The shortcut every agent uses
Every agent runs the same shortcut: take nearby sales, divide by square feet, multiply by the subject. It feels like analysis because there is arithmetic in it. Here are six sales worked three ways — raw, by price per foot, and properly adjusted — so you can see exactly what the shortcut costs.
All within a mile and a third, all closed in the last two months. As they come off the MLS they look almost useless — the cheapest and the dearest are $217,000 apart.
| Size | Notable | Sold | $/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,050 sq ft | no pool, carport, 1994 | $493,500 | $240.73 |
| 2,120 sq ft | no pool, 1-car garage, 1999 | $506,500 | $238.92 |
| 2,300 sq ft | no pool, carport, 2001 | $550,000 | $239.13 |
| 2,480 sq ft | near twin, 2007 | $633,500 | $255.44 |
| 2,620 sq ft | 5 bed / 3 bath, 2012 | $673,000 | $256.87 |
| 2,900 sq ft | 5 bed / 3.5 bath, carport, 2015 | $710,500 | $245.00 |
These are the six closed sales in our sample report — same subject, same comps, same adjustments. Every figure below can be checked against it line by line.
Price per foot does something real: it takes that $217,000 spread down to $43,990. That is why agents trust it — it genuinely helps. Apply each sale’s rate to 2,450 sq ft:
| Sale | $/sq ft | × 2,450 sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| 2,120 sq ft · no pool, 1-car garage | $238.92 | $585,342 |
| 2,300 sq ft · no pool, carport | $239.13 | $585,870 |
| 2,050 sq ft · no pool, carport | $240.73 | $589,793 |
| 2,900 sq ft · 5 bed / 3.5 bath, carport | $245.00 | $600,250 |
| 2,480 sq ft · near twin | $255.44 | $625,837 |
| 2,620 sq ft · 5 bed / 3 bath | $256.87 | $629,332 |
Average of $246.02 per foot × 2,450 sq ft = $602,737.
A $43,990 range, and you still have to pick a number inside it.
Same six sales. Same subject. This time every difference the model measures is priced — size, lot, bedroom count, bathrooms, pool, garage versus carport, how far the sale is from the subject and how long ago it closed — and the adjustment is applied to the sale price:
| Sale | Sold | Net adjustment | Adjusted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,050 sq ft · no pool, carport, 1994 | $493,500 | +$129,900 | $623,400 |
| 2,120 sq ft · no pool, 1-car garage, 1999 | $506,500 | +$118,100 | $624,600 |
| 2,300 sq ft · no pool, carport, 2001 | $550,000 | +$76,000 | $626,000 |
| 2,480 sq ft · near twin, 2007 | $633,500 | -$3,100 | $630,400 |
| 2,620 sq ft · 5 bed / 3 bath, 2012 | $673,000 | -$43,500 | $629,500 |
| 2,900 sq ft · 5 bed / 3.5 bath, carport, 2015 | $710,500 | -$78,700 | $631,800 |
Six sales spanning $217,000 now agree within $8,400.
That agreement is the point. It is not that the adjustments produce a nicer number — it is that once the differences are priced, six independent sales converge on the same answer. That convergence is the evidence.
That $627,617 is a straight average of the six adjusted prices. The full report weights them by TruComp Rating instead, and lands at $628,426.
Here is exactly why it missed. Three of the six sales have no pool. Their price per foot is dragged down by a missing pool — and price per foot cannot see a pool, so it quietly carries that discount across to a home that has one. The same thing happens with the three carports. None of it is visible in a single number, and all of it is in the price.
On a listing appointment that is the difference between $602,737 and $627,617. Price it off the shortcut and the seller leaves roughly twenty-five thousand dollars on the table — or, when the comps skew the other way, you overprice it and sit.
A free instant estimate is this same shortcut with more data behind it. It is a price-per-foot multiplier applied to a whole home, tuned across a large sample. More sophisticated, same blind spot: one number cannot represent a pool, a garage, a lot, and how long ago it sold at once.
That is not a criticism of the arithmetic — the arithmetic is fine. It is a limit of the method. And it is the reason an estimate can be reasonable across ten thousand homes and wrong on the one in front of you, which is the only one your seller cares about.
A Truppraisal report does not give you a better multiplier. It does the thing a multiplier cannot do — prices each difference separately, shows every line, and lets six sales argue their way to one number you can defend out loud.