How to Pull Comps on a House (2026 Guide)

Pulling comps on a house means finding recently sold, nearby properties that match your home’s size and condition to estimate what it will sell for on the open market. A seller, buyer, or investor without agent access can complete this process in under an hour using free tools, provided they apply the right filter parameters at each step.

A reliable comp meets three core standards: sold within the past 90 days, located within a 0.5-mile radius, and within ±20% of the subject property’s square footage. When you gather at least three comps that satisfy all three criteria, you have enough data to calculate a defensible price per square foot and a realistic market value range.

This guide covers what makes a valid comparable sale, the exact filter paths on Zillow, Redfin, and county assessor sites, a 5-step process for pulling comps without an agent, how to find real estate comps as a FSBO seller or investor, how to analyze and adjust for feature differences, and the most common mistakes that produce unreliable results.

What Are Real Estate Comps?

Real estate comps are recently sold properties that share your home’s location, size, and condition, and they are the primary tool used to estimate what your house will sell for on the open market. The term is short for comparable sales, a standard valuation method used by appraisers, listing agents, buyers’ agents, and cash buyers to anchor pricing decisions, per how agents use comparable sales data from NAR.

The key word is “sold.” Active listings show what sellers are asking, not what buyers paid. Only closed, recorded transactions reflect what the market actually valued a property at on a specific date.

Comps vs. a Zestimate or Automated Valuation

A Zestimate is an automated estimate produced by a public-data algorithm. Comps are actual sale prices of specific nearby homes, selected manually using defined criteria. Zillow discloses a median Zestimate error rate for on-market homes, but that rate varies significantly by market and property type.

Running your own comps using sold data from Zillow, Redfin, or county records gives you a more defensible number than any automated valuation model because you control every filter criterion. An algorithm cannot know that a nearby sale included a $25,000 kitchen renovation that inflated the price. You can see that difference and adjust for it.

Who Uses Comps and Why

Appraisers use comparable sales to produce the formal valuations lenders require before approving a mortgage. Listing agents use them to set asking prices. Buyers’ agents use them to write competitive offers. Cash buyers and investors use them to calculate ARV (after-repair value) and evaluate acquisitions. FSBO sellers who lack MLS access depend on comps as their primary, often only, pricing tool.

What Makes a Valid Real Estate Comp?

A valid comparable sale meets specific distance, recency, size, and property-type criteria before it can support a home valuation. Each criterion narrows the pool to properties that genuinely reflect what a buyer would pay for your specific home.

Distance: How Far Is Too Far?

In urban and suburban markets, a valid comp sits within 0.25 to 0.5 miles of your subject property. In rural markets with fewer recent sales, extending to 1 mile or using the same zip code is acceptable.

Distance is a proxy for neighborhood quality, school district, walkability, and buyer pool. A half-mile in a dense city can cross into a different neighborhood with meaningfully different price levels. Prioritize comps on the same street or within the same subdivision whenever they exist.

Recency: The 3- to 6-Month Window

Comps sold within the past 3 months are the preferred standard. Sold within 6 months is acceptable in slower markets, and that outer limit is what most agents and appraisers use, per how lenders evaluate comparable sales on Bankrate. Never rely on sales older than 12 months without a formal time adjustment.

In rapidly appreciating or declining markets, even a comp that is 60 days old may need a monthly price-change correction. Check your local market’s median month-over-month price trend on Redfin or Realtor.com to measure that drift before using older data.

Size: The ±20% Square Footage Rule

A valid comp is within ±20% to 25% of your home’s square footage, or within roughly 300 square feet, whichever is the tighter range. For a 1,500 sq ft home, that means comps between 1,200 and 1,800 sq ft.

Beyond that band, the price-per-square-foot calculation diverges enough that adjustments become unreliable. Tighter is always better when enough recent sales exist in the area.

Property Type, Age, and Condition

Single-family homes compare only against other single-family homes. Condos, townhomes, and multi-family properties have different HOA structures, lot ownership rules, and buyer profiles. Mixing them with SFR comparables produces skewed results.

Age should be within 10 to 15 years of your home’s build year. A fully renovated comp measured against an as-is condition subject property, without a condition adjustment, can overstate market value by 10% to 20%.

How to Pull Comps on a House: 5 Steps

The process for pulling comps follows a defined sequence: define your subject property’s attributes, set filter parameters, search free platforms, verify with MLS data if available, then record and adjust. Each step uses the thresholds from the section above.

