Comparable sales — "comps" — are the foundation underneath nearly every value-related estimate Reaixo produces, from a home value range to an offer-price scenario to evaluating whether an asking price holds up. This page explains how they're actually selected and used.
What Makes a Sale "Comparable"
- Property type — single-family, twin, condo, etc. matched to the subject property, not mixed across types.
- Size — similar square footage, since price scales with size but not always linearly.
- Age and construction era — homes built in a similar period tend to share systems, layouts and finish expectations.
- Location — same immediate area, ideally the same school district and comparable access to amenities.
- Condition — renovated vs. original, to the extent that information is available.
- Recency — how close the sale date is to today, with more recent sales weighted more heavily.
No single factor determines a match on its own — a strong comparable scores well across most of these criteria, not just one or two.
Closed Sales Over Active Listings
Recency and Weighting
Markets move. A comparable sale from the last 60-90 days generally carries more weight than one from a year ago, particularly in a market where prices are shifting quickly. When recent, closely-matched sales are scarce, the model widens the search radius or time window rather than relying on a single thin data point — but flags the resulting estimate with lower confidence.
What Happens After Comps Are Selected
Selected comparables feed into an adjustment process — for size, condition, age, lot and specific features — that produces a final value range. See the Home Value Methodology page for exactly how those adjustments combine.
Limitations
In markets with very few recent sales, or for properties with unusual features that don't have a good comparable match, confidence is necessarily lower — no methodology can manufacture data that doesn't exist. That's exactly the kind of situation where a licensed appraiser's in-person judgment adds the most value.
Related terms: Comparable Sales, Price Per Square Foot in the full glossary.