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.