Comp Adjustments for Pittsburgh Area

[Brendon W.]

I'm sure this question has been asked 1000 times on this site at this point, but I'm wondering if anyone has some market specific insight for the Pittsburgh Area.

I'm trying to run some comps on a single family home and I'm not sure how much I should be adjusting for extra bedrooms and bathrooms. J. Scott uses 3% of the sale price for an extra bedroom but I'm sure this varies from market to market. 

Any rules of thumb to use for 2 bedrooms compared to 3 bedrooms...3 bedrooms compared to 4 bedrooms? 1 bath compared to 2...2 compared to 3, etc. ?

Also, one of the homes I was using as a comp was excellent (same style, general floor plan, age, sq. footage) but it had a pool in the backyard. I just threw something out there and subtracted $10K although I have no idea how much an inground pool would affect the price in Western PA where you get about 4 months a year to use it. Maybe I shouldn't have even used that home as a comp..

I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks! 

[Aaron K.]

Not specific to Pitt, but in general try not to comp 2 beds to 3 beds if at all possible.  3 to 4 is usually anywhere from $2k to $5k 4 to 5 and beyond that is usually negligible, and square footage is what counts.  Pools are a big deal in some places like CA, AZ, FL in PA I'd assume it is more like 10k-12k as opposed to $20k-$25k+ in the others.