Comping a house in fifteen minutes before you call back

Why fifteen minutes is the right amount of time

Spend an hour on every lead and you will underwrite ten houses a week and talk to none of them. Spend nothing and you will quote numbers you have to walk back. Fifteen minutes is enough to be in the right range and to know what you do not know, which is what the next conversation is for.

Find three sold comparables, not six active ones

Use closed sales from the last six months or so, within a short distance, of a similar size and age. Listings tell you what sellers hope; sales tell you what buyers paid. If you cannot find three, widen one dimension at a time — time first, then distance — and remember that each widening makes the number softer.

Note the condition of each comparable from its photos. A renovated comparable sets the value of the house after repairs, not as it sits today.

Estimate the after-repair value conservatively

The after-repair value is what the house would sell for once it is in the condition of your best comparables. Take the middle of your three sales, not the top. Then adjust for anything obvious: a smaller lot, a busier road, one fewer bathroom. The point is a number you could explain to a partner in two sentences.

Guess repairs by category, then round up

Before you have seen the house, you are guessing. Guess in buckets — roof, mechanicals, kitchen and baths, flooring and paint, exterior — and assign a rough figure to each from what you know of local costs. Then round the total up, because surprises in old houses only go one direction.

Write the buckets down. When the seller tells you the roof was replaced in 2019, you can take that bucket out and the number moves for a reason the seller can see.

Apply one formula, every time

Whatever formula you use to get from after-repair value and repairs to a maximum offer, use the same one on every house. Consistency is what makes your numbers credible over time, to sellers and to yourself. A formula changed to fit a house you like is a formula that no longer protects you.

The result is a ceiling, not an opening offer. Where you open, and how you move from there, is a conversation question, not an arithmetic one.

Keep the sheet

Save the comparables, the repair buckets and the formula result with the lead. When the house closes, or does not, compare what you guessed to what turned out to be true. Fifteen-minute underwriting gets better only if you check it against reality.