Pricing a house in Central Indiana? 6 rules for comps (bedroom count is not one)

Pricing a home by bedrooms and bathrooms is wrong. Two houses can look identical on paper and be completely different purchases.

1. Same name, different lot. Zillow might say “boat dock.” That could be a private pier, a shared community dock, or a slip you share with forty other condos (plus a very territorial goose). At Geist, Canal Place sells lower because it has very few true lakefront lots: 8 homes on the water, against 62 in Springs of Cambridge. The subdivision name can’t tell you what you’ve got. The lot can.

2. The lot questions.

• Top floor or ground level?
• Twenty acres, or twenty acres with six you can use?
• Woods behind you, or the back of another house?

3. Six comp rules.

1. Filter by neighborhood first, not the city.
2. Match within 10-15% of the square footage, not bedroom count.
3. Same number of stories.
4. Built within 10 years of each other.
5. Sold in the last 180 days. Expand to 365 if you have fewer than four.
6. Still short of four? Expand to a half mile, then further, but always in the same school district.

4. The new-build factor. How much new construction is nearby? A house in Westfield competing with brand new builds is a different story than a home in an established Broad Ripple neighborhood. A new build in Springs of Cambridge is different than Holliday Farms in Zionsville.

Price the lot. Then the house.

Want to talk about your house together? nlamkin@c21scheetz.com

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