I've appraised several houses in the last year where the listing will state a certain gross living area and mention the source as the "tax records". When I look at the NTREIS produced tax records, it states the same gla and lists its source as the NTREIS listing.

In at least two cases, the number has been significantly off, but even more, the correct number was available through a prior listing.

For example, I go see a property that is currently listed as 2,200 sf gla. I measure the house at 1,700 sf and realize there is a problem. When I research prior listings, I see the property sold 3 or 4 years prior and was listed at 1,700 sf. How does this correct number get bumped 500 sf to an incorrect number? How does the jump get made and how does the system let the tax records and the listing use this circular, supporting logic?

In the most recent case, the realtor accepted the homeowner's word that he had "building plans". What he didn't explain to the realtor is that he added the garage to the home to arrive at this new total. At least that is my assumption, because the math works out exactly.

In any event, the appraiser is once again the "bad guy".

I've mentioned this before, but I did a purchase were the house was 800 sf bigger than county records (I even went back out to re-measure) and at $200+ per sqft someone should get sued for that listing.

It's an "interesting" process coming in $160,000 over list price.

This is a frequent problem here in San Antonio. I don't flinch anymore when the numbers don't match up.

And "per owner" doesn't count when listing.

In the conversation with the realtor, he tried to go down the road that "I've got the builder plans, or I can get them".

Yeah? Well I measured the house and my measurements are all listed out in the appraisal. Feel free to double check my work.

In earlier appraisal when the same thing happened, it was a refi. Somehow the owner got screwed on their earlier purchase of the property. The lender called and informed me of my "mistake" and told me to correct it. I scanned all the documentation, including the old listings with the accurate living area listed. Somewhere between listing 2 and 3, the gla was incorrectly changed. My measurements accurately reflected the original values. I don't know how the mistake happened, but I could point to the listing where it did.

I'm sure the mistake was "inadvertent" in each case.