Home Value & Pricing · Straight answer from Kathleen
What are comparable sales?
Comparables, or comps, are the recently sold homes most similar to yours that set the market's evidence for what yours is worth. The art is choosing the right ones, and the right window.
Also answered on this page
- How far back should you look at comparable sales?
A good comp is close in location, similar in size and type, and recent. On the North Shore, a comp from six months ago can already be stale, because markets here shift seasonally and by town, so I look at the last three to six months first and widen only when inventory is thin.
Then I adjust: view, lot, updates, condition, garage, finished space. No two homes are identical, so each comp gets adjusted until the picture is fair.
This is the part of pricing that separates a number from an argument. I bring you the comps so you can see the reasoning, not just the result.
On the North Shore
In low-inventory North Shore markets, especially the coastal villages and waterfront pockets, there may be few true comps, which is when experience with the town matters most: which adjustments stick and which are noise.
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Home Value & Pricing
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