How to Find Comparable Homes for Your Market Appraisal

Of course it isn't possible to get a private tour of all the homes that have been sold in your neighborhood, but fortunately there's a much better alternative.

Each state has a Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, which is a database of all homes that are currently on the market or that have been sold within the past 1-2 years. You have to be a licensed realtor to access the complete database, but in almost all states now there are real estate companies that make a large part of the MLS available through their web sites. The amount of detail they include varies widely, but it's possible to find a surprising amount of MLS data through the Internet today. You probably won't find a lot of information about homes whose sales are final, but if you use the data on homes currently on the market you can still get a very good sense of what the current real estate market is like in your area.

To find web sites that offer this service, search on the phrase "multiple listing service" and include your state, city or county. You might have to be patient and look through several web sites before finding the information you need. Realtors make the MLS available as a service to homebuyers, and have no incentive to provide information to sellers who are trying to sell their own home.

In addition to information about a home's features, the full MLS database also contains information about property taxes, how long a home has been on the market (or was before it was sold), and what the home's original asking price was.

This is useful information to have, because it can help you learn from other's mistakes before you decide what your asking price will be. If you see a home that was on the market for six months or more before it was sold and the final sale price was significantly below the original asking price, it was probably overpriced to begin with. This is a serious mistake you want to avoid making.