How do you find accurate comps w/o MLS?
When analyzing a wholesale deal, you look at comps to determine the subject property's ARV. Since I am not a licensed real estate agent I search for comps using the filters on real estate websites that show only recently sold properties.ÃÂ Which tools are you using to find comps if you don't have access to the MLS? How do you make sure those comps are accurate and reliable? Which number is more important, sale price or price/sf?
Thanks in advance!
Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, etc. all lag behind MLS and won't have all its listings. But for comps, you're just looking for a few similar (square feet and beds/baths) places within a few miles in the last 6-12 months. Sale price is the more important number.
@Matthew Botos Thanks a lot for your clear response. This is the answer that @tyrone hardy and I were looking for. Thank you.
One thing to be careful of is that the comps are actually comparable. I recently was working with a wholesaler who tried to comp recently sold 4-bedroom homes with the 2-bedroom home that I was actually looking at, and it resulted in inflated comps. As a buyer I ended up pulling my own comps.
I like redfin, they're usually pretty good about showing you truly comparable houses. Where realtor.com will show you a map, and zillow will show you off market homes they consider similar, redfin will actually show recently sold comps as thumbnails so you can narrow it down at a glance (for example if your house is single story with no garage you can ignore two-story houses with garages). Of course not as good as MLS, but a decent stand-in. Just be conservative with all your calculations.