Institute of Housing Technologies
Institute of Housing Technologies
Welcome to the world of residential square footage.
In April 2022, Fannie Mae mandated the use of the ANSI measurement standard for all interior inspection appraisal reports. This is history in the making and a giant leap forward for consumer protection. It really is time for one language of real estate. With the advent of LIDAR technology, a single language of real estate is more important than ever. Square footage remains the currency of real estate.
This is the first step in bringing together the entire real estate industry and changing the over 100 different names for finished living area into one language of real estate. It’s time for the real estate industry to join the rest of the standardized world.
ANSI is “The Name” most people know when it comes to measuring square footage. It is known world-wide and offers consumers a level of trust to ensure that the same home purchased in Nashville, New York, or San Francisco will all be measured by the same method. Since 2003, Hamp Thomas has been promoting the adoption of one nationally mandated measurement standard. Whether it's ANSI, the American Measurement Standard, or the Canadian Standard, it's time for the real estate industry to join together in promoting consumer protection with one language of square footage and not 100 different names for finished square footage.
Home Measurement Publications
Here you will find books Hamp has authored and links to the online classes he teaches that delve into the topics of square footage, public records, big data, and the world of residential square footage. All valuations lead back to one number, square footage.
Measuring Square Footage with ANSI 2021: Home Measurement Textbook
$34.95
The "how-to" book for calculating residential square footage in single-family homes. Created for appraisers and agents, and based on the latest edition of the ANSI measurement standard. Covers all measurement basics, dormers, stairs, upper levels, basements, bay windows, and all measurements for real estate professionals. No office should be without a copy of this guideline. Estimating gross living area based on the most well-known standard in the world today. Created for agents, appraisers, trainees, or anyone who wants to understand the art of home measurement, and understanding what makes finished living area or GLA.Quantity
The (New) American Measurement Standard
$35.00
A standard for real estate agents, appraisers, assessors, insurance providers, builders, and architects. It's time for one language of square footage. Standardization will NEVER work without everyone using the same method. Take a look for yourself... New for 2024 with measuring stairs on both floors, rules for sloped ceilings, garages and GLA, and a 6.8" ceiling height rule. 2025 Update in process...Quantity
The ANSI Standard - Frequently Asked Questions
$19.95
Over 700 questions from students across the country on ANSI and measuring residential square footage. For anyone who measures real estate, and who must decide between finished and unfinished living areas, this is a must read. Even if you use LIDAR technology you still need to understand the basic of what creates finished living areas.Quantity
Home Measurement Specialist Vinyl Decal (for car, hats, etc.
$6.00
Peel and stick vinyl patch measuring 3 x 4.
$6.00 each (includes shipping) Image coming soon.QuantityOnline Continuing Education Courses for Real Estate Appraisers and Agents
Courses authored by Hamp Thomas and offered exclusively through GreenMountainLearning and AppraisereLearning.
Measuring Square Footage with ANSI 2021
4 Hour Class Non-CE EditionPart (1 of 2) of the HMS Certification, an in depth examination of measuring finished living area with the ANSI measurement standard. Perfect for agents, appraisers, property data collectors, or anyone who wants to learn the art of measuring square footage. The all new HMS certification requires the 4 hour ANSI course and the five-hour learning homr Measurement Video class. TWo classes and a final exam and you're an HMS!
Learning Home Measurement
Video Series5 Hour Appraiser CE
Learn the methods and procedures for measuring and calculating square footage in detached single-family dwellings, based upon the ANSI Guidelines.
Learning Home Measurement Video Series
5 Hour Agent CE
Part (2 of 2) of the All New HMS Certification program. The new HMS requires two classes, ANSI 4-hours and the 5 hour All-Video course Learning Home Measurement (the only full video class on measuring. Walk the measuremnt of many homes with above and below grade calculations. Completition of those two classes, plus the final exam that isavailable at www.homemeasurementspecialist.com will earn you the HMS Certificatio. It will make you stand out from the competition. Learn the methods and procedures for measuring and calculating square footage in detached single-family dwellings, based upon the ANSI Guidelines. Coming Soon - LiDAR and its impact on the world of home measurement. ANSI & LiDAR.
