Commercial real estate comps are recent sales and leases of similar nearby properties, used to support a property's value, rent, and cap rate. To find them, pull verified sale and rent comparables near the subject, filter by radius, property type, and recency, then compare price, price per square foot, cap rate, and size against your deal.
What commercial real estate comps are
A comp is a comparable property: a recent transaction close enough in location, type, size, and timing to tell you what a subject property is worth or what it should rent for. In commercial real estate there are two kinds that matter, and most deals need both.
Sale comps show what similar properties sold for: sale price, price per square foot or per acre, cap rate, size, and how recently they traded. They anchor value and cap rate.
Rent comps show what similar space is leasing for: rent per square foot, lease type, term, escalations, and free rent. They anchor the income side of the underwriting.
Why comps are the hard part of underwriting
Every lender and appraiser will test your numbers against the market. The trouble is that good comps are scattered across paid databases, county records, and broker memory, and pulling a clean set for one deal can take hours. Worse, the comps you gather in a spreadsheet rarely make it cleanly into the deal memo or the underwriting, so the story you tell a lender and the numbers you underwrite to can drift apart.
How to build a comp set on Finance Lobby
On the deal page, the Comps tab ("Market Comparables") pulls verified sale and rent comparables near your subject property automatically. From there you curate, not hunt:
Filter to what's relevant. Set the radius (1–25 miles), property type, and how recently a comp sold (6, 12, or 24 months), and sort by distance, price, price per square foot, cap rate, or your own custom order.
See it on the map. The subject sits at the center with each comp pinned at its true distance, inside a radius ring, so you can sanity-check location at a glance.
Compare against your deal. Each comp shows sale price, $/SF or $/acre, cap rate, size, sold date, distance, and zoning, and an averages row shows your subject versus the comp-set average, so an over- or under-market number is obvious immediately.
Add, remove, or restore. Bring in more comps from the available pool, drop the ones that don't fit (recoverable anytime), and reorder so the most relevant lead.
All data is drawn from verified market sources and county records.
One comp set, everywhere
This is the part that saves the most time. The comps you curate on this page are the deal's comp set everywhere. Mark a comp "In Memo & Sheet" and it flows straight into the Market Comparables section of your Deal Memo and the Underwriting Sheet, in the same order, updated the moment you change it. You build the set once, and the story a lender reads matches the numbers you underwrote to.
Why a clean comp set wins the deal
Lenders fund deals they can defend. A tight, current, well-located comp set, sitting right inside a deal memo, tells a credit team the value and rent assumptions hold up. It is the difference between "trust me" and "here's the market," and it is often what moves a deal from maybe to quoted.
Build your comp set
Underwrite your deal, build your comp set, and reach lenders on Finance Lobby.
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FAQ
What are commercial real estate comps?
Recent sales and leases of similar nearby properties used to support a subject property's value, rent, and cap rate.
What is the difference between sale comps and rent comps?
Sale comps show what similar properties sold for (price, $/SF, cap rate); rent comps show what similar space leases for (rent, term, escalations).
How do you find CRE comps?
Pull verified sale and rent comparables near the subject, filter by radius, property type, and recency, then compare against your deal. Finance Lobby does this on the deal's Comps tab.
How many comps do you need?
It varies by deal, but a defensible set is usually the closest, most recent, most similar handful. On Finance Lobby the top sale comps lead the deal memo and underwriting sheet.
Where do the comps come from?
Verified market sources and county records.