Adjustments

Adjustments

With the comps in place, we adjust each one for how it differs from the subject, using the market's evidence, then decide how much weight each one gets. Open the Adjustments panel in the right rail. It analyzes the closed sales in the market we imported.

The Adjustments panel

Time Adjustments shows how prices moved, month by month. Here, they rose 2.8% over the six months before the effective date. Apply puts that price index on the grid's Contract Date row. Each comp is adjusted for the months between its contract date and our effective date. Feature Adjustments estimates a rate for each feature, like finished area and bedrooms, from the same sales. Treat these rates as support. The rate you apply is your call, based on all the evidence.

One rate per row

Close the panel, and select Power Adjust in the grid toolbar. It adds a column of formulas beside the subject: one rate per row, applied to every comp at once. The time adjustment from the panel is already there, on Contract Date. The oldest sales get the largest adjustments; comp 4, under contract last month, gets none.

Area, bedrooms and baths

Next, Finished Area Above Grade. Open its formula, and enter $193 per square foot, close to the panel's estimate. Small differences in area don't change value here, so add a threshold: the difference must be at least 100 square feet. Comps 1, 2 and 3 are all within 100 square feet of the subject. Bedrooms: $12,000 per bedroom. A comp with more bedrooms is adjusted down. Baths stay unadjusted. The panel's bath estimate isn't reliable from these sales, and every comp has the subject's three full baths. The adjustments land in every column. The smaller comp 4 is adjusted up for its area; comp 3, with two more bedrooms, is adjusted down.

Net and gross

Net Adjustment Total and Adjusted Price update as you go. Back in the Adjustments panel, Analysis shows each comp's net and gross adjustments as a share of its price, so a heavily adjusted sale stands out.

Most or Less weight

Now weigh the comps, in the Comparable Weight row. Comp 1 is the closest match: the same age, nearly the same area, four levels and a two-car garage. It gets Most weight. Comps 2 and 3 get Less weight: comp 2 has a one-car garage and no half bath, and comp 3 is an end unit with two more bedrooms. Comp 4 gets no weight: it's much smaller, so it needs the largest adjustment. Then enter the Indicated Value by the sales comparison approach: $405,000, inside the range of the weighted comps' adjusted prices.

Explain the analysis

Last, explain the analysis. Open the Sales Comparison Approach section. In Reconciliation of Sales Comparison Approach, say which sales got the most weight and why, and where each adjustment rate came from. Note what was left unadjusted, and why. Type it yourself, or paste it in from your notes.

Reconciliation

That completes the sales comparison approach. Next, Reconciliation.