How to Find Comps Like a Pro Investor in 2026

Finding accurate comparable sales, or "comps," is the single most important skill you can develop as a real estate investor. It's what separates profitable deals from money pits. This process isn't just about pulling up a few sold listings on Zillow; it's a methodical practice that boils down to three key actions: sourcing the right data, selecting the best properties, and adjusting for differences.

Get this right, and you'll nail your After Repair Value (ARV) and make offers with confidence every single time.

The Investor's Playbook for Finding Solid Comps

Running comps is the bedrock of a good deal. It’s the make-or-break skill that protects you from overpaying and ensures your hard work actually turns a profit. The pros don't guess—they analyze data with the critical eye of an appraiser.

The entire method hinges on what I call the three pillars of a strong comp, which seasoned investors and appraisers live by:

Proximity: How close is the comp to your property? Ideally, it’s in the exact same subdivision or on the same street, where home values are consistent.
Recency: When did it sell? A sale from 90 days ago is a powerful indicator of current market value. A sale from last year? Not so much.
Similarity: How alike are the two houses? You need to compare apples to apples. This means looking at the architectural style, age, square footage, bed/bath count, and overall condition.

A classic rookie mistake is cherry-picking comps that justify a high ARV. Don't do it. Your job is to let the data reveal the true market value, even if it’s not the number you were hoping for.

To simplify this, I put together a quick reference table that breaks down what really matters.

The Three Pillars of Strong Comps

Pillar	What It Means	Investor Pro Tip
Proximity	Located in the same subdivision or within a very short distance. Buyers look at homes in a small radius.	Start with a 0.5-mile radius, but if the neighborhood changes drastically (e.g., crosses a highway or school district line), tighten it up.
Recency	The sale closed within the last 3-6 months. In a fast-moving market, stick to 90 days or less.	I always sort my results by sale date, newest first. Anything over 6 months old gets pushed to the bottom of the list.
Similarity	Nearly identical features: style, age, square footage (+/- 15%), bed/bath count, lot size, and condition.	Look for comps that a buyer would have considered as a direct alternative to your subject property. That’s the true test.

Think of these three pillars as your non-negotiable criteria. A property that checks all three boxes is a "gold-standard" comp that will give you the most accurate picture of value.

What Really Makes a Good Comp?

A great comp is a property that a potential homebuyer would have legitimately cross-shopped with yours. It’s a direct substitute. If you're comparing a beautifully renovated bungalow to a dated, two-story colonial down the street, your ARV will be skewed, and your offer will be based on flawed logic.

This is why professional appraisers are so disciplined. While industry guidelines often require only three comps, a fascinating trend emerged between 2013 and 2021. Data from major mortgage appraisals showed that over two-thirds of appraisers used five or more comps, with usage hitting a peak of 76% in 2013. This commitment to using more data points shows just how important it is to build a defensible valuation—a practice every serious investor should adopt.

Why Quality Beats Quantity Every Time

It’s far better to have three highly relevant comps than ten mediocre ones. Each strong comp tells a part of the story about your property's potential value. Weak comps just add noise and create uncertainty, which is the last thing you want when your money is on the line.

When you focus on finding the best possible matches, you build an unshakeable foundation for your investment. This disciplined approach is what turns risky gambles into confident, data-backed decisions. It becomes even more critical when using some of the best real estate analysis tools for investors, because software is only as smart as the data it’s given. By sticking to these core principles, you ensure every deal you pursue starts on solid ground.

Where to Source Your Comp Data

An accurate valuation lives and dies by the quality of your data. Finding solid comps really starts with knowing where to look, and the truth is, no single source has all the answers. The pros I know build a complete picture by pulling from multiple streams, each with its own quirks and advantages.

Relying on just one data provider creates dangerous blind spots. For instance, a property might look great on paper based on public records, but MLS data could reveal it was delisted twice due to major inspection issues. To get the real story behind a property’s value, you need to layer your data.

The Gold Standard: The MLS

For licensed agents and appraisers, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is the undisputed champion for sourcing comps. It provides the most accurate and up-to-the-minute information on active, pending, and sold properties in any given market.

