How comps are chosen
How propertyscan picksand adjusts the comps.
The method on one page, in plain words: which sales are used, how each one is adjusted to the home, and what is never looked at. Send it to a seller, a buyer, an appraiser or your broker.
The short version
- Every comp is a closed sale with a recorded price.
- The home and its sales alone pick the comps: never the asking price, your offer, schools, demographics or the neighborhood's makeup.
- Every adjustment is printed with its dollar amount and the reason for it.
It's a comparative market analysis for agents, not an appraisal, and every report says so.
Where the sales come from
Closed sales from county public records, through a licensed data provider. Where we hold an MLS license, MLS sales are added too. We never use listing websites or online estimates, and every report lists its sources.
Every comp is a closed sale with a recorded price, the same evidence an appraiser will look at, and each report says how recent its latest sale is. Active and pending listings are never used: an asking price isn't a sale, and a pending sale's price isn't on the public record until it closes. Know of a sale that closed after the latest records? Add it, and the report marks it as coming from you.
Public records show the land, the size and the year built, but not condition, updates, stalls, an arena or guest quarters. Those come from the listing remarks (the listing you paste, and each comp's listing where we hold an MLS license) or from you. When a listing doesn't say, we ask you, and the report says which details came from the listing and which from you.
How the comps are picked
We start with every home sold near the one you sent, then keep the sales that truly compare:
- The same kind of property
- A two-story house is compared with two-story houses, a condo with condos, a horse property with acreage that has horse facilities.
- Similar land
- A similar lot, or for acreage, a similar number of acres.
- A similar size
- Living area close to the home's.
- A similar age
- Built around the same time; for new construction, newer homes first.
- Nearby
- The closest sales first.
- Recent
- The most recent sales first.
The nearest, most recent and closest in size become the comps, each with a plain reason for choosing it. Where good sales are scarce, as with farms and land, we look further out and up to three years back, and the report says how far we went and why.
What we never look at
The asking price and your offer. You don't give us a target, so the comps stay honest whatever anyone hopes the price will be. The report shows what the sales support.
Schools, demographics or the neighborhood's makeup. Comps are picked by the home and its sales alone.
Listing websites and online estimates. Only closed sales.
How each comp is adjusted
Every difference between a comp and the home gets a plus or a minus in dollars, so each sale reads as if it were this home. For a house in a subdivision that's usually size, age, baths, garage, pool and updates. For horse property it also covers land by the acre, stalls, an arena, guest quarters and extra barns.
Each adjustment shows its dollar amount, the rate behind it and the reason. Bedrooms count through living area rather than as a line of their own. Any rate can be changed, and a rate you set is marked on the report.
A comp's adjusted price is its sale price plus its adjustments. Comps that needed less adjusting count for more, and the report prints each comp's share, so anyone can check the math.
What the report shows
- Page 1The price and every comp.The range the comps support, and each sale before and after adjusting.
- Page 2Every adjustment.Each plus and minus, with the rate behind it.
- Page 3Why these comps.Comp by comp, what we looked for and why, where the sales came from, and any changes you made.
You can change it. Remove a comp, add one you know about, change what it looks for, or mark a comp as a fixer-upper. You get an updated report with your changes noted on it, and the earlier version is kept.
Where it works, and what it isn't
Homes in the 38 states where sale prices are public record. In the 12 states where they aren't, like Texas and Utah, we tell you up front instead of guessing.
It's a comparative market analysis for agents: closed sales, each adjusted to the home, with every adjustment shown. It helps you set and explain a price. It doesn't replace an appraisal, and every report says so.
The best test is a home you know. Your first 3 reports are free, with no card.