Guide
Room Dimensions for an MLS Listing
How to measure and list room dimensions for the MLS: which way to measure, rounding, irregular rooms, and disclaimers.
Updated · FloorFigures
Short answer
Measure each room inside, wall face to wall face, at its longest and widest points, and list it as length × width to the nearest inch, or rounded to the nearest foot if your MLS asks. Note irregular shapes, keep the room's level, and don't add room sizes to get the home's total: rooms are measured inside the walls, the total outside. Rules on format and rounding vary by MLS, so check yours.
Room dimensions are what buyers use to picture a house: will the bed fit, is the dining room big enough for the table. They're also easy to get subtly wrong. ANSI Z765, the national square footage standard for houses, explicitly doesn't cover room dimensions, so the practices below are common ones, and your MLS's own rules come first.
How are room dimensions measured?
- Inside the room, from one finished wall face to the opposite one. A laser measure wall to wall, or a tape held just above the baseboard.
- At the longest and widest points of the main space. In a plain rectangle that's simply the two wall-to-wall distances.
- Without closets, alcoves and bay windows, as is common practice. If you include them, do it for every room and say so.
- To the nearest inch, then rounded only as your MLS requires.
This differs from how a house's total square footage is measured: that's taken from the outside of the exterior walls. See how to measure a house for the total.
How to write them
| Format | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Feet and inches | 14'2" × 12'0" | The most precise; shows you measured |
| Whole feet | 14 × 12 | Round to the nearest foot, not up |
| Metric | 4.32 × 3.66 m | 14'2" is 4.32 m and 12'0" is 3.66 m |
How dimensions are entered differs from one MLS to another, including the format and whether to round to whole feet. Follow the field labels and your MLS's data rules.
Does rounding matter?
It does when it all goes one way. A bedroom that measures 11'7" × 13'5":
| Listed as | Area | Versus measured |
|---|---|---|
| 11'7" × 13'5" (measured) | 155.4 sq ft | |
| 12 × 13 (nearest foot) | 156 sq ft | +0.4% |
| 12 × 14 (both rounded up) | 168 sq ft | +8.1% |
| 11 × 13 (both rounded down) | 143 sq ft | −8.0% |
Rounding to the nearest foot is close to neutral. Rounding every dimension up makes every room look about 8% bigger than it is, which buyers with a tape measure will notice.
Irregular rooms
The longest × widest convention works for rectangles. For other shapes it overstates the floor, so add a note. Take an L-shaped living room that is 20' × 16' overall, with an 8' × 6' corner taken out by a closet:
| Calculation | Area | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall dimensions | 20 × 16 | 320 sq ft |
| Less the notch | 8 × 6 | −48 sq ft |
| Actual floor area | 272 sq ft |
Common ways to handle shapes like this:
- L-shaped rooms: list the overall dimensions and say "L-shaped" in the room description or remarks, or list the main rectangle and mention the extension.
- Bay windows and alcoves: measure to the main wall and mention the bay.
- Angled walls: measure the longest and widest points and note the angled wall.
- Open plans: split the space where the use changes (living, dining, kitchen) and say the rooms are open to each other.
- Sloped ceilings: floor dimensions don't change, but if part of the room is too low to stand in, say so.
For the area of odd shapes, see L-shaped and irregular rooms.
Which rooms should you list?
That depends on your MLS's room fields. They commonly cover the main rooms (living, family, dining, kitchen, bedrooms, office or den, bonus room) with a level for each. Whether to include bathrooms, laundry, mudrooms or storage varies. Two habits keep a listing consistent:
- Put every room on the right level. A bedroom in a finished basement belongs on the lower level, and it isn't part of the above-grade living area that appraisers report. See does a basement count.
- Make the room list match the bedroom count and the description, so buyers aren't left guessing which room is which.
Room sizes and total square footage
Rooms are measured inside the walls and the total outside, and halls, closets, baths and the walls themselves aren't in the room list. So the rooms always add up to less than the total. A 40' × 30' ranch house, 1,200 sq ft measured outside:
| Room | Dimensions | Area |
|---|---|---|
| Living room | 16 × 14 | 224 sq ft |
| Kitchen | 12 × 12 | 144 sq ft |
| Dining room | 12 × 10 | 120 sq ft |
| Primary bedroom | 13 × 12 | 156 sq ft |
| Bedroom 2 | 11 × 10 | 110 sq ft |
| Bedroom 3 | 11 × 10 | 110 sq ft |
| Listed rooms | 864 sq ft | |
| Baths, hall, closets, laundry and walls | 336 sq ft | |
| House, measured outside | 40 × 30 | 1,200 sq ft |
Here the listed rooms are 72% of the total, and nothing is wrong. Two consequences: never add room sizes to produce a total, and if a buyer adds them up and asks why, the answer is the walls, halls and closets. The total should come from an outside measurement; see who is responsible for square footage for why that figure deserves care.
Disclaimers
A short note next to the room list sets expectations and documents your method, for example:
Room dimensions are approximate, measured wall to wall at the longest and widest points to the nearest inch, excluding closets. Buyer to verify.
A disclaimer isn't a substitute for measuring carefully. In Furla v. Jon Douglas Co., a California court held that a grossly wrong "approximation" of size can be an actionable misrepresentation. Your MLS may also have its own wording or requirements.
Getting room sizes from a floor plan in FloorFigures
FloorFigures is free and runs in your browser. Open the floor plan, press A to find every room (each is traced to the wall faces, with door openings bridged), and read each room's dimensions and area. On PDFs, rooms are named from the plan's own labels. The room schedule goes into the PDF report and a CSV, ready to copy into the MLS, and the same project gives you the home's total with ANSI Z765-style rules.
Questions
- How do you measure room dimensions for a listing?
- Measure inside the room, wall face to wall face, at the longest and widest points, and record it as length × width to the nearest inch (for example 14'2" × 12'0"), then round only if your MLS asks for whole feet. Note the level the room is on, and say in the remarks if the room is L-shaped or irregular. MLS rules on format and rounding vary, so check yours.
- Do you include closets in room dimensions?
- Commonly not: room dimensions are usually taken wall to wall in the main part of the room, leaving out closets, alcoves and bay windows. What matters most is consistency, so measure every room the same way and say how you measured. If your MLS has a rule, it takes precedence.
- How do you list the dimensions of an L-shaped room?
- A common approach is to list the longest and widest overall dimensions and note that the room is L-shaped, because the overall dimensions overstate the floor area. A room that is 20' × 16' overall with an 8' × 6' notch is 272 sq ft, not 320. Some agents list the main rectangle instead and mention the extension. Either way, describe the shape so buyers don't multiply the numbers.
- Should room dimensions be rounded?
- Measure to the nearest inch and, if your MLS wants whole feet, round each dimension to the nearest foot rather than up. Rounding 11'7" × 13'5" to 12 × 13 changes the area by under 1 sq ft, while rounding both up to 12 × 14 adds about 8%.
- Why don't the room sizes add up to the square footage?
- Room dimensions are measured inside the walls and usually leave out halls, closets, bathrooms, stairs and the walls themselves, while a home's total square footage is measured around the outside of the walls. The listed rooms will always add up to less than the total. Don't add room sizes together to get, or check, the total.