Step 1: Define Your Subject Property

Write down every measurable attribute of your home before opening any platform: square footage, bedrooms and bathrooms, lot size, year built, property type, condition, garage bays, pool, HOA status, and school district. These become the filter criteria for every comp you evaluate.

Skipping this step is the root cause of most comp errors. If you are unsure of your exact square footage, pull it from the county assessor’s website or your most recent appraisal report.

Step 2: Set Your Search Parameters

Translate your subject property’s attributes into search filters before beginning any search. Your default parameter set: distance within 0.5 miles, sold within 90 days, square footage within ±20%, same property type, and same bedroom count plus or minus one.

If fewer than three results appear with these settings, extend the sold date to 180 days before adjusting the distance. Widening the radius introduces more neighborhood variability than extending recency does, so exhaust the time window first.

Step 3: Search Recently Sold Homes Online

On Zillow: click the “Recently Sold” tab, enter your address, open the filters panel, choose “Last 3 months” under sold date, select your property type, and sort by price.

On Redfin: click “Buy” then “Sold Homes,” enter your address, and apply matching filters through the “More Filters” panel. Redfin’s data is partially MLS-backed, making it more accurate than Zillow in many markets.

On Realtor.com: use the “Just Sold” tab with the same date and property-type filters applied. Collect five to seven candidates across all three platforms, remove duplicates, and discard any property that falls outside your parameter set.

Step 4: Access MLS Data via an Agent

The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is the most complete source of comparable sales data. Access is typically restricted to licensed agents and appraisers, though regional policies vary as NAR settlement implementation continues.

A local listing agent will generally provide a free comparative market analysis as part of a no-obligation listing consultation. Investors and FSBO sellers who need ongoing access can use a paid comp tool like PropStream (~$99/month), which provides filtered MLS-quality searches without requiring an agent license.

Step 5: Record, Compare, and Adjust

Build a comparison table with these columns: address, sale price, square footage, beds/baths, sale date, distance, and price per square foot. Divide each comp’s sale price by its square footage to populate that final column.

Find the median price per square foot across your comp set. Multiply that figure by your home’s square footage for an initial value estimate. Remove outliers sitting more than 15% above or below the median. Then apply comp adjustments for any feature differences between each remaining comp and your subject property. The next section walks through the adjustment math.

Where to Find Comps: Free Tools and MLS Options

How to find real estate comps depends on what you have access to and how much precision you need. The table below compares the five most common platforms by use case, data freshness, and cost.

Tool	Best For	Data Recency	MLS-Backed?	Cost
Zillow “Recently Sold”	Consumer sellers, quick check	Updated daily	No	Free
Redfin Sold Homes	Buyers and sellers, more accurate filtering	Updated daily	Partial	Free
Realtor.com “Just Sold”	Listing-focused sellers	Updated ~24 hrs	Partial	Free
County Assessor/Recorder	Investors, data verification	30 to 90 day lag	No	Free
PropStream	Investors, wholesalers, agents	MLS-level, near real-time	Yes	~$99/month

Based on platform documentation and pricing as of 2026. Verify before transacting.

Zillow’s Recently Sold Filter

Zillow’s recently sold home search tool lets you filter by sale date, property type, square footage, and bedroom count from the map view. It is the fastest starting point for most consumer sellers pulling comps for the first time.

Zillow’s data is not directly MLS-backed, so it may lag or miss some sales compared to an agent’s MLS search. Treat it as a first pass, then verify any comp you plan to rely on heavily against Redfin or county records.

Redfin’s Sold Home Search

Redfin draws from MLS feeds in many markets, making its sold data more complete than Zillow’s in areas where it has brokerage agreements. The filtering interface lets you set a custom radius, a sold-date window, and specific square footage ranges directly in the “More Filters” panel.

Redfin also shows days on market and price-reduction history for each sold listing. A comp that sat 90 days before selling below list price tells a different story than one that went under contract in 48 hours.

Realtor.com’s Just Sold Tab

Realtor.com’s just-sold listings by neighborhood draw from MLS data in most major markets. The interface is agent-oriented and includes listing history that Zillow sometimes omits. Apply the same 90-day date filter and property-type selection you used on the other platforms for consistent results.