What makes the MLS so powerful is its depth. You get the inside scoop:

Final Sales Prices: The actual closing price, not just what it was listed for.
Days on Market (DOM): A crucial clue about buyer demand and pricing strategy.
Property History: See if a home was previously listed and failed to sell.
High-Quality Photos: Get a clear look at the property’s condition at the time of sale.

The main catch? Access is restricted and can get pricey for investors who aren't licensed agents. While it's a must-have for professionals working within the system, it's not the only game in town for finding great deals.

The best investors I know treat data sourcing like a treasure hunt. They don't just stop at the first clue; they follow every lead, cross-reference every fact, and dig until they uncover the full story behind a property's value.

The Free Alternative: Public Records

If you don't have MLS access, your next best stop is public records, which you can usually find on county assessor or recorder websites. This data is free and can be a goldmine of information, often giving you a different angle than the MLS.

Public records are fantastic for uncovering:

Off-Market Sales: Discover properties sold directly between parties without ever being listed.
Ownership History: Trace the property's sales history over decades.
Tax Information: See assessed values and property tax history.

However, public records come with their own set of challenges. The data can be outdated, square footage might be off, and you rarely get photos to judge a property’s condition at the time of sale. A sale recorded a year ago, for example, won't show you the brand-new kitchen the previous owner installed right before selling.

The Modern Solution: AI-Powered Platforms

This is where modern real estate platforms are completely changing the game for investors. Think of them as powerful data aggregators, pulling information from tons of sources to create a single, comprehensive view of a property.

These platforms synthesize multiple data streams all at once:

Data Source	What It Provides	Why It's Important
Public Records	Sales history, tax assessments, ownership details	The foundation of property data and off-market sales.
MLS Data	Sold prices, days on market, listing photos	The most timely and accurate sales information.
Market Trends	Price appreciation, inventory levels, local demand	Context for whether values are rising or falling.

By blending these inputs, these tools deliver a much more holistic and reliable valuation than any single source ever could on its own. They fill in the gaps left by outdated public records and give investors who don't have direct MLS access a seriously robust alternative.

For investors who need to move fast, this is a massive advantage. Instead of burning hours manually digging through county websites and trying to piece together a property's history, you can get a data-backed valuation in minutes. If you're looking for an intelligent system to automate this process, you can explore how a dedicated comp finder tool instantly analyzes and adjusts comparables for you. This approach not only saves an incredible amount of time but also significantly cuts the risk of making an offer based on incomplete or flawed information.

How to Select the Best Comps for Your Property

You’ve pulled a list of sold properties. Now the real work begins. Sifting through this raw data to pinpoint the three to five truly comparable sales is what separates an amateur guess from a professional valuation. This is where you shift from just collecting data to performing a critical analysis.

The goal isn't just to find sold homes; it's to find the properties that a potential buyer for your house would have seriously considered as a direct alternative. This goes way beyond basic filters. It’s a systematic process to find the sales that give you a rock-solid, defensible After Repair Value (ARV).

The flowchart below shows the primary places you'll source this initial data pool, from the agent-only MLS to free public records and modern AI-driven platforms like PropLab.

As you can see, each source provides a piece of the puzzle. The strongest analyses often blend data from multiple streams to make sure nothing gets missed. Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how you pick the best candidates from your list.

The Non-Negotiable Selection Criteria

Before you even think about making price adjustments, you need to apply a strict set of filters to your list. These are the core attributes that make a property comparable in the eyes of both a buyer and, just as importantly, an appraiser.

Proximity: The best comp is always in the same subdivision. If that’s not possible, stick within a 0.5-mile radius and never cross major boundaries. Think highways, different school districts, or neighborhoods with a totally different vibe. A house one mile away in the same ZIP code could be in an entirely different world, market-wise.
Recency of Sale: The market moves fast. A sale from the last 90 days is a powerful indicator of current value. A sale from six months ago? It’s getting a little stale. Anything over a year old should only be a last resort when you have absolutely no other options.
Physical Similarity: This is the classic "apples-to-apples" test. The comp needs to match your property in core traits like architectural style (is it a ranch or a colonial?), age, and construction type.

These three criteria are your first line of defense against bad data. If a property doesn't meet these basic requirements, toss it.

Diving Deeper into Property Traits

With your initial list refined, it's time to get even more granular. Look for properties that line up with yours on the following features.

