Question on Billing and Advertising

Billing Real Estate Agents: anyone have issues with billing? Example. Agent tells you home is 2600sqft, but iGuide shows 3800sqft billing. How do you present rates to agent? When advertising, and booking online appointments, how do you explain estimates? I have packages, and trying to make rates as close to what they would be, so there are no surprise fees, rate increase.

I go ahead and bill them for the measured sq ft. I think they sometimes guess and don’t know the actual size of the home. I’ve had this happen a couple of times and the realtor always gladly pays the higher price. They are typically glad to find out that the house is bigger! I always give them a copy of our pricing and packages 1st and tell them that they will be billed for what it measures.

Keep in mind that realtors only advertise above grade square footage in listings (at least here in Canada) anything below grade ie. basements are not included. With that said, we are shooting the basement, and Planitar is drafting that data which is charged by the sqrft. I explain this to the agents prior to shooting and have never had an issue with Billing when sqrft is greater than initially expected.

But can anyone explain where billing vs actual comes from? Agent booked as 2700sqft. Billing shows 3890. I looked at all the figures. And I would need to explain where the difference is. Will also need to rethink my package rates so agents arent ticked off with higher costs.

The agent is using the above grade area - which typically MLS uses - but Planitar bills you for everything including the basement.

Tom is correct. Finished vs Unfinished Area, is different. I make the realtor decide if we cover the unfinished areas or not. Typically if its a nice unfinished basement they have me go ahead and do it.

This is how I do it. I tell them up front that there is more than one way to compute sq ft. We use the ANSI standard that is used by Fannie Mae, the largest mortgage lender. This method is also used by iGuide. iGuide uses the phrases included and excluded. they charge for included areas and don’t charge for excluded areas. I figured out a cents per sq ft that I am comfortable charging. I created a chart that says from this sq ft to that sq ft costs this much so I can always see it at a glance. I quote the two tiers higher than the sq footage they give me. That way when I see what I’m actually charged I’m usually in the ballpark. If I’m high and they actually did know the sq footage I bring it down to what they should be charged. In any case I charge for the iguide included sq footage because that is the way I’m billed. So far no complaints.