Comparables

See it in action

Opening the Comparables tab on a Queen’s Park flat, scrolling the sold and on-market results, then un-starring one comparable and watching the averages and the estimated GDV recalculate.

How it works

1. 1

   Choose what evidence you want

   A short set of questions asks which comparables to search for: sold prices, properties on the market, or rentals. Pick any combination. Then set your criteria — how far to search, property type, tenure, bedroom range, and how many results per type (6, 10 or 20). Sold searches also ask how far back to look. On-market and rental searches ask for a price or rent range, how recently it was listed, and whether to include SSTC listings.

2. 2

   Results come back in one panel per type

   Each panel says exactly what it searched for, such as “Showing comparable sales for flats, sold in the last 2 years, within 0.5 miles”, plus how many it found. Every result shows the address, bedrooms, floor area, property type, price, date and price per square foot. There is a link to the same search on Rightmove if you want to check it yourself.

3. 3

   Star the ones you trust

   Everything arrives starred, so your job is to remove rather than pick. Un-star anything you would not show a lender: the wrong street, an odd extension, a listing that has sat too long. It fades out and drops out of the maths straight away. Star it again to bring it back. You can add a note to any result, or paste a Rightmove link to add one the search missed.

4. 4

   The averages update as you go

   A panel above the results holds the running numbers and follows you down the page. It shows average sold price and price per square foot, the same for on-market, average monthly rent, and an overall average GDV. Only starred results count. Rentals feed the rent average only — they are left out of the price per square foot and GDV figures, because rent tells you about yield, not value.

5. 5

   Your starred set produces a GDV

   Every time you star or un-star something, the GDV is worked out again. It is calculated two ways and then averaged: the average sale price of your starred results, and their average price per square foot multiplied by your property size. If the floor area is not known, it uses the average sale price on its own. A line underneath tells you how many comparables went into the figure.

6. 6

   It fills in your Deal Analysis

   The GDV is saved onto the property, and a “Saved to Deal Analysis” tick confirms it. It then appears in the GDV field of the Deal Analysis wizard, marked “Pre-filled from comparable sales average”. Type over it whenever you want. Your own figure always wins, and the comparables number stays underneath, unchanged.