Core Property Features to Match:

Feature	Best Practice	Why It Matters
Gross Living Area (GLA)	Within 15-20% of your property's GLA	A 1,200 sq. ft. home and a 2,500 sq. ft. home are in different market segments. Simple as that.
Bed/Bath Count	Identical if possible	An extra bedroom or bathroom adds huge functional value and opens the door to a different buyer pool.
Lot Size	Similar acreage or square footage	A massive yard or extra land can dramatically inflate the price, especially in suburban or rural areas.
Year Built	Within 5-10 years of your property	Big age gaps often mean differences in construction quality, floor plans, and a whole lot of potential maintenance issues.

For example, if your subject property is a 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,800 sq. ft. ranch built in 1995, your best comp is not a 4-bed, 3-bath, 2,500 sq. ft. colonial built in 2015, even if it’s right next door. It’s a fundamentally different product.

The most crucial question to ask is: "Would a buyer looking at my property have seriously considered this other property as an alternative?" If the answer is no, it's not a strong comp.

Handling Real-World Scenarios

Textbook examples are nice, but real estate is messy. What happens when the perfect comps just don't exist? This is a common headache, especially in rural areas or slow markets with low sales volume.

When you can't find recent sales nearby, you have two main options:

Go Back Further in Time: You might have to use a sale from 9-12 months ago if it's in the same subdivision. This is almost always better than using a recent sale from a completely different neighborhood. Just be ready to make a market-condition adjustment to account for the time difference.
Expand Your Geographic Radius: If you absolutely must go further out, do it carefully. You need to identify a truly competitive neighborhood that buyers would actually cross-shop. Don't just pick a random area two miles away because it had a recent sale.

In these situations, documenting your reasoning is critical. If you have to use an older comp or one from a different neighborhood, make a note of why you chose it and how you plan to account for the differences. This documentation is what turns a guess into a verifiable analysis you can confidently present to partners or lenders.

Ultimately, selecting the right properties is a blend of science and art—guided by data and a deep understanding of how buyers think.

Making Adjustments for Property Differences

You've done the hard work of picking your top three to five comparable sales. Now comes the part where art meets science—turning a list of similar properties into a sharp, defensible valuation. Because no two houses are ever truly identical, this is where we quantify those differences and move from gut feelings to objective data.

The whole point of adjustments is to assign a dollar value to the features that make your property different from the comps. The guiding principle is straightforward: if a comp is better than your property in some way, you subtract value from its sale price. If your property is superior, you add value. You’re essentially leveling the playing field, calculating what each comp would have sold for if it were an exact clone of your subject property.

Common Adjustments and Market-Specific Values

Some features almost always demand an adjustment. These are the big-ticket items that buyers consistently pay more (or less) for and have a real impact on their final decision.

A few of the most common adjustment points include:

Bathrooms: A full bath is a major value-add. You might see a $5,000 to $10,000 adjustment as a rule of thumb, but this number can swing dramatically from one market to another.
Square Footage (GLA): When comps have a slightly different gross living area, you adjust based on a localized price-per-square-foot figure.
Basements: A finished basement offers a ton of usable living space and is worth far more than an unfinished one.
Garage: That two-car garage is a clear upgrade over a one-car or a simple carport.
Condition: This is a big one. Was the comp completely renovated while your subject property is dated? That difference requires a significant, and sometimes subjective, adjustment.

It's absolutely critical to understand that there are no universal adjustment values. A $10,000 adjustment for an extra bathroom in a hot urban market might only be worth $4,000 in a more affordable, rural area. Your job is to become a local expert and figure out what these features are actually worth in your specific market.

Deriving Local Adjustment Values with Paired Sales Analysis

So, how do you nail down those local values? The most reliable method, and the one appraisers swear by, is paired sales analysis. This is where you find two comps that are identical in almost every way except for one specific feature. The difference in their sale prices is the market value of that feature.

Let's say you find two nearly identical houses that sold last month in the same subdivision. House A has a two-car garage and sold for $350,000. House B has a one-car garage and sold for $340,000. Assuming everything else is the same, you can confidently say the market value of that second garage bay is right around $10,000 in that neighborhood.

