Where do you find your comps in Houston?

[Josiah Hulsey]

Hello,

I am a new real estate investor living in Houston and do not have access to the MLS. I have not decided if I will be investing within Houston (its a super hot market right now and honestly the property taxes and Hurricane threats are a drag), but I am trying to do research on some areas of Houston to see if I can make the numbers work. My typical workflow involves going to popular websites (Zillow, Redfin, etc...) and looking at the recently sold homes in the area I'm looking at. This is usually a sufficient workflow to get a feel for if an area will work for me or not. However, the majority of listings on the just sold sections of the popular website dont have the actual sale price listed. It usually says "price unavailable. "

Redfin does report a price, but I do not believe it is the actual sale price because if you look closely on the "just sold page" it reads "last listing price" and not "sale price".

I also looked on HAR and did not find a just sold section.

I know the ultimate answer is to build a relationship with a real estate agent and use him/her to run my comparables. That is my ultimate goal. However, I would really like to at least get a general feel if the numbers will work in the areas im looking before I go through the hassle of interviewing real estate agents.

So for those of you who don't have access to the MLS in the Houston market, how do you do your comps?

Thanks,

Josiah