Pricing

A comp is a home like yours that already sold

Comp is short for comparable sale. Buyers' agents price from comps. Appraisers price from comps, and the appraisal is what the buyer's lender will actually lend against. So comps are not one opinion among several — they're the number your sale has to survive.

What has to match

• Same bedroom count. A 3-bed and a 4-bed are two different buyers, not two versions of the same home.
• Same bathroom count, within half a bath.
• Within 20% of your square footage, up or down.
• Same property type — house to house, condo to condo, townhome to townhome.
• Same neighborhood, or same zip and same school attendance area.
• Sold in the last 90 days, and closed — not listed, not pending.

Work down this list in order. The first three are close to non-negotiable; the last two are where judgment comes in.

Doing the 20% math

• 1,200 sq ft → look at 960 to 1,440.
• 1,800 sq ft → look at 1,440 to 2,160.
• 2,400 sq ft → look at 1,920 to 2,880.
• 3,000 sq ft → look at 2,400 to 3,600.

Take your square footage, multiply by 0.8 for the floor and 1.2 for the ceiling. Anything outside that band is a different home.

What doesn't count, however tempting

• Active listings. That's what someone hopes to get, not what anyone paid.
• Pending sales — the price isn't final until it closes.
• Anything sold more than six months ago, unless your area is very quiet.
• A sale between family members, a trust or probate sale, or a foreclosure.
• A home across a freeway, a canyon, or a school boundary, even if it's close on a map.
• Your neighbor's story about what they “were offered.”

Three good comps beat ten loose ones

• Three matches — you have a price.
• Only one or two — widen the radius before you widen the square footage.
• Still nothing — your home is unusual, and a band is the honest answer, not a number.

Once you have three that genuinely match, stop widening the search. Every comp you add by loosening the criteria pulls your number toward homes that aren't yours.

Then adjust for the differences

• Condition and updates move the number most — a renovated kitchen and baths can be 3–5%.
• A view, a usable yard, or a quiet street: meaningful, and very local.
• Garage spaces, central air, solar that's owned rather than leased.
• Condos: the HOA dues matter as much as the square footage. A $700 difference in dues moves what a buyer can borrow.

No two homes are identical, so you adjust the comp toward your home. Roughly, in San Diego:

The first 10 days decide it

• Your listing gets the most views in its first 10 days.
• Every agent with a buyer in your range sees it the day it goes live.
• Price it right on day one and those buyers make offers.
• Price high and “reduce later,” and the buyers who'd have paid full price have already moved on.
• Reduced listings sell for less on average than listings priced right from the start.

Price on the edge of a band

Buyers search in ranges: up to $1M, $1M to $1.25M. A home at $1,010,000 is invisible to everyone searching up to $1M. If your number lands just over a round one, price just under it instead. More eyes, more offers.

What the Zestimate actually is

• An automated guess from public records and nearby sales.
• It has never seen your kitchen, your view, or your street.
• Typically off by 5–10% on a San Diego home, and more on view lots, remodels, and condos with very different HOA dues.
• Fine as a starting point. Never a list price.