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July 24, 2008
How do I research comps?
I'm interested in buying without a broker. Would any one mind breaking down for me how you "do research on comps" with the NYC website. I see how you can enter blocks and lots, but how do you find recent sales of comparable properties? Thanks in advance
Comments
Beware of comps, I got some from a real estate agent, the problem was that 5 out of 6 were being renovated and thus showed a much lower selling price than what I wanted for my property which was in move in condition. So in my mind they are not really comps.
Posted by: billyboomer at July 24, 2008 12:28 PM
Check PropertyShark.com
Posted by: bricktop at July 24, 2008 12:59 PM
Call the management office of any property you choose and tell them you would like a list of comparables.
Take it as ar back as it goes.
Comparables are prices that buyers paid for the apartment.
The list can be faxed or mailed to you.
Posted by: madamlee at July 24, 2008 2:51 PM
Can't tell if this is for real property or a coop. If for a house or condo, pick a property you are interested in, go on a site like zillow, and run comps. You will get a way overinclusive list with a lot of useless stuff. Walk/drive around to eyeball all of the properties you get as comps to see which ones are most similar to what you want to buy. Use those as your comps.
Posted by: slopefarm at July 24, 2008 3:06 PM
If you're looking at houses, PropertyShark has a nice interface for looking up comps -- just link from the property report and it will do a standard search within about a half mile and an average price per square foot that is applied to your house. You can adjust the search criteria by property type and other parameters. They let you eliminate outliers from the computation.
You have to be careful, though, since all properties are included. You have no idea if they were restored, "renovated" (i.e., stripped of details) or piles of rotten wood. Also, property sometimes changes hands within families for very low prices or was overinflated last year during the mortgage give-away.
I finally broke down and got a paid subscription for PS, which gives you extra details on the house so you can determine whether to include it in the average. I like viewing by map and eliminating houses on blocks that are not comparable.
Posted by: laurie at July 24, 2008 3:41 PM
This is also a great site for finding past sales prices of co-ops. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/property_val_sales.shtml
Posted by: Biff Champion at July 24, 2008 3:44 PM
Use a broker, to help you with the comps.
Posted by: Xander Crews at July 24, 2008 9:59 PM
StreetEasy is great too. Membership is about $10/month and gives you access to both listing and sale prices for properties. Still, the best way to identify comps is to go to lots of open houses. See what is out there at your price point and you'll pretty quickly be able to judge if a new listing is over/under priced. Also, what is your apprehension to working with a buyer's broker? My husband and I worked with a broker to find an apartment and she was invaluable. We probably could have done the initial listing searches and research on our own, however, once we found the right place she helped us present our offers strategically, coordinate with the sellers and their broker, and generally made sure everything was moving along smoothly. It took a lot of the stress and time consuming work off of our shoulders.
Posted by: fawn at July 25, 2008 9:50 AM
I find that many brokers aren't responsive to the the buyer's needs, they just want to make a sale. But if you had a good experience, maybe I'll use that person--what was his/her name and firm?
Posted by: Garp at July 25, 2008 4:07 PM
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