It takes some detective work, but finding even one or two solid paired sales can give you a defensible foundation for your entire adjustment strategy.

The Adjustment Grid in Action

The best way to keep all this straight is with an adjustment grid. It’s a simple table where you line up your subject property against each comp and calculate an adjusted sales price for each one.

Here’s how you can organize this process using a simple grid. The goal is to apply dollar adjustments to each comp to arrive at a value as if it were identical to your subject property.

Sample Comp Adjustment Grid

Feature	Subject Property	Comp 1	Adjustment	Comp 2	Adjustment	Comp 3	Adjustment
Sale Price		$320,000		$335,000		$325,000
Beds/Baths	3 bed / 2 bath	3 bed / 1 bath	+$8,000	3 bed / 2 bath	$0	3 bed / 2 bath	$0
Basement	Unfinished	Unfinished	$0	Finished	-$15,000	Unfinished	$0
Garage	2-car	1-car	+$5,000	2-car	$0	2-car	$0
Condition	Average	Renovated	-$20,000	Average	$0	Average	$0
Adjusted Price			$313,000		$320,000		$325,000

After adjusting for these key differences, you can see how the values start to cluster together. Comp 1 was superior in condition, while Comp 2 had a finished basement. Once we account for that, our three comps give us a much tighter and more reliable value range between $313,000 and $325,000.

This methodical breakdown is your secret weapon for calling out overpriced listings and ensuring your offers are grounded in reality. Ever wished you had ironclad comps in a negotiation? This is how you build them. While national figures on median sales prices show broad trends, it's this granular, local analysis that separates savvy investors from the rest.

Given that the National Association of Realtors only captures 30-40% of existing-home sales in its surveys, blending multiple data sources and making careful adjustments is crucial. You can explore how recent sales data informs property values on har.com to see how experts approach this. For investors looking to move faster, platforms like PropLab automate this entire process, applying these adjustment breakdowns instantly to achieve ARV precision within 3-5% of actual closing prices.

From Comps to Your Maximum Allowable Offer

You’ve done the hard work of finding your best comps and meticulously adjusting them. Now you’re looking at a tight cluster of adjusted sales prices—say, $313,000, $320,000, and $325,000. The last piece of the puzzle is translating these figures into a single, bulletproof After Repair Value (ARV).

It’s tempting to just average them out and call it a day, but experienced investors know that’s a rookie mistake. That approach assumes every comp is created equal, but in the real world, some are always stronger than others. This is where you need a more thoughtful method.

Adopting a Weighted Average for a Smarter ARV

The best technique here is using a weighted average. This lets you assign more importance to your best comps—the ones that are most recent, closest, and most similar to your subject property. You’re letting the quality of your own data guide you to the final number.

Here’s how it works in practice:

Comp A (Strongest): This one is a dead ringer for your project. It sold last month and is in the same subdivision. You give it a 50% weight.
Comp B (Good): A solid match, but it sold four months ago, so it's a little stale. You assign it a 30% weight.
Comp C (Okay): This one required several significant adjustments to make it comparable. You give it just a 20% weight.

By multiplying each comp’s adjusted price by its weight and adding the results, you arrive at an ARV that actually reflects the strength of your evidence. Your best comp naturally pulls the final value closer to it, giving you a much more reliable and defensible valuation. If you want to dive deeper into this and other valuation techniques, check out our complete guide to calculating ARV.

An ARV isn't just an academic exercise; it’s the financial North Star for your entire project. It directly determines the maximum price you can pay while still hitting your profit targets. Getting this number right is everything.

With a solid ARV in hand, you’re ready to turn your analysis into a concrete, actionable offer.

Calculating Your Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO)

The ARV is your starting point, but the Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO) is your finish line. It's the absolute highest price you can pay for a property and still make your desired profit. This simple but powerful formula is what turns your market analysis into a real-world decision-making tool.

The MAO formula is brutally simple:

ARV - Rehab Costs - Closing & Holding Costs - Desired Profit = MAO

Let’s walk through a real-world example.

