How to Price Your Home with Real Estate Comps
Your home’s listing price can make or break your sale. While asking for too much could steer buyers away, asking for too little will leave you with minimal profit. The best way to ensure your home is priced correctly is to analyze its real estate comps.
At Mark Spain Real Estate, our expert listing agents use real estate comps to set your home’s listing price accurately. Using comparative market analysis, we provide a real-time snapshot of market conditions showing how your real estate comps perform. Read below for our comprehensive guide on how to price your home with real estate comps.
How to Price Your Home with Real Estate Comps
What are Real Estate Comps?
Real estate comps, short for real estate comparables, are recently sold properties in your area that exhibit similar features to your listing. To be considered a fair real estate comp, a home might have the same square footage, lot size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and neighborhood as your listing. 
As a seller, you and your agent can use nearby real estate comps to estimate your property’s market value. Say you have a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house with 2,000 square feet of living space. In this case, you’d find recently sold areas in your home with similar stats to set your listing price.
Who uses Real Estate Comps?
Real estate comps are valuable to all real estate players. Providing valuable insight to sellers, buyers, real estate agents, and appraisers, real estate comps help each player in the sale process make intelligent, informed decisions. Read below to learn how real estate comps are used across the board.
Home Sellers
Real estate comps help home sellers price their listings. They can also give sellers insight on what selling points to highlight when putting their home on the market.
Home Buyers
For buyers, real estate comps are helpful for making offers. After choosing a listing, buyers can use real estate comps to determine whether the asking price is fair and tweak their initial offer amount accordingly.
Real Estate Agents
Real estate agents use real estate comps to conduct a comparative market analysis. They pull comps from a multiple listing service to advise their clients on buying or selling a home.
Appraisers
Appraisers use real estate comps to determine the market value of a house. During the appraisal process, an appraiser will source their real estate comps along with evaluating a home’s living conditions to determine if it’s a fair sale for the buyer.
What Factors Are Considered When Finding Real Estate Comps?
As a seller, you’ll want to collect relevant, current information when sourcing real estate comps. As you research recent listings in your area, consider the following factors:
Location
An ideal real estate comp will be close to your home. Limiting your search to a quarter to
a half-mile from your home is a good rule of thumb.
Condition
A home’s condition impacts its value. So, you’ll want to find comps with similar builds, renovations, and upgrades to your home. For example, if your home has a newly renovated kitchen, you’ll analyze listings with modern kitchens over those with outdated fixtures.
Age
Age is a significant factor in comparing real estate comps. Homes built around the same time will have similar conditions and market values. Generally, we recommend comparing properties with no more than a five-year age difference.
Home and Lot Size
Homes are typically priced by square feet. Therefore, when finding comparables, you should pay close attention to home and lot size. We recommend finding properties within 10-20% of your home’s size.
Sale Time Frame
Timing is everything when it comes to real estate comps. To get an accurate comparison, you’ll want to examine recently sold properties. Doing so will ensure you price your home with market conditions in mind. We advise choosing comps that have sold within the past three to six months.
Sell Your Home with Mark Spain Real Estate
Are you selling a home? The industry professionals at Mark Spain Real Estate are here to help price your listing with our comparative market analysis. With decades of industry experience in some of the southeast’s most popular markets, our team of expert listing consultants can help you start your next chapter hassle-free! Check out our Guaranteed Offer Program for the potential to receive a competitive cash offer on your home in only 21 days. Contact our agents today!
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