Comps for Out if State Homes?

Question

Maybe I’m being lazy and not wanting to go through hundreds of homes on Zillow. However, with the technology we have I just know there has to be a way that I’m not aware of to find comps for our of state homes. I live in Texas and need comps for Charlotte, but I do not know any realtors there. We are planning to buy three homes via seller finance close to Charlotte. Any tech out there to help?

Todd Rasmussen · Answer

@Brandon Bayles

I think you are making it more time intensive on yourself than it needs to be.

If you are going to do it yourself:

You should put in a very narrow search criteria that fits your potential homes and look in the couple blocks surrounding the potential home for sales closed in the last couple months. You should only have a couple pop up and you can look in depth at those properties (hopefully photos) to give yourself a pretty good idea of what the potential property is worth. (I always wipe all the search criteria and look at sold properties geographically close also. Ideally I'm buying one of the smaller/less expensive homes in the area)

You can still use a realtor:

Call and interview a couple realtors and say you are starting to invest in the area. Let them know you are currently working on an off market deal and want to hire them to walk through the house and/or send you comps on each one.

Hire an appraiser:

This is probably the most expensive option but it'll probably be the most thorough as well.