How to find rent per square foot

Figure out exactly how much you’re paying per square foot whether looking to buy or rent by simply inputting the listed square footage and the price. The PropertyNest calculator will automatically determine how much your unit costs by square foot.

Table of Contents Show

How to Calculate the Square Footage of Your Home
Area Formulas
Converting Square Inches into Square Feet
Why Is the Actual Square Footage Different From What Is Advertised?
Don’t Focus on the Actual Number of the Square Footage
Other Calculators

Cost per square foot is a common way real estate professionals assess and compare housing values. This is because one two-bedroom apartment may not be the same size as another two-bedroom apartment. They might be listed at the same price but their price per square foot could be very different, which means anything from appliances, fixtures, and features.

This means it’s also a useful tool for sellers and buyers who are in the market to compare their listing to others. Sellers can use a price per square foot approach to strategically list their property, and buyers can use this information to see if their favorite listings are a great value.

Use this calculator to also figure out how much any home renovation project will cost you per square foot. This can be helpful in figuring out how much any contractor is quoting you by a measurable unit.

Industry professionals frequently use this measurement to price out projects. It’s especially utilized with renovation projects that involve flooring, ceiling, walls. This includes but is not limited to replacement/repair of floors, sanding, refinishing, skim coating of walls, drywall replacement, wall trim/bead boards, and painting.

Figuring out cost per square foot could also be instrumental with your landscaping projects. If you plan on resodding, planting, or building a garden from scratch, this calculator can help you figure how much it will cost you per square foot.

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How to Calculate the Square Footage of Your Home

Calculating the area of your living space may require you to recall some geometry from middle school. First, you’ll need either a measuring tape or a laser distance meter or measurer. There are some measuring smartphone apps but they might be slightly difficult to navigate accurately. You’ll also need a pad of paper to record your measurements.

Simply measure wall to wall, on each side and record your measurements. If your removes are perfectly square or rectangular, you’re in luck. You’ll be able to easily figure out the area simply by multiplying the length x width.

However, measuring a room isn’t always that straightforward. Oftentimes, rooms will have nooks and odd cutout areas. You can take two approaches.

One is if the room’s irregularities are not too dramatic, you can just estimate the square footage but simply multiplying length by width by completely ignoring the irregularities. The second is to accurately calculate the area including the irregularities.

There are also two approaches to this. You can calculate clean a rectangle or square within the room, and calculate the area of separate spaces jutting out from this rectangle or square. For example, if you have a room that looks pretty much rectangular except for dormers extending outside of the rectangle, first measure and calculate the area of the rectangle, then measure the area of the dormers separately and simply add them to the area of the rectangle. Likewise, you can use subtraction by inverting the first method. Simply calculate a larger rectangle or square than the room, and subtract the voided areas from the total area.

Area Formulas

Square/rectangle: l x w
Triangle: h (perpendicular length) x w / 2
Trapezoid: b1 + b2 / 2 x h

Converting Square Inches into Square Feet

Knowing how to convert square inches into square feet is another important skill for calculating the price per square foot.

Measuring purely by inches can mean more accurate measurements. If a room’s length and width are 120 inches and 132 inches (10 feet and 11 feet), the result is 15,840 square inches.

Because we know a square foot is equal to 144 square inches, we only need to divide 15,840 by 144, which brings us to 110 square feet.

If you wish to calculate by square feet, you can multiply the feet separately from any leftover inches, and then convert the inches to feet.

For example if your room is 11 ’10” x 12’ 8”, multiply 11x12=132 sq. ft. Now, multiply 10x8=80 sq. inches. Divide 80 by 144, which gives you 0.556. You can estimate your square footage to be 132.6 square feet.

Why Is the Actual Square Footage Different From What Is Advertised?

Sometimes, the listed square footage is close to the true livable space. However, when listing agents, developers, and sellers list the square footage, it may be different from the actual habitable square footage. Often, architectural specs are used which include the square footage occupied by walls, columns, separators, fixtures, and sometimes even shared common spaces.

So, while the gross square footage is possibly close to what’s advertised, the net square footage can sometimes be off by a lot.

Other times, it’s an attempt to make the space of the listing seem a lot bigger than it actually is. And, it’s easy to get away with because buyers don’t often show up with a measuring tape and take the time to measure every single space, as it is very time-consuming.

Don’t Focus on the Actual Number of the Square Footage

Sometimes, we can be hung up on the fact that a unit was listed at 1,100 square feet but in fact, it may be closer to 900. It’s best not to fret so much about the details, but think about how the space feels to you. Can you move around comfortably? Does the listing have enough storage space for your possessions?

If you become focused on the actual number, you may never find the home you’re dreaming of. Using the square footage listed won’t necessarily deflate the price per square foot, as most listings might have this same type of architectural square footage listed.