How to find comparable properties sold

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What Are Real Estate Comps?
How to Find Comps
Comp Considerations
Some Caveats to Keep in Mind

Thanks to the internet, you have access to a lot more information than you used to when it comes to your local housing market. And while it’s still always a good idea to work with a professional real estate agent when selling or buying a home, there’s no harm in doing some of your own digging on the back end—including research around real estate comps.

Getting the best possible price on a home that you’re selling or purchasing requires insight on the surrounding market. Comps help you put the value of a home in context with similar homes around it, in turn ensuring that you don’t end up overspending on a property that you could have potentially gotten for less or overpricing a home that you’re putting on the market.

Many buyers rely on their agents to pull up real estate comps and walk them through the comparison process, but learning how to do it on your own could save you some time in your search, in addition to helping you set reasonable price expectations from the get-go.

So how do you find comps without an agent? Here’s what you need to know about real estate comps, including why they’re so essential and how to research them on your own.

What Are Real Estate Comps?

Real estate comps—or real estate comparable listings—refer to the sales records of recently sold homes that are similar to the home you’re interested in both in features and in general location.

Comps are used by home appraisers and real estate agents to determine a property’s appropriate value. The goal is to gather data on homes that are as similar as possible to the one currently being evaluated, with the notion that whatever those homes sold for likely sets the range for what a particular home is worth (at least insofar as what buyers will pay for it, which is, ultimately, a significant part of what determines its value).

How to Find Comps

If you’ve bought or sold a home before, then you’re probably familiar with the listings of real estate comps that your agent provides you with. But you don’t need to wait for your agent to dive into the data. Here’s how to find real estate comps on your own.

You can easily pull up pricing data on recently sold homes on realtor.com. To do it, click on the “Just Sold” tab and enter in your town. From there, use the map view to search listings within a more specific area. This is an important step, since different parts of a neighborhood usually fall on a different pricing spectrum.
Note that not all homes serve as comps just because they’re in the same square mile or so of the house in question. You’ll need to also compare home features, including square feet, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the home’s general condition.
Another great realtor.com tool for seeking out comp data is the “Home Value” tab. There, you can see what the media listing price and sold price is for your town, as well as the average price per square foot. It’s not as telling as searching recently sold listings due to the fact that you’re not comparing specific homes, but it will give you a general idea of what homes tend to go for in your area.
Most counties maintain pretty good records on the sale prices of homes, and these can be useful to you when you’re trying to pull up information on real estate comps. The advantage here is that you can probably get information going a bit further back than what you’ll find through other channels. (Many sites only keep info on recently sold homes available for a few months.) Call your county office directly to find out how to access these records. Some counties make them available online, while others require you to make an in-person visit.

You want to end up with about 8-12 comps total from which to make your price comparisons. This will give you the fullest picture possible of what the local market is like.

Comp Considerations

It’s not enough to just find real estate comps—you also need to know how to make the best use of them. And for that, there are certain considerations to keep in mind that will assist you in making the most accurate comparisons possible. Here are some of the big ones.

Location – The closer the location to your primary property, the better. Look at comparable properties on the same street or within a few blocks. It can also be helpful to compare homes within the same subdivision and/or school district.
Size – Look for homes that are within roughly 300 square feet or so of the property you’re looking to find comparable listings for. Square footage is a major indicator of price, so it won’t be very helpful to compare the home in question to homes that are much bigger or smaller than it, even if they’re similar in terms of the number of bedrooms and other general features.
Home age and condition –A property can be the same size as the home in question and located on the same street but still be valued differently due to its age and condition. When judging the utility of a comp, consider how the homes compare in terms of these factors, and try to narrow your search only to homes that are a similar age and in a similar condition to your property.
External variables – It’s more than just a home’s zip code that can affect its value when it comes to location. Walkability, access to main roads and nearby amenities, crime, and the curb appeal of nearby homes all have an effect on a home’s overall price. If you’re buying, go visit in person and take a walk around the area. This will help you put the home in the context of its general surroundings, and you may also notice some features of the property that didn’t come through in pictures, such as a cracked driveway or close proximity to a busy street.

Some Caveats to Keep in Mind

There’s a lot of insight that you can glean from looking at real estate comps, but helpful as they are, they’re not telling you the whole story behind a sale.

The important distinction to keep in mind here is that the price a home sells for isn’t necessarily the price it was listed for. Nor does it account for any concessions the seller had to make, such as covering certain repair costs or throwing in a couple years’ worth of homeowners insurance.

Have some flexibility in your pricing expectations, and remember that the end goal is to understand a home’s value in relation to its neighbors—not necessarily to set a concrete limit around what you can list it for or what you’ll have to spend to get it.

Of course, you should never use real estate comps alone to dictate your listing or offer price. Work with an agent to determine the best price for a property, basing it off of comps and other unique factors. Nobody knows your area better than an experienced local agent, so find someone who brings plenty of knowledge to the table and who you enjoy working with. The rest should fall into place from there.

When you buy or sell real estate, you’ll want to get a good idea of the property’s value.

