Total View Real Estate - Values?

Realtor.com I do not know about your area but in the Sacramento area Realtor. com will give you the sold price of homes over the last 3 months. Then i compair the homes in the same area with in a 1/2 mile of the property I want to buy.

I look at properties in a small Indiana town and Realtor.com will not show the sold price for that area.

I hope this helps. The best is still ask a Realtor for the information.

Steve

This is how I have learned to do it from many very successful investors and also from my own exploration.

I don't pay attention to zestimates but I start with Total View then go to zillow via T.V. and compare the property in question with those in the "listed" comps, so I can see the pics of the inside, so I can compare them with a more 'well rounded' criteria. Then I also look at the 'Sold' comps (actually truth be told I start with the SOLD's). When you click on the link at the bottom of the three sold comps that appear in that window at the lower right side of your screen, you will get a screen full of SOLD comps. I disregard any that are either to far away or are obviously fluke prices (way too high or low). Now 'too far' for me depends on the neighborhood and number of good comps but I like to stay under a mile as a general rule. I also disregard those that are non-comps for other reasons (way too big or small) they have to be real comps. At that point I total up the price per square foot of the remaining ones and divide that by the number of comps to get the average price per square foot. I then multiply that by the square footage of my deal property and that gives me a good average comp value.

I also just look at many of those comps on the site (no I don't drive out there, I mean view them online) and between the sold's and the listing's I can get a pretty good feel of what that house should sell for. Without leaving your home you can actually get a feel for a market if you look at a LOT of houses in a given market and keep in mind the condition when comparing them. Remember that if you are planning to fix up a house to a standard more upscale than the comps you are looking at you can expect it to sell for at least as much. Likewise, if you are only going to do the minimum and you are comparing to some very nice homes you need to keep that in mind. This is where those "current listings" with all the pics are handy.

I also don't like to bug agents for comps more than I need to and want to get an idea of the value before I do too much digging into the deal. One other tool I find useful is 'Google Earth' as I can get a very good look at the neighborhood from home.

Oh I just remembered another criteria for comps. Most don't use anything older than six months ago on a sold comp. The more recent the better.

Steve

Thanks for the info. That's great information, I just wanted to make sure... short of using a Realtor; that was the best way to get "accurate" comps.

Thanks guys.
Brian

Always happy to be helpful.

Steve

Totalview hasn't been up for a couple days, any way I use sold comps from my realtor, within a mile or less of the property, and also check out the web sites, to get a ball park number,..action+knowledge=success...............

when you search an area, just click on the boxes on the side for 'sold', and unclick 'for sale' and 'for rent' and 'make me move'

you'll see the properties sold in the area you're looking; just make sure you look at the ones for the last 90 days...

Valerie

Thanks. There just must not be a lot of activity in my area. I live in a pretty small town about an hour South of Houston, TX and the only thing Zillow is showing right now, is lots that have been recently sold.

There was one house that was sold recently for $40K but the Zestimate said it was worth $118K. Sounds like someone got a great deal.

I must still be looking at this all wrong, because this appears to be a lot of work, especially if I'm going to give the 25:1 plan a try. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with working hard, but I'm not sure I'll be able to properly evaluate enough properties to make offers on 25 a month.

I don't want to sound like a whiny baby, but TVRE said that recently sold house was worth about $121K and it sold in April of 2011 for $40K. I'm not sure what it was listed for, but with a price difference of that much... I could have easily paid too much for this house had I made an offer on it based on TVRE.

I know a lot of this has to do with my fear of failing the first time out of the blocks and no one trusting me again to continue my pursuit as a successful real estate investor, so I'm just trying to make sure I have all my bases covered.

I really appreciate everyone's help.

Thanks again.
Brian

I don't think you sound whiny, Brian. I think you sound like you are serious about wanting to do this right and you want to know what you are doing before you leap into something, possibly head first. Some of us are more cautious than others and are more analytical by nature. We are often seen as cowardly by those that don't relate to us and have a more bold or even reckless approach to things. I'm not naming names or pointing fingers here but I think we all know that is true. Evaluating a property is an absolute MUST have ability for any investor.

Now as far as using the website's values like Total View and Zillow, I have seen them come in pretty much spot on at times and I have seen them be off by over $100k as well. Now before I get a barrage of response from that statement I want to say that Total View appears to me to be a more accurate version of Zillow but may just be an average of sorts of Eppraisal and Zillow. I don't know but it appears they are looking at what data is available online from a variety of sources and compiling that into the number we see. From my observations Zillow is notoriously high with their zestimates. Total View is almost always lower than them and I believe more accurate but there are limitations to how accurate any such program and website can be.

You can't go wrong with using MLS comps from your local agent so long as they are using the criteria mentioned by Val and the other folks above. No matter what your source of comps though you have to consider the condition the property was in when it sold, the motivation of the seller, and any other possible variables effecting the ability of the seller to get it sold. Example; a seller may have just inherited the property and not wanting it or knowing or caring about max value for it just sold it to an investor that low-balled him. It could have been a divorce situation or any number of others resulting in it selling way below it's true FMV. Likewise sometimes a retail buyer falls in love with their dream home and they pay more than the FMV or even ARV to get it. These will skew the comps. When I look at comps from any source, that seem high or low, I first look at all the data and the pics to see why it sold for so high or low. It might be obvious why but either way I toss out the ones that don't make for a good comp. If it's not truly comparable to the property your evaluating than it's irrelevant.

In your situation with few properties to use for comps I think I would rely on local realtors' input. Just ask them what they would list it for in present condition.

Steve