Big Data Big Trouble
5 Hour Agent CE
Square Footage, Public Records & Big Data Myths. Anyone that works in real estate shoul take this class. Learn about automated valuations and the data big data relies on. BIgger is NOt Better!
Public Records, Square Footage & the Real Estate Information Crisis
7 Hour Appraiser CE
Discover the importance of the MLS and Public Records on the future of the entire real estate industry.
ANSI, Home Measurement & the Power of Price-Per-Square-Foot
7 Hour Appraiser CE
Created Exclusively for Residential Appraisers
based upon Square Footage-Method for Calculating ANSI.
Bias & Comparable Sales - 2 hour Non-CE Course
Created to help real estate agents understand the knowledge available in the comparable sales selection by appraisers. Bias can be easily seen if you know what to look for.
Meet Hamp Thomas
AKA "Mr. ANSI"
Hamp Thomas began his appraisal career after working for ten years as a Realtor®. Hamp has promoted the establishment of a mandatory national measurement standard since 2003, believing all real estate professionals must use the same “language” to create and communicate residential square footage. He is the author of multiple publications and CE courses that focus on bringing standardization to the real estate industry to help promote consumer protection and put quality in the data that drives Big Data and AI in the future.
Hamp teaches numerous appraisal and real estate continuing education classes with Appraiser and Agent eLearning and is a licensed instructor in over thirty states. He is a member of the National Association of Appraisers (MNAA) and NCPAC (North Carolina Professional Appraiser’s Coalition). Specialties: Certified Residential Appraiser. Residential square footage expert, who has researched public records, MLS, AVM’s, the appraisal industry and big banking for the last twenty years. Certified Residential Appraiser, CDEI, MNAA, ABR, GRI, PSA, Realtor®. Moore County, NC. Favorite life lesson - if money can fix it - it ain't broke.
In a Zillow world where real estate values are based on a price-per-square-foot formula, using the square footage details from county tax records. Those tax records are created with zero interior inspections and are inaccurate about 95% of the time. Accurate square footage details are not their goal and not required for their purposes.
The real estate system has been lost. It was created without any clear path for the future and consumers will now pay the price to fix it. Without an industrywide measurement standard, the chances of square footage errors in public records are guaranteed.
Every component of a sf home is measured by a national or international measurement standard. But, once they are combined there is no one standard required by all those who use that data.
It’s time for the real estate industry to join the rest of the standardized world and for agents, appraisers, assessors, and everyone who uses square footage top use the same method and practices, and all of us use the same categories for reporting square footage that allow for fair comparisons and consumer protection.
Consumers deserve to know the fair size of their single, largest, lifetime investments...
The ANSI 2021 update started in early 2020 and was released in April 2021. The seven changes are minimal at best. Appraisers and agents wrote in asking ANSI about one specific topic where they hoped for a simplification of a measurement in rooms with sloped ceilings. But, the new sketch appears to be even more complicated and leaves this measurement with the same degree (or perhaps even more) of problems that it had before.
What we hoped to replace with one simple line has been replaced by an expanded text that leaves this measurement even more debatable. Two people can measure it in different ways and both claim adherence to ANSI. That defeats the purpose of a standard.
That’s too complex for something that could be easily resolved with one simple Yes or No statement. Either Yes add for the exterior walls, or “NO’ do not add for the width of exterior walls. Something that seems very simple to those who actually take the measurements is being written by home builders who perhaps do not understand the practicality of the measurement. That brings us to the heart of the problem. Many people have talked about this over the years but don’t want to speak it out loud since they have no other measurement “standard” options. Well, now they have a choice, we can say the things out loud that used to be exclusively spoken behind closed doors.
Why so many different names in MLS and tax records? Who comes up with these names?
MLS committee members or local tax employees who want to make their association appear better or smarter than all the others, come up with unique variations on the words finished sqft. They want to be ahead of all others and all this information is controlled locally. The National Association of Realtors has no mandatory reporting guidelines for MLS and sqft.