Understanding value helps you set a price when you’re selling. After all, you don't want to ask too little and leave money on the table, or ask too much and hold up your sale.

If you're the buyer, knowing how to accurately estimate a home's value lets you spot a bargain and keeps you from overpaying. Later on, it helps you gauge your home's equity if you want to borrow against it.

Estimating a home’s value can be easier said than done. That’s where real estate comparable listings — “comps,” in Realtor speak — come in. Comps are sales records of recently sold homes. Appraisers and real estate agents use them to get the most accurate estimate possible of a home’s value, and you can, too.

In short, finding comps involves looking for recent sales of houses as much like your own property as possible, then comparing your home to them and adjusting your price to account for the differences.

When assembling a list of comps, “the tools online now, through the assortment of websites that you can go to, allow you to be just as active in the market as some Realtors,” says James Griffith Dewling, a Realtor in Brighton, Michigan.

Follow these four steps to find and evaluate comps to estimate your home’s value:

Start by searching real-estate listing sites, such as Zillow and Redfin, for the handful of recently sold listings that are most like your home. Use listing sites that let you search for "just sold" or "recent sales" and show your search results on a map. Here’s how:

Enter your city’s name and use the map to explore sold properties by neighborhood
Filter your search results by details like date sold, price and number of bedrooms
If the site allows it, use other filters — such as crime statistics, school scores and neighborhood amenities — to get more details for making comparisons
Narrow your collection to a manageable number; a half-dozen is a good goal.

For-sale listings aren’t great comps because the final price could change
Sold prices don’t reveal sellers’ concessions. A home’s recorded sale price might be $220,000, for instance, but if the buyer persuaded the seller to spend $3,000 on furnace repairs or to help with the buyer’s closing costs, the true price, $217,000, is invisible to you. Try calling some real estate agents to ask if they will check their listing service for seller concessions on your comps; most will do so or offer you their own set of comps as a way to connect with a potential client.
Comps with plenty of photos give clues to construction quality, landscaping, home features and upkeep
Copy or download relevant sold listings before they expire from the site
Noting a listing’s price-per-square-foot gives you a useful data point for comparing listings. If it isn’t shown on a listing, you can calculate it: Divide the sale price by square footage (both numbers commonly included in listings). For example: A 1,200-square-foot home that sold for $300,000 has a square-foot price of $250 (300,000 ÷ 1,200 = 250).

The sold listings that are best for comps are:

Recent: Use listings that sold recently. How recently depends on your market. If homes nearby are selling quickly, maybe go no older than 45 days, Dewling says.

Similar: In a subdivision, you may find sold listings with identical floor plans. That’s ideal. Otherwise, Dewling advises finding homes that are roughly the same size with floor plans similar to yours — like a ranch home if yours is a ranch.

Ted Krings, a certified residential real estate appraiser working in Northern and Central California, says it’s OK to search for similar numbers of bedrooms and baths, but similarities in gross living area matter most.

“The market is paying for space,” Krings says. “You can always go into a home that’s 2,000 square feet and move a wall around or break a wall down.”

Nearby: A comp should be in the same school district, neighborhood and perhaps even the same side of the street. “Almost the same location,” Dewling says.

Listing photos are marketing materials and, as we all know, sometimes can give a misleading impression. You’ll want to verify what you’ve found online to be sure the homes you’ve selected truly are similar to yours. That’s why, even if you can’t get inside a home, it’s a good idea to visit each comp you are thinking of using. Driving or walking by can give you an impression of the property’s upkeep, quality of materials and surroundings.

Next, cruise the neighborhood or use Google Street view, remembering that:

A location on a quiet cul-de-sac is better than on a busy road
The curb appeal of neighboring homes affects a home’s value
Nearby shopping, restaurants and entertainment lift value unless the home is on a busy road; a landfill, toxic site or nearby eyesore or noise source lowers value.
“Walkability” — access to hiking trails and paths, proximity to services and entertainment — is a plus

Using the information you’ve gathered online and from your visits, select the three comps that are most like your property. Use the middle price, adjusting up or down for differences in size, quality, location, features and upkeep.

Dewling uses price-per-square-foot as a starting point for setting a home’s price. If a home that sold for $280 per square foot is similar to yours but yours has an updated kitchen, adjust your price by adding a little value.

Upgrades to kitchens, baths and flooring add the most value, Kring says. An upgraded exterior or landscaping won’t add more than about 25% tops, he says.

How accurate will your results be? That depends on choosing the right listings and valuing the differences correctly. There are several other ways to find a home’s value and, to assess your results, you could also use one of them:

Compare your estimated price with your home’s estimated price at an online home value estimator, like Zillow or Redfin. Take these estimates with a grain of salt, though, since they aren’t yet a dependable gauge.
Ask a real estate agent for a free pricing estimate
An appraiser’s opinion is the most accurate method. If you plan to go the for-sale-by-owner route, this may be worthwhile, even though it costs roughly $400 to $500.

Doing your own comps gives you a decent idea of value — at no cost or obligation. What’s more, it can be fun and informative to get a deeper understanding of your neighbors’ home values — and your own.