Comparable Sales (Comps)

Definition

Comparable sales (comps) are closed transactions of properties similar to the subject — by location, size, age, condition, bed/bath count, and lot — used to triangulate a fair market value. Comp quality drives ARV quality: a thin or non-parity comp set is the single most common source of fix & flip mispricing.

Worked example

For a 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,800 sqft renovated SFR, ideal comps are renovated 3/2 SFRs of 1,700–1,900 sqft sold within 0.5 miles in the last 90 days. Five high-parity comps produce a tight ARV band; one comp produces a guess.

How DealIntel uses it

DealIntel runs a confidence-weighted comp engine that filters by recency, distance, size, and renovation parity, and reports a 'comp confidence' score on every ARV. Low-confidence comp sets trigger a Kill List flag for the user to manually verify.

Related terms

• After Repair Value · ARVThe estimated market value of a property after planned renovations are complete.
• Capitalization Rate · Cap RateThe annual unlevered return of an income property, expressed as a percentage of its value.

Matt Abadi is the founder of DealIntel. He leads the development of the platform's six-strategy underwriting engine, 25-point Kill List, and Monte-Carlo financial model — the institutional analysis stack DealIntel applies to every fix and flip deal. DealIntel was founded in 2025 with the central thesis that knowing when not to invest is the most valuable number on the page.