Square Footage dispute

by Irfan
(Rockville, MD, USA)

We selected semi-custom builder(Classic Homes) for our house. Classic Homes already had many house plans to choose from. We chose the one with two story family room and two story foyer. We thought that we are getting a 4000 square feet home but after we applied for the permit and paid for the engineering plans, I found out that builder is counting two story open spaces twice which meant I was getting 3400 square feet home. I further researched and did some more calculations and found out that, perhaps I was only getting a 3000 square feet home. What is Bad is that I was out $10,000 as I had already paid for site planning and paid for permits. Good thing is that I caught this problem before I demolished my existing house.

Make sure to ask how the square footage is calculated.

I had such a bad experience that I almost quit trying to build my own house.