Checking the "comps" on your own
Beanns asked:
When searching for a house and not using an agent, how can I find "comp listings"?
Looking for comparable home sales, frequently called “comps” is not just a matter of having a database at your disposal. There are both objective and subjective decisions that need to be made to decide what is a good comp for the property for sale. Then there is experience and judgment needed to know how to adjust the differences between the comp and the property you want to figure the market price of. I am on record that any buyer is being foolish to make an offer without a Comparative Market Study (CMA). I have also explained how they work before.
That said, if you still want to look for comps on your own, there is a wonderful, free source of sales information. It is the Registry of Deeds. It’s on line. (other counties are just as easy to find.) The learning curve is not so steep. Knock yourselves out!
I am not just tooting my own horn when I say that most home buyers and sellers cannot do a comparative market analysis on their own. Here’s a story:
Once upon a time there was in an uproar a neighborhood about a house for sale on the block asking $325,000. The block had pretty “perfect” property (perfect, in the economic sense of the word, means homogeneous. Most of the houses there were built the same time, with similar floor plans and similar lots.) This being my neighborhood, my neighbors know they can come to me for the real estate poop, and they did.
“What’s that selling for?” they asked.
“$325,000 is the asking,” say I.
“Are they going to get that?”
“Nope, it is valued at about $275,000.”
Invariably, they ignored my last statement and responded something like this, “If that’s worth $325,000, mine is worth $XXX,000.” Invariably, they were wrong by about $30,000 in their favor.
Three months later, it closed for $270,000. When I saw that, I said to my husband. “If that is worth $270,000, ours is worth $285,000.” Wrong! What flew out of my mouth were the words of homeowner-Rona, not agent-Rona. I immediately started laughing at myself; our house was worth about $275,000 at that time, which agent-Rona knew. At least my owner-barometer was less distorted than the average homeowner.
I swim in this sea all the time, but I still find it hard to be objective when I think about my own house. How can you do it?
