How PhillyCompPro Calculates Comps, ARV, and Investor Signals

Comp scoring weights, ARV formula, exclusion rules, and data refresh cadence behind PhillyCompPro Philadelphia property comps.

PhillyCompPro scores Philadelphia comps on five weighted factors — distance (35%), sale recency (25%), square-footage similarity (20%), beds/baths similarity (10%), and property-type match (10%) — then derives a median $/sqft ARV with conservative and aggressive bands.

Data sources

Every PhillyCompPro number originates in two public Philadelphia datasets: the Office of Property Assessment (OPA) parcel record and the Department of Records real estate transfer feed. OPA provides the subject’s physical facts — square footage, beds, baths, year built, lot, and property type. The transfer feed provides every recorded sale, with grantor, grantee, sale price, and document date.

Both datasets are refreshed nightly. The platform stores the latest snapshot, never overwriting historical records, so a comp pulled today is always reproducible tomorrow.

Exclusion rules

Before any scoring runs, candidate sales are passed through exclusion filters: sheriff sales are removed because they reflect distressed pricing; $1 and other nominal deeds are removed because they reflect family transfers; obvious intra-entity restructurings (same LLC on both sides, or family-trust grantor and same-name grantee) are removed; recorded gifts and inheritance transfers are removed. What remains is the arms-length comp universe.

Comp scoring formula

Each surviving comp receives a composite score from zero to one hundred. Distance contributes 35 points on a linear decay from zero to a quarter mile. Recency contributes 25 points on a linear decay across the time window. Square-footage similarity contributes 20 points on a percentage-difference curve. Beds/baths similarity contributes 10 points (full match = full points, off-by-one = half). Property-type match contributes 10 points (rowhome to rowhome = full points, rowhome to single = zero).

The top-scoring comps drive the ARV math. The platform takes the median price-per-square-foot of the top set and multiplies by the subject’s OPA square footage. The conservative band uses the 25th-percentile $/sqft; the aggressive band uses the 75th-percentile. Confidence is calculated from comp count, score spread, and recency.

Refresh cadence and historical fidelity

OPA and transfer data refresh nightly. The platform timestamps every dataset version, so a saved comp report from last quarter can be reproduced exactly even after the city updates a record. Investor signals — cash share, repeat investors, LLC buyers, absentee owners — are recomputed weekly per ZIP.

Subject property matching — normalized address linked to its OPA account and parcel record
Recorded transfer review — sales pulled from Philadelphia Department of Records
Sale interpretation — arms-length vs nominal, distressed flags, sheriff sales excluded
Comp ranking logic — distance, recency, similarity, sale quality, transfer type
ARV support range — conservative / base / aggressive anchored to qualifying comparable sales
Investor signals — cash share, repeat investors, LLC buyers, and absentee-owner activity by ZIP

Frequently asked questions

Why exclude sheriff sales?

Sheriff sales reflect distressed clearing prices, not market value. Including them would bias the ARV downward for any nearby investor deal.

Can the methodology be audited?

Yes. Every comp links back to the source City of Philadelphia record. The exclusion rules, scoring weights, and ARV formula are documented on this page and apply uniformly to every report.

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