Comparable Sales Strength Ranker
Takes the homeowner's subject property and a set of candidate comparable sales and ranks which comps are the strongest evidence for an appeal, so the homeowner leads with the three or four that actually move a board rather than burying them in a long, uneven list. For each candidate the tool weighs the four things a review board and an appraiser care about: how recently the sale closed (a stale sale carries little weight and may fall outside the legal comparable-sale window), how close it is to the subject, how similar it is in living area, bed/bath count, lot, age, condition, and features, and whether it was a genuine open-market arm's-length transaction rather than a foreclosure, short sale, estate or intra-family transfer, or other distressed deal. It returns the strongest three comps in ranked order with a one-line reason for each, and separately flags any weak comps with the specific reason they are weak (too old, too far, too dissimilar, or not arm's-length) so the homeowner can drop or de-emphasize them. It does not compute adjustment dollars or a final opinion of value - that is the job of the comp-adjustment tool; this tool only triages which sales are worth presenting.
Example
Input: Subject: 412 Cedar Ln; 2,400 sq ft; 4 bed / 2.5 bath; built 2006; good condition, no pool, backs to a greenbelt. Lien date: Jan 1, 2026. Candidate comps: (A) 0.2 mi, same subdivision, 2,350 sf, 4/2.5, built 2007, sold $635,000 on Nov 2025, open-market sale; (B) 1.8 mi, different school zone, 2,500 sf, 4/3, built 1998, sold $690,000 on Sept 2025, open-market sale; (C) 0.4 mi, 2,450 sf, 4/2.5, built 2005, sold $602,000 on Oct 2025, listed as a bank-owned REO sale; (D) 0.3 mi, same subdivision, 2,300 sf, 3/2.5, built 2006, sold $628,000 on Aug 2025, open-market sale; (E) 0.6 mi, 2,420 sf, 4/2.5, built 2007, sold $648,000 on Feb 2022, open-market sale.
Output: Strongest three comps: 1. Comp A - 412... same subdivision, 0.2 mi away, near-identical size (2,350 vs 2,400 sf) and layout (4/2.5), closed only about two months before the Jan 1, 2026 lien date; it needs almost no adjustment, so it is the single most persuasive sale. 2. Comp D - same subdivision, 0.3 mi away, similar size and age; one fewer bedroom (3 vs 4) is a small, easily explained difference, and the August 2025 sale is well within the recency window. 3. Comp B - same size class and a recent (Sept 2025) open-market sale, but it sits 1.8 mi away in a different school zone and is older (1998), so it is the weakest of the three and should be used as support, not as the lead. Weak comps (drop or de-emphasize): - Comp C - NOT ARM'S-LENGTH: it is a bank-owned REO sale, which does not reflect open-market value; a board will discount it, and its low $602,000 price would actually undercut your credibility if you lead with it. - Comp E - TOO OLD: the February 2022 sale is roughly four years before the Jan 1, 2026 lien date, well outside the 24-month window (and beyond even the 36-month window large Texas counties allow), so it does not qualify as a comparable sale. Three usable arm's-length comps remain (A, D, B), so you do not need to find more - lead with A and D.
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