MAO Calculation Example

Component	Description	Amount
After Repair Value (ARV)	Your final value based on comps.	$320,000
Rehab Costs	Your detailed repair budget.	-$45,000
Closing & Holding Costs	Loan points, title fees, utilities, insurance, etc. (often 10% of ARV).	-$32,000
Desired Profit	Your non-negotiable profit margin.	-$30,000
Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO)	The highest price you can offer.	$213,000

This calculation makes it crystal clear: to pocket $30,000 on this deal, you can't pay a penny over $213,000 for the house. It completely removes emotion and guesswork from your negotiations, empowering you to make data-backed offers with total confidence.

When you present an offer at or below your MAO, you're not just pulling a number out of thin air. You're presenting a figure backed by methodical analysis of the market, the true cost of repairs, and your own business goals. This is how you consistently find great deals and build a profitable real estate business.

Common Questions When Comping Properties

Even with a solid process, you're going to run into tricky situations when you're pulling comps. Real estate is messy, markets shift, and some properties just don't fit neatly into a box. Let's walk through some of the most common curveballs investors face in the field.

What Do I Do If I Can’t Find Any Recent Comps?

This is a classic headache, especially in rural areas or sleepy markets where homes don't trade often. If you can’t find a good comp from the last 90 days, it’s time to adjust your strategy. You have a couple of options, and the best approach usually involves a bit of both.

First, you can go back further in time. Don't be afraid to pull a sale from 9 or even 12 months ago if it’s a perfect match in the right subdivision. A slightly older sale in the ideal location is almost always better than a recent one from a totally different neighborhood. The key is you must make a market-condition adjustment for the time that's passed.

Your second move is to carefully expand your search radius. The keyword here is carefully. Don't just grab a comp two miles away because it's in the same ZIP code. You need to find a neighborhood that buyers would genuinely consider a substitute.

The question isn't "how far can I go for a comp?" It's "where should I go?" Find a location that buyers would actually cross-shop with your property's neighborhood and be prepared to justify exactly why you chose it.

How Do I Find Comps for a Unique Property?

This is where the art of valuation really comes into play. Finding comps for a truly one-of-a-kind property—think a historic home with a funky layout, a geodesic dome, or a house with commercial zoning—is tough. Standard comps just won't exist.

Here's my playbook for these situations:

Hunt for Repeat Sales: First, check the property’s own sales history. If it sold a few years ago in a similar state, that gives you a solid baseline you can adjust for market appreciation.
Break Down the Value: Isolate the unique features and try to value them on their own. For example, if you have a house on a double lot, find comps for similar houses on standard lots, then add what that extra land is worth.
Broaden Your Search for "Feel": Look for properties that aren't physically identical but have a similar vibe or appeal to the same buyer profile. Another unique or architecturally significant home in the wider area might give you clues on value, even if the style is completely different.

How Should I Handle a Rapidly Changing Market?

In a hot market, sales from just a few months ago can already be stale. Closed sales data tells you what the market was, not what it is. To get a real-time pulse, you have to look beyond what has already sold.

This is where pending sales and active listings become your best friends. They are the most current indicators of where the market is headed.

If homes are consistently going under contract above asking price in just a few days, that’s a clear signal of strong upward pressure. On the flip side, if listings are sitting for weeks and getting price cuts, you know the market is cooling off. I like to analyze the market in 30-day chunks to spot these trends, comparing the last 30 days to the 30 days prior. This helps you make much more accurate adjustments to your comps.

Can I Just Rely on Zillow's Zestimate for Comps?

In a word: no.

While Zillow and its Zestimate can be a decent starting point for a back-of-the-napkin number, you should never rely on it to make a serious investment decision. Zestimates are spit out by an algorithm and can be wildly inaccurate—sometimes off by a huge margin.

These automated valuations simply can't grasp the nuances of a property's actual condition, recent upgrades, or specific neighborhood quirks. An algorithm doesn't know if a "sold" comp was a beautiful full-gut renovation or a beat-up house sold "as-is." Learning to pull your own comps—either by hand or with professional-grade tools—is a non-negotiable skill for any serious investor.

Tired of spending hours digging through data to find and adjust comps? With PropLab, you can generate an offer-ready valuation report in about 60 seconds. Our AI-powered platform analyzes public records and market signals to find the best comps, apply weighted adjustments, and calculate a defensible ARV and Max Offer Price, all without MLS access.

Start comping deals with confidence at PropLab today.

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