JB PARCELArm's length or not: why half the sales in a county are useless as comps
Every recorded transfer shows up in the sale fields: price, date, deed type. Most of them are not sales in any sense that helps you price a property. Quitclaims between relatives, transfers into trusts, foreclosures, estate distributions, and a thousand $10 "love and affection" deeds sit right next to the real ones. Assessors know this, because their own ratio studies depend on separating them, so most of them flag it.
The qualification flag
Call it a sale validity code, a qualification code, or an arm's-length flag: it is the assessor's judgment that a transfer was a market sale between unrelated parties with no unusual conditions. Qualified sales feed the reappraisal. Disqualified sales are kept for history but ignored for valuation. Where the county publishes the code, it is the single best filter you can put on a comp search. Where it does not, you make the judgment yourself with the clues below.
Clues that a sale is not a comp
| Clue | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Price of $0, $1, $10, or a round number far below value | Gift, family transfer, or a nominal deed. Not a sale. |
| Quitclaim deed (QC) | No warranty of title; typical of family, divorce and cleanup transfers |
| Trustee's deed, sheriff's deed, substitute trustee | Foreclosure or tax sale. A real price, not a market one. |
| Same last name on both sides | Family |
| Grantee is a trust with the grantor's name | Estate planning |
| Multiple parcels on one deed | A package price; you cannot divide it by parcel without the contract |
| Sale within months of a foreclosure | A flip off the courthouse steps; the second sale can be a comp, the first cannot |
| Seller is a builder, buyer is the first occupant | A new-construction sale: fine for new-build comps, wrong for resale comps |
Building a set that holds up
- Start with qualified sales only, or with the clues above applied.
- Same property type and a tight year-built band. A 1955 ranch and a 2019 build are not comps even on the same street.
- Size within about 20 percent, on the same measurement basis (assessor living area measures outside walls).
- Recent: six months in a moving market, twelve in a flat one. Then adjust for time if you must.
- Same market, which is smaller than the same zip code. A school boundary or a highway can split one.
- Three to five sales, weighted toward the closest in time and condition. Twenty sales is a spreadsheet, not a comp set.
What the assessor data gives you, and what it does not
The assessment record gives you the last sale on every parcel in the county at once, which is how you find candidates fast, plus the deed type and, in many counties, the qualification code. It does not give you condition, interior finish, or concessions, and it usually holds only the most recent sale per parcel. Our cards show the last sale, the instrument type, and the qualification code where the county publishes it, and say plainly when it does not.
Filter by sale date, price band, year built and size, then check the deed type before you call it a comp.
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