House Comps

[vfig]

What site does everyone use to get house comps?
I know the best source is an RE agent but unforunately I havent been able to hook up with an agent that is willing to do comps without a huge fee
Thanks

[kdhastedt]

Actually, a friendly appraiser is the best source for comps...Realtors are second...

 

Keith

[Cate]

Hi Vfig,

Depending on what area you're in, many county assessor offices have their tax records online.  Make sure you are looking for closed sales within about the last six months, not the assessed values, which are typically anywhere from 20-40 less than actual market value.  By market value, I mean the closed, arms length sale transaction.

Hope this helps.  Good luck.

Cate

[vfig]

Cate
I will check with my locak assessors office and see if they offer anything on line
What about those sites that you pay a monthly fee? Are they not worth it?

[Cate]

Hi Vfig,

You have to determine if the expense of the monthly service is worth what you can make on the revenues generated by it.  For example, $150 a month and you make $10,000 off one deal.  Is that worth it?  You bet your bippy it is.

The quality of the information is very reliable here in Seattle.  My favorite is Metroscan because you can search in many different ways.  I use it for my business and it's very much worth the cost.

Cate

[mtnwizard]

For comps in your neighborhood, try:

www.homeradar.com

or

www.domania.com

Good luck.

[enricosuave]

Realtors are open to deals.  Find a personable one that's a little hungry and basically say, "How about you run comps for me on an as-needed basis and in return I'll.."; then you offer to either do your purchases through him (since the seller will be paying his commission) or guarantee him that you'll list your finished project with him when it's ready to sell.

If you're not willing to do either, then offer to keep him supplied with either labels, blank paper (for his newsletters) or a $25 Starbucks card each month.

[yrush2000]

ditech.com has a pretty good property appraiser on it..

[enricosuave]

Ditech, and any other lender, will be more than happy to do a home-appraisal.. for a fee, unless you really plan on closing a deal with them, then Ditech will include it at no cost to you.  (They did with me.)

However, a home-appraisal and Home-Comps are two similar, but different things.

An appraiser comes into your home with a Home Appraisal and assesses your particular home's value based on first-hand observation of improvements.  He then puts together a report.. which includes Home-Comps of similar homes in the area and makes his final Appraisal of the home's value to the lender.

Home-Comps (or a Comparative Market Analysis - CMA) is something different.  Home-Comps can be done for free by any Realtor.  This is a statistical value set to a home based on data from the MLS as to how similar homes in similar neighborhoods have sold, not-sold and are currently listed in order to calculate a current market value.  It's not an appraisal, it's more of a calculated report to give you an idea what a good asking price would be.  Many hard-money lenders will accept a CMA report to establish the Comp-value.

So an Appraisal will include a CMA (and usually a fee).. but a CMA is usually free from any Realtor apart from an Appraisal.  

As a Realtor, I'll do a CMA at the drop of a hat as a way of showing potential clients the opportunity of selling their home for them.  So don't feel you're really putting a realtor out of his way.. doing a CMA is part of the job.  Unfortunately, many realtors today are not so hip with computers or the Net and hate doing CMA's unless there's $$ involved.  Just find a realtor that's net-savvy and getting Home-Comps should be no problem.

[JAAMJK]

Public records work for us.  Every property transfer becomes part of the public record.

Remember, a comparable needs to be just that , a like to like comparison.  Or, you will need data to extrapulate differences in value when recent comparables are not available, like when dealing with a water front property when none have sold or a property with a private lake that is unique and few and far between in the market.

Access to room counts, finished basements and attics, whether home has Central air, oil or gas heat ,etc determines where it will fall in the predominant values of the area.  This is why aligning with a real estate agent that has access to the MLS, or other systems, is of great value to the investor.  

You can do it without an agent but you will need to collect the address and sales amount first.  They you will need to look up the tax record to see the acreage, room counts, ect.  They you will need to map the property and look at aerial photos to deterime any uniqueness to the sales compared to your property.  For example, if the comp sold for $150,000 and is exactly like yours, but sits next to a corner gas station, you will need to adjust the price for location.
Then, you can go into the State GIS mapping site and overlay all critical wetlands, envirnomental sites, and regualted lands over your property and the comparable sale.    That would pretty much clue you in to all external value influences.   You still do not know bedroom count, floor plan, quality of construction and whether the baths and kitchens are modernized or not.   But, it gets you close.

[gilliman11]

Brand new web site, just launched for house comps is zillow.com.  Also gives some details about characteristics of the house.  And it is totally free. Might want to try it! A couple of states are not available...South Dakota is one of them.  Does anyone know of ways to get comps in South Dakota???

BTW...LOVE this site!!

[Straightup]

Zillow has my state, but not my area.  My area is not available on homeradar either.  I have been wondering this as well and have some comps from a realtor, but they are vague.  Someone here on these forums recommended to check with your title company.  I'm going to do that as well as contact a realtor who seems more motivated.  

Jeff

[Kawika_CA]

Dataquick

[mel0320]

try zilla.com

[g8rbanker]

www.zillow.com

It's free and on the money