You’ve been searching online and found a few homes that meet your criteria of three bedrooms and two bathrooms. But as you read the listing descriptions that indicate one house is on 0.23 acres and another has a lot size of 8,730 square feet, you’re baffled by what these numbers actually represent.
Your digital assistant tells you that an acre is the same as 43,650 square feet, but you’re still perplexed as you compare listings and try to visualize yard size, RV space, or the proximity of adjacent properties. How big is an acre, really? What does a 0.20-acre lot mean when buying a house?
We’ve gathered insights from a top real estate agent and experienced land surveyor to bring into focus the concept of residential lot size and help answer the question — How big is an acre?
Step one: Talk to a few buyer’s agents!
A top local agent can find the home or lot you’re looking for. Tell us a little bit about your plans, and we’ll connect you with trusted, performance-proven buyer’s agents in your area. It takes only a few minutes, and it’s free.
How important is lot size?
Lot size is “in the top three criteria with purchasing a house,” says Mason George, an award-winning real estate agent in the metro-Atlanta area who is accredited as a buyer’s representative and land consultant. The number of bedrooms and architectural style are also significant, but George emphasizes the importance of lot size in determining the location and type of community for a potential homebuyer.
But it’s not easy to get a clear picture of the property’s size from an abstract term such as a quarter acre or 10,890 square feet.
“What I recommend is that you pick three different size lots and you walk through three different types to get a visual understanding of what you’re actually looking at,” advises George.