Posted by Paul Ness MAI on March 20, 2000 at 18:38:26:
The simplest answer is if you have a real estate agent who is a friend, ask them to run a search of similar sales in your neighborhood on their MLS. Otherwise, you will have to go to the courthouse and search for sales in the property records department, a/k/a assessment office a/k/a county appraiser’s office. Every municipality is different, so I can’t really give you a good answer other than you’ll have to spend some time in the courthouse. It will get easier each time you do it.
I am in the process of learning how to do my own comps. The Tech support service is somewhat confusing me, so maybe I can ask someone out there? How do you determine the value a home/condo? Is it the assessed value? or transfer value? or is it determined in the Market Analysis…the service that I use is from Dataquick?
Assessed value often is no indicator of market value at all! Transfer value (purchase price?) is usually considered the final word on a particular property’s market value, but that isn’t always the case either (distressed sale, 1031 exchange, “sweetheart” sale to a related party, seller paid closing costs or financed all or part at above/below market mortgage terms - all of which can have an effect on the purchase price). Find sales of similar homes in your neighborhood. Look at the similarities and differences between each sale compared to your property. You should be able to conclude a reasonable range of probable value.
I’m not familiar with the system you are using, but when I do my own comps, I always look at recent sales. Similar properties in the same area as the subject property.