Method to search for properties underpriced for the area

[Cooper B.]

I am wondering what methods people have found most efficient and effective for searching for listed properties in an area that are priced lower than the surrounding homes.

I bought a car recently and there was this great website that would aggregate the cars listed on a bunch of sites and every deal would get a ranking from overpriced to 'great deal' just based on comparisons with similar vehicles.

I'm trying to find some way to do a similar search with listed properties. Usually I will look at a certain area, establish kind of a range of values for that area, then start looking for prices on the low end. The problem is that this is tedious. Widening the search area does not help because the price range of the adjoining neighborhoods might be lower or higher.

What I would love to be able to do would be to search an entire metro area and only receive results that are priced in the bottom 10% for the zip code, or that are priced 25% less than other homes on the street, etc. Some might be $1m homes in a $2m neighborhood, others might be $30k homes in a $50k neighborhood, but the search function would recognize the lower relative price. I think that would be a really helpful function.

Does anyone know if something like this exists? I have local mls and have also used realtor.com, zillow, trulia, etc.

[Martin Zawarski]

having a real estate license is very important. When I do a search I check off, Available-Bank Owned-Estates. In my county that I look in there are typically over 160 properties as such always listed. I arrange them by dates and get to know each property. Even in my market one house lets say a 3-2 that is 1400sf can vary in price from 90-150,000 depending on location. So you have to know each community. I also look for price drops.

A house could be on the market for two months and get no action, the price is then dropped by $10,000 and now you have five offers.

But my point is I do this search every day. Most of the properties I bought were sold within one week of being listed. You have to be in the game and aware of what is coming on the market all the time. You snooze you loose . You really can't expect a hired realtor to do this for you unless you have a very special relationship with them. So that it cost be a couple hundred buck a year to be a realtor and have access to MLS is a bargain. I can also analyze the price almost instantly with the CRS tool. (Courthouse retrieval system) so if a home is significantly underpriced I know it and can act fast.

Acting fast is key because he who hesitates is lost!