Build the stack around questions, not features
Most investors end up with a collection of tools rather than a research system. They subscribe to a comp platform, a skip-tracing service, a county data aggregator, and a deal-analysis spreadsheet — and then run each one in isolation. The problem is not the tools themselves. It is the absence of a defined sequence that forces each tool to answer a specific question before the deal moves forward.
A useful market research stack answers four questions in a fixed order: What is the property worth repaired? Who controls the asset and can they actually sell? Is there real buyer demand in this submarket? And which exit — wholesale, fix-and-flip, or hold — produces an acceptable return given the numbers? Every tool in the stack should map to one of those four questions. If it does not, it is a distraction.
A market research stack is only useful if it answers four specific questions before an offer is made — valuation, ownership, demand, and exit options.
Question one: What is the property worth repaired?
After-repair value (ARV) is the load-bearing number in almost every deal. Get it wrong and every downstream calculation — max offer, assignment fee, repair budget — is built on a bad foundation. The reliable approach is to pull comps from at least two independent sources, compare them, and reconcile any gap before accepting a number. MLS-sourced sales data and county recorder data often disagree on the same transaction because of timing lags and data-entry differences. Using both surfaces that gap early.
When selecting comps, prioritize sales within the last 90 days, within a half-mile radius, and within 20 percent of the subject property's square footage. If the submarket is thin — fewer than five qualifying sales — widen the time window before widening the geography. A comp from the same street 120 days ago is almost always more reliable than a comp from a different neighborhood last month. Document the comps you rejected and why; that reasoning is what makes an ARV defensible to a buyer, lender, or partner.
