How to Find Real Estate Comps

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.

Search recently sold listings

Search general home value data

Request public records from your county

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.