I live in a small coop. I know that owners in our building generously "round up" the size of their apts thereby making the price per square foot lower than it actually should be. If I were to list my apt in the future, do you think this would be a strike against me, ie showing a lower comp, or do I just "round up" too? I don't really like that practice and I know in NYC you need an architect to get true measurements, but it seems that with all the info available on a site like this, it will be hard to explain away.

be honest. It isnt hard to explain how brokers lie about everything - everyone knows it anyway. Or, just play the game and lie. caveat emptor should help you feel better about it.

start a trend of being honest. the floorplan will tell all assuming it has proper dimensions in there. in the end, the buyers usually know and setting up the listing for disappointment because the potential buyer 'thinks' its a bit larger, is not the best start to a transaction.

But what's a "true" measurement? Even if you settled on a method -- condo-style, appraiser-style, or whatever -- any three surveyors would come up with different numbers.

When you go to sell, don't list the square feet at all. Anybody walking in can tell whether it's small/average/big for the number of rooms, or otherwise gauge the feel of the place, and that'll be enough.

I just checked the co-op listings for 10021 and 10023. Fewer than half of them cite square feet.

jms8, to play it safe, you have to list similar to other apartments. some buyers feel better by paying less per stated sq foot. smart buyers will calculate their own sq footage and ignore the stated sq footage.