Real Estate API Questions

Where can I find building construction, roof, and square footage data?

Quick Answer

Building structural characteristics — including normalized square footage, year built, stories, foundation type, roof type, wall type, and room counts — are published in county assessor records. Realie unifies these fields into a standardized property schema.

Summary

Evaluating building physical traits across multiple counties requires reconciling different coded alphabets (e.g., roof material vs roof shape, garage codes, and foundation types). Realie normalizes raw county building attributes into clean fields (realieSquareFootage, stories, roofType, wallType, foundationType), making structural property data instantly queryable for underwriting, valuation, and insurance workflows.

Normalized square footage (`realieSquareFootage`)

Counties report building dimensions differently — some list gross area, others living area, and others heated square footage. Realie calculates `realieSquareFootage` as the primary normalized interior living space metric across all jurisdictions.

Structural attributes: roof, foundation, and wall materials

Physical attributes such as roof material (asphalt tile, metal, slate), roof style (gable, hip), foundation type (slab, crawlspace, basement), and exterior wall type are standardized to assist in risk modeling and property valuation.

Frequently asked questions

Which square footage field should I use for calculations?
Use `realieSquareFootage` — it represents the cleaned and normalized living area metric across all counties.
Are bedroom and bathroom counts included?
Yes. `totalBedrooms` and `totalBathrooms` (including half-bath decimals like 2.5) are provided for residential properties.