County Assessor and Recorder Websites

County assessor and recorder websites contain legally recorded deed transfers, making them the most authoritative free source for comparable sales data. They are slower than MLS-backed tools (30 to 90 day lag in most counties) but capture transactions that consumer platforms sometimes miss.

To access public property sale records, search “[your county name] property records” to find the official assessor site. In Harris County, Texas, HCAD returns sales by address, date range, and neighborhood. Public property records, including deed transfers, are available in all 50 states at no cost. That makes county assessor data a reliable backup for verifying any comp you found on Zillow or Redfin.

MLS Access for Non-Agents

Non-agents have three practical routes to MLS data: (1) request a free comparative market analysis from a listing agent during a no-obligation consultation, (2) subscribe to a paid service like PropStream or BatchLeads, or (3) work with an investor-friendly buyer’s agent who shares sold data regularly. Regional MLS policies on non-agent access vary by association.

How to Analyze and Adjust Your Comps

Raw sold prices from comparable sales tell you what similar homes fetched, not what your specific home is worth. The gap between a comp and your subject property in features, condition, or size requires dollar adjustments to make the comparison valid. This is where most DIY pricing errors occur.

Calculating Price Per Square Foot

Divide each comp’s sale price by its square footage to get its individual price-per-square-foot figure. Then find the median of that set to reduce the influence of outliers.

Per how to calculate price per square foot on Investopedia, the median price per square foot multiplied by your home’s square footage gives a reliable baseline before applying comp adjustments. Build a 5% buffer in each direction to arrive at a low-to-high value range rather than a single point estimate.

Adjusting for Bedrooms and Bathrooms

When a comp has more or fewer bedrooms or bathrooms than your subject property, the sale price needs a dollar adjustment before you use it. Typical ranges in most US markets:

• Extra bedroom: $8,000 to $15,000 per bedroom
• Full bathroom: $5,000 to $10,000 per full bath
• Half bathroom: $2,000 to $5,000 per half bath

These figures vary by market. Verify against local appraisal data before applying them. If an adjustment exceeds 10% to 15% of the comp’s sale price, that property is likely too dissimilar to be reliable and should be replaced with a closer match.

Adjusting for Condition and Upgrades

The CFPB’s appraisal guidance confirms that appraisers apply specific dollar adjustments for physical differences between properties, and condition is often the largest driver of value divergence.

Common adjustment ranges (market-dependent, verify locally):

• Updated kitchen: +$10,000 to $30,000
• Pool in Sun Belt markets: +$15,000 to $40,000
• Pool in northern markets: negligible to slightly negative
• Finished basement: +$10,000 to $25,000
• Garage, per bay: +$5,000 to $15,000
• As-is condition vs. updated comp: typically -5% to -15%

If your home qualifies as selling a house as-is, apply a downward comp adjustment of 5% to 15% to any fully updated comparable before using it as a value anchor.

Worked example: Subject home is 1,800 sq ft, 3 bed/2 bath, no pool. Comp A sold for $480,000, 1,900 sq ft, 3 bed/2 bath, with a pool. Subtract $20,000 for the pool your home lacks. Adjusted comp: $460,000. Divide by 1,900 sq ft to get $242/sq ft. Multiply by 1,800 sq ft for an estimated value of $435,600 from this single comp. Repeat for all comps and average the adjusted values.

How Many Comps Are Enough?

A minimum of three comparable sold properties is required for a defensible value range. Five or more gives you a more reliable estimate and limits the effect of any single outlier. Beyond six to eight comps, adding more often creates noise rather than precision.

In thin markets with few recent sales, extend the recency window from 90 days to 180 days before widening the search radius. If three comps remain unavailable after both adjustments, a formal comparative market analysis from a local listing agent is the most practical next step.

Pulling Comps as a FSBO Seller or Investor

FSBO sellers and investors operate without a traditional agent and therefore without default MLS access. For both groups, knowing how to find real estate comps independently is not optional; it is the foundation of every pricing decision.

Why FSBO Sellers Need Comps Most

FSBO sellers lose access to MLS data the moment they decide not to list with a licensed agent. Free tools, primarily Zillow, Redfin, and county records, become their only comp source unless they pay for a flat-fee MLS listing (typically $300 to $500) or request a CMA from an agent who may later accept the listing.

