Running Comps: How to Determine After Repair Value Like an Appraiser

Before you make a single offer on a wholesale deal, you need to answer one critical question: What will this property be worth after it's fully renovated? That number — the After Repair Value (ARV) — is the foundation of every profitable wholesale transaction. Get it right, and your deals make sense. Get it wrong, and you'll either overpay for properties or walk away from deals that could have made you money.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to run comparable sales analysis the same way a licensed appraiser would — systematically, objectively, and with enough precision to make confident offers. No MLS access required.

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What Is ARV and Why Does It Drive Everything?

After Repair Value (ARV) is the estimated market value of a property after it has been fully renovated to a competitive, retail-ready condition. It is not the current as-is value. It is not what the seller thinks it's worth. It is what a qualified buyer with conventional financing would pay for the property once it looks its best.

Every number in a wholesale deal flows backward from ARV:

• Your end buyer (the rehabber) calculates their Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO) using ARV
• Your assignment fee lives inside the gap between what you pay and what the rehabber will pay
• The rehabber's profit, holding costs, and renovation budget are all percentages of ARV

If your ARV is inflated by even 10%, the entire deal math collapses. A property with a true ARV of $200,000 that you mistakenly value at $220,000 could cost your buyer $20,000 in profit they never had. That buyer won't come back to you for deals.

The goal: Determine ARV so accurately that your end buyer looks at your comp analysis and says, "This person did their homework."

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The Core Principle: Apples to Apples

Comparable sales analysis — commonly called running comps — is the process of finding recently sold properties that closely resemble your subject property in its repaired condition and using those sales to estimate value.

The non-negotiable rule is apples to apples. You cannot compare: - A single-family home to a duplex - A 1,400 sq ft house to a 2,200 sq ft house - A renovated home to one that sold in distressed condition - A property that sold for cash at a steep discount to one sold with conventional financing

This last point deserves special attention. Always use financed sales as your comps, not cash sales. Cash buyers — typically investors — purchase at a discount to build in their own profit margin. If you use cash sales to set your ARV, you'll undervalue the property and potentially kill deals that should work. Financed sales reflect what retail buyers actually pay at full market value, which is exactly what you're trying to estimate.

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The 6-Step ARV Calculation Process

Here is a repeatable, systematic process for calculating ARV on any property:

Step 1: Document Your Subject Property's Key Characteristics

Before you can find comparable sales, you need to know exactly what you're comparing. Pull these details on your subject property:

• Property type (single-family, townhome, condo — never mix these)
• Bedrooms and bathrooms
• Square footage (heated/living area only — do not include garage or unfinished basement)
• Lot size
• Year built
• Construction type (brick, frame, stucco)
• Garage (attached, detached, or none)
• Special features (pool, corner lot, water view)
• Zip code and neighborhood

This becomes your benchmark. Every comp you evaluate will be measured against these characteristics.

Step 2: Set Your Search Parameters

Use these filters as your starting point when pulling comps:

• Time frame: Sold within the last 6 months. In fast-moving markets, tighten this to 3 months. In slow markets, you may need to stretch to 9–12 months, but note that adjustment in your analysis.
• Radius: Within a half-mile of the subject property. Expand to one mile only if you cannot find sufficient comps within a half-mile, and only within the same neighborhood or subdivision.
• Square footage: Within ±20% of the subject property's square footage. For a 1,500 sq ft home, that means comps between 1,200 and 1,800 sq ft.
• Bed/bath count: Match exactly when possible. A 3-bed/2-bath subject property should be compared to other 3-bed/2-bath sales.
• Condition: Renovated, updated, or move-in ready — not distressed or heavily dated.

Step 3: Pull Comps Using Available Tools

You don't need MLS access to run solid comps. Here are three tools that give wholesalers reliable data:

Propelio is one of the most wholesaler-friendly platforms available. It allows you to search sold properties by radius, filter by bed/bath count and square footage, and — critically — view photos of each comp so you can assess its condition. This photo review step is something many beginners skip, and it's a costly mistake. A home that sold for $280,000 might have had a newly renovated kitchen, hardwood floors, and a pool. If your subject property won't have those features after renovation, that comp may need adjustment or elimination.

Redfin offers one of the most accurate and up-to-date sold data sets available to the public. Use the map view to draw a custom search area around your subject property and filter by sold date and property characteristics. Redfin also shows days on market and price reductions, which give you a feel for how competitive the area is.

Zillow is useful for a quick cross-reference and to check their Zestimate as a sanity check — not as your primary valuation source. Zillow's sold data can lag or have gaps, but it's a helpful secondary confirmation tool.

When possible, cross-reference all three. If Propelio, Redfin, and Zillow all point to a similar ARV range, you can move forward with confidence.

Step 4: Select Your 3 Best Comps

From your search results, you may find 8–15 potential comps. Your job is to narrow them down to the 3 most relevant sales — the ones that are closest in size, condition, location, and features to what your subject property will look like after renovation.

