How do you find real estate 'comps'?

[Denise Smith]

Does one need to have a real estate license to access that info readily.  Obviously, I use the real estate apps...but they tend to not list a price that a property sold for.  

[Joshua Feit]

Josh here. I'm a newer buy/hold investor in the Atlanta area. Finding comps takes a little digging, but I have found I can do this without the help of a realtor. Any one app falls short, but the combination of apps can be yield some realistic data. I use a combo of Redfin, Zillow, FindCompsNow, HotPads, and Rentometer to put together an initial list of recently sold properties and rental rates.

Just as powerful is the often-overlooked resource of public records that are readily available online. In Atlanta, all of the counties have online portals with amazingly useful property data.

All the information you need is out there, but it needs to be assembled from multiple sources to gain a reasonably realistic picture.

Hope it helps. Cheers!