The risk of mispricing without comps is measurable. Overpricing leads to days-on-market accumulation and stigma. Underpricing leaves money on the table. Aim for five or more comparable sales from the past 90 days before setting any asking price.

For a full walkthrough of the process, see the guide to selling without an agent, which covers pricing, disclosures, and contract management in detail.

Investor Comp Criteria: Distressed vs. Retail

Investors pull two separate comp sets. The first covers retail comparable sales for ARV calculation: what the property will be worth after renovation, using updated, move-in-ready comps nearby. The second covers distressed comparable sales: recent sales of fixer-uppers, foreclosures, and short sales that establish as-is acquisition pricing.

Mixing the two sets inflates projected profit margins. A distressed property priced at 70% of ARV may still be overpriced if the distressed comp set shows similar homes selling at 60% of retail. Always keep the two analyses separate.

Once you have a comp-based value range, comparing it against real offers is the next step. A cash buyer comparison shows how vetted cash buyers stack up against your own research.

Off-Market and Distressed Sale Comps

Off-market sales, foreclosures, and short sales rarely appear on Zillow or Redfin in time to be useful as comps. PropStream, county recorder data, and relationships with local wholesalers are the primary sources for this data.

Distressed comps typically trade at 15% to 30% below retail. Never include them in a standard comp analysis unless your subject property is also being sold in distressed or as-is condition. For detailed guidance on pricing strategy and comp selection when selling a distressed property, see the guide on distressed home selling.

Mistakes That Make Comps Unreliable

Several systematic errors consistently produce inaccurate comp-based valuations. Each shifts the resulting estimate in a predictable direction, usually upward when sellers are doing the analysis themselves.

Using Active Listings Instead of Sold Homes

Active listings show asking prices, not what buyers paid. Asking prices run 2% to 5% above final sale prices on average in most markets. Using them as comparable sales inflates the value estimate by that same margin and leads to overpricing.

Pending sales may be used cautiously when very few closed comps exist, but their prices are not final and can change before closing. Active listings belong in secondary context only, useful for tracking days-on-market patterns but never as substitutes for recently sold homes.

Searching Too Wide a Radius

A 2-mile radius in a dense city frequently returns homes from different neighborhoods with different school districts, walkability scores, and buyer profiles. Those price differences reflect real market dynamics, not size or condition.

Hold the radius to 0.5 miles in urban and suburban markets. If that returns fewer than three comps, extend to sold within 6 months before expanding the geographic footprint. Time is a more consistent variable than geography in most markets.

Mixing Property Types

A townhome in the same neighborhood as a single-family home is not a valid comp. HOA fees, lot ownership, and buyer profiles differ enough that cross-type price comparisons are misleading.

Always filter by the identical property type as your subject property. In markets where similar properties are scarce, a formal appraisal from a licensed appraiser is a safer option than stretching the property-type filter.

Ignoring Market Condition Changes

A comp from 8 months ago in a market that has shifted 5% to 7% in either direction needs a time adjustment before you use it. In a market rising at 0.5% per month, an 8-month-old comp is effectively 4% below current market value before any other adjustment is applied.

Understanding how market conditions affect comp reliability is covered in depth in the guide on selling during a recession, including how to read price trend data before relying on older comparable sales.

What Is the 3-3-3 Rule in Real Estate?

The 3-3-3 rule is an informal buyer-readiness guideline with three components: (1) three months of emergency savings, (2) three months of mortgage payment reserves, and (3) evaluate at least three properties before making an offer. It is not a lender requirement or an underwriting standard.

Some practitioners extend it to the “30/30/3 rule,” adding that housing costs should stay at or below 30% of gross income, the down payment should be at least 20% to 30%, and the purchase price should not exceed three times annual income. Neither version carries the force of a lender policy.

Pulling comps connects directly to the third component. Evaluating at least three properties before making an offer is most effective when you pull comparable sales on each candidate. Comps let you see quickly whether a list price is fair, whether you are overpaying, and how each property ranks by price per square foot against its immediate neighbors.

Once you have a comp-based value range for your home, the next question is whether buyers in your market will actually pay it. iBuyer.com connects you with multiple vetted cash buyers who compete for your property, so you can compare their offers directly against your own research. No listing required, no agent commission, and no repairs before closing. Most sellers receive competing offers within 24 to 48 hours. Enter your address to see what buyers in your market are paying right now.

Frequently Asked Questions