How to Create an ANSI Z765 Square Footage (GLA) Report for a Listing
Measure gross living area the right way. Scan the home, classify each space, and export a clean square-footage report that separates GLA from garage, basement, and unfinished areas.
vPlan AR Team
vPlan AR
Square footage sells homes — and it also gets agents into trouble. Quote the wrong number on a listing and you risk a re-list, a renegotiation, or a complaint. The ANSI Z765 standard exists to make the measurement consistent: it defines gross living area (GLA) as finished, above-grade living space, and it keeps garages, unfinished areas, and below-grade rooms reported separately.
vPlan AR produces an ANSI Z765-style square footage report from a scan of the home, so the number on your listing is one you can defend.
GLA vs. Total Square Footage
Gross living area is not the same as "everything under the roof." Finished, above-grade rooms count toward GLA. A finished basement is living space but is reported below-grade, separate from GLA. Garages, unfinished storage, and covered porches are excluded from GLA entirely.
Buyers, appraisers, and MLS rules all care about this distinction. A report that lumps a finished basement into GLA can overstate a home by hundreds of square feet — the kind of error that unravels a deal at appraisal.
Step 1 — Scan Every Level
Scan each floor of the home, including the basement if it's being measured. vPlan AR supports multi-level projects, and it knows which levels sit below grade from their elevation — so basement rooms are treated correctly by default.
Each room's area is computed from the scan, so you're not transcribing tape measurements into a calculator.
Step 2 — Classify Each Space
In the editor, set each room's Area Type: Living (counts as GLA), Below-grade finished, Garage, Unfinished, Covered/porch, or Other. New rooms default to Living, so you only reclassify the exceptions — tag the garage, the unfinished mechanical room, the covered patio.
This single control is what makes the report standards-aligned: the math follows your classification rather than guessing. Area classification and the report are a Pro and Business feature.
Step 3 — Export the Square Footage Report
Tap Export and choose Square Footage Report. The PDF leads with the headline GLA figure, then a full breakdown — GLA, below-grade finished, garage, unfinished, covered — followed by a per-room schedule grouped by category, the floor plan, and a note on the measurement method.
It's the artifact you can hand to an appraiser, attach to a listing file, or keep as your record of how the number was derived.
Why It Protects You on a Listing
When square footage is challenged, "I measured it to ANSI Z765 and here's the room-by-room report" is a far stronger position than a number copied from old tax records. The report shows exactly what counted as GLA and what didn't, with the plan to back it up.
Pair it with a branded marketing floor plan from the same scan, and one walkthrough produces both the document that protects you and the one that markets the home.