Whether you are a real estate investor or homeowner, anyone involved in real estate should find it helpful to understand some basics of land measurement, because a parcel’s size is typically described in terms of its area.
If the parcel is a perfect rectangle, the calculation is easy. Just calculate the area by multiplying length by width. For example, suppose you own an apartment complex sitting on a parcel that is 100’ wide and 200’ deep. What is the square footage of the parcel your income property sits on? For the answer, multiply 200 by 100. Your apartment sits on 20,000 square feet of land.
If the land is anything but a perfect rectangle, however, it would require some geometry, and in this case, to come up with an accurate measurement, you might want to consider the services of a professional. The same would be true if you are trying to subdivide a larger piece. Measuring the land is not really the job for a real estate investor, so you had better call in the professionals.
Land is typically described in terms of acres or square feet. You might have noticed that a plat map or tax assessor’s tax roll might refer to one or the other (not mentioning how real estate professionals show a parcel’s size on their marketing package), where land area is shown either as acres or square footage, not both. So, it will help you to know how to convert between square footage and acres.
One acre equals 43,560 square feet and therefore makes the conversion from acres to square feet straightforward. You multiply the acres by 43,560 square feet (the area of an acre). For example, suppose you have an interest in a commercial building sitting on 1.25 acres and want to know what the area of the land is in square footage. You would multiply 1.25 by 43,560 and discover the land to be 54,450 square feet.
There are two ways to you can convert square feet to acres. You can divide the square footage of the land by 43,560, or multiply the acres by .000023. Either method will convert square footage to acres; the choice is yours.
Land measurement is no secret real estate investing tip. Still, if you are a real estate investor that knew little about land measurement, or simply had forgotten, the basic information covered hopefully will contribute in some small way to your real estate investment success.
