How Realtors Find Comps for Appraisal

If you are new to real estate, real estate investing, or home selling or home buying, then you might wonder how realtors find comps for appraisal. Some homeowners think that realtors have a big database that whenever you tell them the address of the property, they can just punch in the numbers and the computer program will spit out the appraisal for that property as well as comps. This is not true. Realtors have to actually do work to find comps for appraisal. Also, realtors have to use a lot of their own judgement to compile a list of comps for you. That's why getting the service of an experienced realtor will help you sell your home better (or buy a better home) than getting the service of a brand new, inexperienced realtor.

How Realtors Find Comps for Appraisal

Realtors find comps for appraisal by finding homes in the same or similar neighborhoods that have sold in the past time period. The realtor finding comps need to judge which neighborhoods are similar to the one he or she is trying to appraise. If there is no a home that was sold recently then it is much harder to find comps. Assumptions need to be made in order to arrive at reasonable comps for appraisal. Also the MLS that realtors use to find comps is not that easy to use. There are many fields and criteria for search and the realtor finding comps need to know what to search for and what to include and not include. That's why experienced realtors may come up with more reasonable comps than inexperienced realtors even though both use the same MLS system.

If you are looking for comps, you can use the free service below to find a realtor and then you can ask him or her for comps. Realtors are great resources and you should use their services to help you learn about the real estate market, not just use their listing service.

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