Rank your comps by similarity. The closest match gets the most weight. If one comp is 0.2 miles away, same bed/bath count, within 100 sq ft, and sold renovated 2 months ago, that comp is gold. A comp that's 0.8 miles away, 400 sq ft larger, and sold 5 months ago carries much less weight.

Step 5: Adjust for Differences

No two properties are identical, and that's where adjustments come in. When a comp has a feature your subject property will have — or lacks one it won't have — you need to account for the value difference.

Common adjustments include:

• Square footage: If a comp is 200 sq ft larger than your subject property, and the local market values space at roughly $80/sq ft, you'd adjust that comp down by $16,000 to make it equivalent to your subject.
• Garage: If your subject property has no garage but a comp does, deduct the value of a garage (often $10,000–$25,000 depending on the market).
• Pool: In markets where pools are common, a comp with a pool might be worth $15,000–$30,000 more than one without. If all your comps have pools and your subject property won't, adjust each comp down accordingly.
• Lot size: Corner lots and oversized lots often command a premium. Adjust if there's a meaningful difference.
• Construction type: Brick homes frequently sell for more than comparable frame homes in certain markets.

Propelio allows you to apply these adjustments directly within the platform, which makes the process faster and more organized. After adjustments, average your three comps to arrive at your ARV estimate.

Step 6: Bracket Your ARV

Rather than relying on a single number, experienced analysts use bracketing — identifying one comp that sold slightly below your estimated ARV and one that sold slightly above it. If your subject property falls naturally in the middle, you have strong evidence your ARV is defensible.

For example: - Comp A (slightly smaller, fewer upgrades): $215,000 - Comp B (closest match): $228,000 - Comp C (slightly larger, one extra bathroom): $241,000

Your bracketed ARV might be $225,000–$230,000, with $228,000 as your working number.

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What to Do When Comps Are Thin

Some markets — rural areas, unique properties, or neighborhoods with low turnover — don't give you the clean, abundant comp data you'd like. Here's how to handle thin data:

• Expand your radius gradually. Move from 0.5 miles to 1 mile to 1.5 miles, but only if you stay within the same neighborhood or market area. Crossing a major road, highway, or school district boundary can invalidate a comp entirely.
• Extend your time frame. Go back 9–12 months, but apply a market appreciation or depreciation adjustment if values have shifted meaningfully in that time.
• Loosen square footage filters slightly. If you can't find comps within 20%, expand to 30% and apply more aggressive square footage adjustments.
• Be transparent with your buyer. If you only have 2 solid comps, say so in your deal package. Experienced rehabbers respect honesty over false confidence. Note that the data is limited and present a conservative ARV range rather than a single number.
• Assign a wider ARV range. Instead of $215,000, present $205,000–$220,000 and use the lower end for your offer calculations to protect everyone's margin.

When data is genuinely insufficient, it's better to walk away or make a deeply conservative offer than to guess at a number that could blow up a deal.

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Building Your Deal Package Around Comps

One of the most overlooked habits of successful wholesalers is presenting a detailed comparable sales analysis with every deal they market to buyers. When you send a deal to your buyers list, include:

• The 3 comps you selected, with addresses and sold prices
• Photos of each comp (or notes on their condition)
• Your adjustments and reasoning
• Your final ARV with the bracketed range

This level of professionalism builds trust with your buyers and separates you from wholesalers who just throw a number on a flyer. Platforms like PropLeads.net help wholesalers source motivated seller leads consistently, but your reputation with buyers is built on the quality of your deal analysis — and that starts with accurate comps.

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A Quick Example: Putting It All Together

Let's say you're analyzing a 3-bed/2-bath, 1,450 sq ft single-family home in a suburban zip code. It needs a full renovation. Here's how you'd run comps:

1. You search Propelio for sold properties within 0.5 miles, sold in the last 6 months, 3/2, between 1,160–1,740 sq ft.
2. You find 7 results. After reviewing photos, you eliminate 2 that appear to have sold in distressed condition and 1 cash sale at a steep discount.
3. You're left with 4 financed sales of renovated homes. You select the 3 closest matches.
4. Comp A: 1,500 sq ft, sold for $232,000 — adjust down $4,000 for 50 extra sq ft at $80/sq ft → adjusted $228,000
5. Comp B: 1,420 sq ft, sold for $224,000 — nearly identical, no major adjustments → $224,000
6. Comp C: 1,480 sq ft, sold for $235,000 — has a pool your subject won't have, adjust down $18,000 → $217,000
7. Average of adjusted comps: ($228,000 + $224,000 + $217,000) ÷ 3 = $223,000 ARV

You now have a defensible, data-backed ARV of $223,000 to build your offer around.

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Key Takeaways

Running comps is a skill that improves with repetition. The more properties you analyze, the faster and more intuitive this process becomes. In the next lesson, we'll use this ARV to calculate your Maximum Allowable Offer — the highest price you can pay for a property while still leaving room for everyone to profit.