ALPINE — Bill Conley thought he was buying a 9,800-square-foot dream home.
Instead, the home turned out to be nearly 1,800 square feet smaller than what the seller told him.
Now Conley — who paid $1.65 million in cash for the home last July — is suing his real estate agent, the previous homeowner and the seller's real estate agent for an unspecified amount, alleging that the seller fraudulently inflated the size of the home in order to reap a windfall.
"My wife and I are both extremely upset," Conley said. "The house appraises for $300,000 less than what we paid."
Because the sales transaction was a cash deal, Conley was not required to obtain an appraisal of the property, something he now wishes he had done.
An appraisal this year ordered by Conley found the home's actual square footage to be 8,034 square feet. An appraisal performed last year after the purchase was within 50 feet, he said. County records place the square footage even lower, at 7,581 square feet.
Scott Pettro, the home's previous owner, said he was told the home's size was nearly 10,000 square feet by Rob Clauson, a real estate agent with Highland-based Westfield Real Estate, who had listed the property in 2002.
"We honestly did not defraud anyone out of anything," Pettro said. "I'm not going to give (Conley) $300,000. I'm not going to give him a dime. Even if the appraisal had came back at 8,000 feet, we still would have asked for the same amount of money."
Yet Clauson denies ever telling Pettro the home was 10,000 square feet, maintaining his 2002 listing placed the home at 7,581 square feet, a number he obtained from county records.
"There's a lot of good real estate agents out there, but a lot of them just want to make money," Clauson said. "And the higher square footage you can get on a home, the more money you will sell your home for."
Derek Miller, director of the Utah Division of Real Estate, said there is a primary responsibility among real estate agents to tell the truth. Miller said agents will often provide disclaimers stating that the square footage is approximate.
"Frankly, the disclaimer only applies to an issue of whether an agent or an owner did not know what the exact square footage was," Miller said. "But you can't hide behind a disclaimer in order to cover up something that's a lie."
Miller added that in Conley's case, the square footage difference is significant — 22 percent more square footage than the home's actual size.
But Conley said he is not the only homeowner being duped. He alleges that Mark Wilkinson, a branch broker for Prudential Utah Real Estate in Alpine who represented the Pettros as their real estate agent, has overinflated the square footage of several other homes he has sold.
"I simply took a look at all of Mr. Wilkinson's MLS (Multiple Listing Service) listings and square footage number and then I compared that against what Utah County online records have for square footage," Conley said. "I've seen differences range anywhere from a low of 58 square feet to a high of 2,798 square feet."
Wilkinson said those differences can easily be explained.
"Most of them, the builder's plans were changed or there was additional square footage added during construction," Wilkinson said. "A lot of them are excavated garages. It's routinely different."
In February, Conley brought his dispute before the Utah Association of Realtors, which found no ethical violations against Wilkinson.
"In almost 25 years of real estate, I've never been sued. I've never gone to an ethics hearing," Wilkinson said. "I've never even had a mediation."
But Wilkinson may soon face another hearing. In addition to the lawsuit filed in January, Conley last week filed a complaint against Wilkinson with the Utah Division of Real Estate, requesting that Wilkinson's real estate license be suspended or revoked.
"We would be concerned if an agent intentionally misrepresented square footage one time," Miller said. "But if we see a pattern of it, then that increases the amount of concern we have."
Chris Kyler, chief executive officer and general legal counsel for the Utah Association of Realtors, said the homebuyer is the person with the most interest in checking the facts.
"This guy apparently was not a diligent buyer and is trying to put the blame on somebody else," Kyler said. "A diligent buyer would have had the property surveyed, measured, appraised and would have had a home inspector check the electrical outlets, plumbing and would have made sure the whole thing was up to code."
Yet for Conley, the missing square footage amounts to more than an honest mistake.
"It was a deliberate attempt on their (the seller and the seller's agent) part to overinflate the square footage of the home so as to extract more money for the home," Conley said. "From my point of view, I shouldn't have to catch them in their lie. I should be able to rely on information they presented as honest, true, correct and accurate."
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com