Comps

Hello, my name is Sean from SC and I am brand new to Investing. I am interested in Flipping some properties and need some advice on obtaining Comps. Your comments on this subject will be greatly appreciated.

Howdy SWB:

One way to get comps is to drive the area and find houses for sale and get the asking prices. A better way is to gat a Realtor to punch the keys and give you a list of properties that have actually sold. You may also get an appraiser to give you the same list. If you have to pay for either of these reports you should be able to spend about $50 to $100 per property.

Thanks for the info Ted, do you know of any websites that I could use to get the same info? Have you ever heard of or used dataquick?

Go to the search engines (google) and type in real estate comps… Also, look at the articles on this site… They talk about comps and the web sites you can get them from…

realestate.yahoo.com/realestate/homevalues/

Personally, Google has some of the worst search engines. The problem with most real estate sites is that they are poorly updated. Realtors in my area have this attitude that they are celebrities or something. They just sell houses and are very overpaid. This is my opinion.
Secondly, you could either hook up with a realtor or just try to monitor the prices yourself. You want to limit your out of pocket expenses in any transaction. Why give away money when you can put it to better use?

Good luck!

JOHN