Perhaps your Omaha real estate agent has asked you to make a list of what you need in a house, and has specifically asked you to give him a figure for what type of square footage you will need. Or maybe you're flipping through the Mississauga listings in preparation for your move and have noticed that all of the houses have their size listed in terms of square footage. But what does square footage mean and how can you use it to determine the type of house you will need? This article should clear up some of the confusion.

Square footage is nothing more or less than a system of measuring the floor space within a house. Since the ceilings are all usually the same height unless you're looking at Toronto condos with cathedral ceilings, this effectively determines the size of the home. A foot is an imperial measurement of length which is equal to about .3 meters or 30.5cm. A square foot is a measurement of area, one foot by one foot. It is still used in the United States, Canada, and even some other countries, and equals .093 square meters.

So how does square footage tell you how large the house is? By outlining exactly how much you'll be able to put on the floor. After all, you won't be walking on the walls or putting your sofa on the ceiling, so square footage is the only measurement you really need to see if certain Mississauga condominiums will fit all your stuff or not. Of course, measuring all your stuff won't tell you how big of a house you need, because you'll be doing more in it than storing your stuff. You'll also be moving around.

The best way to determine the square footage you want or need in your new house is to compare it to something else. Say you're currently living in a Prince Edward Island cottage that has a total of 1,900 square feet. If you're starting a family and you need more room, you estimate upwards, perhaps to 2,500 square feet, and if your kids are grown and you're retiring to a condo, you might round downward to 1,500 square feet. Tour some houses that in your guess range and see if they're a good size. If not, revise your estimate. Most realtors only need a ballpark anyway (such as 2,000 to 2,500 square feet) not an exact number (like 2,412 square feet).

If you're going to be listing your house and you don't have a Toronto real estate agent to figure out how big it is for you, you can measure and do the math or you can try to find the plans or papers from when you bought it.