What's My Home Actually Worth? How We Price a Home Using IRMLS Comps

Every homeowner has typed their address into an online estimator at some point. Here's the honest version of why that number is often wrong — and what actually goes into a real valuation.

Why online estimates miss the mark

Automated valuation tools pull from public records and broad statistical models. They don't know that your kitchen was renovated last year, that the house two doors down backs up to a busy road, or that your basement has water damage nobody's disclosed yet. They're a starting guess, not a real number — and in a market where individual streets and even individual blocks can behave differently, that gap matters.

What "comps" actually means

"Comps" is short for comparable sales — recently sold homes similar enough to yours in size, condition, age, and location that they tell us something real about what buyers are actually paying right now, not what they were paying six months ago or what a formula assumes they'd pay.

We pull comps directly from IRMLS — the Indiana Regional MLS — which is the actual source of truth local agents use, not a public estimator scraping outdated or incomplete data. This gives us access to sold prices, not just list prices, plus details like concessions, days on market, and condition notes that never make it into a public-facing tool.

What we actually look at

• Recent sales within your immediate area — ideally the same neighborhood or a very close radius, not just "somewhere in your ZIP code"
• Similar size and layout — square footage, bedroom/bathroom count, and how the space is actually used
• Condition and updates — a home with a new roof and updated kitchen doesn't compare fairly to one that needs both
• Lot size and location factors — corner lot, busy street, school district, proximity to the specific amenities that matter in your county
• How the market has moved since those comps sold — a comp from eight months ago needs adjusting if the market has shifted since then

Why this matters more in some counties than others

Allen County has enough transaction volume that broad estimators do a *slightly* better job than they do in DeKalb, Noble, or Steuben County, where fewer sales means less data for an algorithm to work with — and more chance that the "comparable" homes it's using aren't actually comparable at all. In the smaller counties especially, a real, local comp analysis isn't just more accurate — it's often the only way to get a number you can actually trust.

The bottom line

An online estimate is a fine starting point for idle curiosity. It's not something to make a real decision around — whether that's pricing a listing, negotiating a sale, or just understanding your equity. A real comparative market analysis, built from actual local sales data, is the difference between a guess and a number you can act on.

Curious how your specific street or neighborhood is trending? Reach out — happy to walk through it with you directly.