What’s important to your clients when it comes to buying a suburban home versus a city dwelling can be dramatic. Number of bedrooms and bathrooms count about the same, and square footage is always major. But other things that do not show up on basic comps may sway clients toward purchasing a particular property or not.
For instance, rural homes usually won’t be located within walking distance of stores and transportation, which is the point for those who want open spaces, unpolluted air, peace and tranquility, and understand that they’ll need to drive everywhere. Conversely, having a supermarket, mass transportation and other urban amenities within a block or two can make or break a potential sale for those in the market for co-ops and condos.
Many of the above-mentioned items would not be included in a typical comp unless sharp agents find and include it. REALTORS® seeking to provide demanding clients with even more precise stats, maps and trends can lean on data companies, which can infuse comps with much more detail due to their accessing and interpreting of public records.
For urban comps, Thistle works exclusively in Center City, representing condo and co-op buyers and sellers. She stresses that there are major differences when it comes to urban homes, even when they are in the same building or on the same block.
“In my market, it’s mostly an understanding of the streets and the value of location,” she says. “Even the side of the street, middle or end of the block can be very different.
“Other must-knows are the view, what floor the unit is on, parking and type of parking (assigned, licensed, deeded), amenities, tax abatement and general carrying charges,” she adds. “High taxes and assessments can bring down the value. There are many buildings on Rittenhouse Square here. Each of them comps differently, even though they share the same sought-after location.”
For suburban homes, comp details can be much more varied. In addition to what is easily attainable from MLSs and residential real estate portals, much more can be gleaned from a company such as CRS Data. Tax records, sales and mortgage histories, neighborhood comparables, warranty deeds, interactive GIS maps, area demographics and more can transform a simple comp into something special.
CRS Data, headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, has been providing such precise information through its MLS Tax Suite since 1989. Close to half a million agents belonging to MLS organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada have access to it and download more than 40 million property reports each year.
Cooper explains that while MLSs are their direct customers, agents and brokers are ultimately the end user.
“It’s always good to know your area, to know the market for an agent, to know what’s around,” she says. “So in addition to pulling actual comparable values or comparable properties to determine a market value, it’s very important for an agent to understand the demographics and the school zone in the area, then take that information and build it out.
“You can then build out a multiple-page listing report to share with your client through a link, or download it as a PDF if you prefer to print or email it. Depending on how you want to identify those comps or find them, you can use an interactive map to draw that area. You can then use just about every criteria associated with the characteristics of the property and narrow down what you’re looking for. If you know that there are comps out there that aren’t coming back in your search list, you can manually enter in that address. Or you can go into our system to use this one, this one and this one, and it’ll build the report and the estimated values around that.”
As a bonus, CRS Data can help agents when they prospect for new leads.
“Our public tax data is the base content that we’re providing, and the most used piece of our product,” says Cooper. “But what the majority of agents and brokers don’t realize is that it can be heavily used for prospecting. We have all of the property records in there for their location, wherever they may be, regardless of whether it’s ever gone through a multiple listing service. If they have a target area they’ve defined to gather their leads, they can use our system to draw a shape on a map and select an outlining area, enter a zip code or even subdivision name. They can easily create their target list out of our prospecting system.”
