Have your Listings Measured by an Appraiser
If anyone reading this post believes that the tax records are accurate, please raise your hand. Ok, I couldn't see how many, but I hope nobody did.
Using the tax records as basis for pricing you listings is a recipe for disaster. In Nashville, and in particular, Franklin and Brentwood, a 10 percent difference in the tax record and an actual appraisal measurement is very common. Higher or lower, either way, your seller is going to be disappointed.
Find a good appraiser, and pay them to measure your homes. I do it for every home that I have listed, and every one was larger than the tax record. It usualy allows me to market the property at a price that the sellers didn't think was possible. In the rare occurance when the measurement is lower than the tax record, I tell the seller that it's better to know now, than to find out that an appraisal was lower than the contract price because of the size of the house.
Why don't I measure the home myself? I'm not trained to measure homes as an appraiser does. I would like to stay out of court, and so far I have. It's a record i would like to keep.