently sold comps from the MLS!

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sorry for any confusion -- the comps were from the MLS, but it used the 4/2 data from the CAD on my house to help pick the comps, therefore picked a bunch of 4/2 MLS comps, not 5/3.5 comps.

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That makes more sense. Having just done a refi and had the appraiser at my house, when you get an offer and it's time to do the appraisal, the lender is probably going to want at least one comp with five bedrooms (not sure about the bathroom). I have what's technically a two bedroom (third bedroom doesn't have a closet); the appraiser who came out last week said his report had to include at least one more two bedroom (not sure about bathrooms, since everything had two). So, my point is, I would expect any potential realtor in your case to at least be familiar with any five bedroom comps in case this becomes an issue down the road.

Don't worry about CAD.

If you know the exact square footage of your house, let your Realtor or Realtors you are interviewing know so they can properly estimate.

The appraiser will measure your house and report it accurately.

Don't tell CAD anything.

You need to have the house measured before listing to have the correct square footage for pricing. Otherwise you're leaving money on the table.

Is there a square footage difference in the CAD and what you think it is? Did the agent bracket the square footage or just use comparable beds/baths?

Square footage is actually accurate, it's just the bed/bath description that is inaccurate.

I "claimed" my house on Zillow and edited the description from 4/2 to 5/3.5 and it immediately increased it's estimated value by $30k. I know everyone says their estimates are junk, so not putting much faith in the actual number, other than its probably confirmation that the Market Analysis was too low by using 4/2 comps.

Quit messing with Zillow. Don't tell CAD anything. Your agent gets comps from MLS only. The agent can refer to CAD if your Sq Ft is right. Comps are done with homes on the MLS only...for sale, sold homes, etc. Your agent will compare your home with other homes that are 5/3.5 within the MLS while using the accurate square footage from CAD.

CAD is your tax value...keep that value low.