Real estate comps: what they are and how to find them

Price a listing too high and it sits. Price it too low and your client leaves money on the table. Comps are how agents land on the right number, and pulling good ones is a skill you can learn this week.

This guide covers what real estate comps are, the five places agents find them, what separates a good comp from a misleading one, and how a CMA differs from an appraisal. It closes with the two comp questions the licensing exam loves to ask.

Quick answers

What are comps in real estate?

Real estate comps are recently sold properties similar to the home you're pricing, used to estimate its current market value. Comps, short for comparables, are the sale prices of nearby, similar homes that serve as evidence of what buyers will pay.

Sold prices are the whole game. Listing prices show what sellers hope for. Sold prices show what the market said yes to. When you price a listing or write an offer from comps, you're backing your number with receipts, and clients trust a number with receipts.

What makes a good comp?

A good comp matches the subject property on location, timing, size, and condition. The tighter the match, the more the sale price tells you.

Run every candidate through the USRT Good Comp Checklist:

Three to five comps that pass this list beat 10 loose ones. When two comps disagree, trust the one that matches on more factors, especially location and timing.

How do you find real estate comps?

Agents find comps in the MLS first, then fill the gaps with title records, public data, and consumer portals. Five sources cover nearly every situation:

1. The MLS. The multiple listing service (MLS) is the shared database where agents list properties and record final sale prices. It's the most complete and current source of sold data, and membership comes with your license and board dues. New to it? Watch our video on what the MLS is.
2. Your title representative. Title reps can pull county-recorded sales, including deals that never touched the MLS. According to the National Association of Realtors' 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 5% of sales were for sale by owner, an all-time low, but in a thin market those few extra data points matter. More on that in the problems with for sale by owner.
3. County records. Recorded deeds and assessor data are free and public. The trade-off is lag time, since sales can take weeks to show up.
4. RPR. Realtors Property Resource is free with NAR membership and layers public records over MLS data in one report.
5. Consumer portals. Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com give you a fast read from your phone. Treat their estimates as a starting point and verify against MLS sold data before a number reaches your client.

What's the difference between a CMA and an appraisal?

A CMA is an agent's comp-based pricing opinion, while an appraisal is a licensed appraiser's formal value opinion, and lenders only accept the appraisal. A comparative market analysis (CMA) is the report an agent builds from comps to recommend a listing price or offer price.

Both rely on the same logic: recent sales of similar homes predict value. An appraiser applies it with stricter rules, required adjustments, and a license on the line. Your CMA sets the price that attracts the buyer. The appraisal decides whether the lender funds that price. Buyers sometimes confuse the appraisal with the inspection, and we split those apart in appraisals vs. inspections.

A tight CMA also carries the pricing conversation. Sellers push back on feelings, not on five matching sold prices, and that's half of negotiating in real estate.

How do comps show up on the real estate exam?

The exam tests comps through the sales comparison approach, and it loves one trap: which property gets adjusted. The sales comparison approach is the appraisal method that values a property by adjusting the sale prices of comparable properties.

The rule: you adjust the comp, never the subject. If the comp has a pool and your subject doesn't, subtract the pool's value from the comp's sale price. If the subject has a garage the comp lacks, add the garage's value to the comp. The subject's price is the unknown, so it can't be adjusted.

Expect the exam to also check that you know a CMA is not an appraisal, and that only a licensed appraiser can be paid to give a formal opinion of value for a lender. Comps sit in a cluster of terms worth drilling, and our 99 real estate vocabulary terms list covers the rest.

The takeaway

Comps turn pricing from a guess into an argument you can defend: same area, same size, sold last quarter, here's the number. Learn to pull them from the MLS, back-check with title and county records, and package them in a CMA that closes the pricing conversation.

Comps show up twice in your career: on every listing you price, and on exam day as the sales comparison approach. The US Realty Training Exam Prep package drills that approach, adjustment questions, and the rest of the tested vocab until none of it surprises you. Get the Exam Prep package and lock it in.