MLS vs Public Records for Comps

For comps you need both, for different jobs: MLS sales are better for choosing comps, because the record has the closed price, photos, days on market and often concessions, and public records are better for confirming that a sale closed and for catching off-market sales the MLS never sees. In the 12 non-disclosure states, including Texas, public records don't show sale prices, so MLS data, through an agent or a tool that licenses it, is the only reliable price source there.

Disclosure: Deal Run is our product. Everything on this page works without it; it appears once, near the end.

This page is part of our guide on how to get MLS access, which covers every way to get MLS data with or without a license. Here the question is narrower: which source to trust for each piece of a comp.

What Each Source Has

What the MLS Gives You

The MLS is the database brokers use to share their listings. When a listed home sells, the listing agent closes out the record with the sale price and date. For comps, that record has what county data lacks:

• Photos and descriptions from the listing, so you can tell whether the house sold renovated, average or distressed. That is the most important call in any ARV.
• Days on market and price history: the original list price, any reductions and the final price.
• Concessions, where the MLS records them: seller-paid closing costs or repair credits. A $300,000 sale with $9,000 in concessions is really a $291,000 sale for comp purposes.
• Agent remarks: notes for other agents about condition, occupancy or why it sold cheap. These are agent-only; public sites and client portals generally don't show them.
• Sale type: standard sale, short sale, bank-owned and so on, depending on how the MLS records it.

The catch is access. Unless you're licensed, you see MLS data through an agent, a brokerage website, a portal like Redfin, or a paid tool, and each shows a different slice. The MLS access options without a license are laid out on our pillar page.

What Public Records Give You

Public records come from the county: the recorder or clerk (deeds and mortgages) and the assessor or appraisal district (property characteristics and tax values). Building departments keep permit records. Together they give you:

• Every recorded sale, including sales that never touched the MLS: investor-to-investor deals, auctions, estate and family transfers.
• Sale price in disclosure states, from the deed, the transfer tax paid or the assessor's sales file.
• Buyer and seller names, so you can see when an LLC bought and resold (usually a flip).
• Recorded mortgages: no mortgage on a purchase often means a cash buyer.
• Deed type (warranty, special warranty, quitclaim), which helps spot non-market transfers.
• Assessor characteristics and permits, useful for checking square footage and whether work was done.

Our guide on how to pull property records walks through finding these on a county website for free.

Where Each Source Misleads You

The MLS misses off-market sales

Most owner-occupant sales go through agents. In the National Association of REALTORS® 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 91% of sellers and 88% of buyers used an agent. That survey covers people buying a primary residence, though, not investors. The sales that matter most to a wholesaler, investors buying from wholesalers and each other, are often off the MLS and show up only in county records.

Public records are slower and thinner

A deed has to be recorded before it shows up, and counties and data services add their own processing time, so the newest sales may not appear for a while. Check how current your county's online records are before treating "no recent sales" as a fact. Public records also say nothing about condition: you know a house sold for $240,000, not whether it had a new kitchen.

Recorded prices can be wrong for comp purposes

Family transfers for a token amount, quitclaim deeds, portfolio sales where one price covers several houses, and seller-financed deals can all record prices that have nothing to do with market value. Filter them out (see below).

MLS prices can hide concessions and square footage can differ

If the MLS record doesn't show concessions, the headline price overstates what the seller netted. And the square footage an agent lists can differ from the assessor's number; when the two disagree by a lot, find out why before you compute price per square foot.

Non-Disclosure States

In some states the sale price isn't part of the public record. Property data company ATTOM lists 12: Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri (some counties), Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Other sources count slightly differently. In these states:

• County records still show that a sale happened, when, and who bought it, but generally not the price.
• The appraisal district's value is a tax assessment, not a sale price.
• Public sites may show sold homes without prices. NAR's listing-display policies let an MLS withhold the sale price from public and client-portal displays where actual sale prices aren't available from public records.

That leaves an agent's MLS search, local investors and title companies you work with, or a paid tool with sale-price data for that market. Our non-disclosure states guide covers the workarounds in more detail.

Which Source Do You Need?

• ARV for a flip: renovated sales, which means MLS photos and descriptions. Confirm each sale on the county record where prices are public.
• What an investor will pay you on a wholesale deal: public records. Recent cash purchases by LLCs and repeat buyers near the house show what investors pay for houses in that condition.
• Very recent sales: MLS, because the county may not have them yet.
• Rural or low-volume areas: both, plus a wider radius and longer time window; see comping rural properties.
• Who owns it and what they owe: public records.

How to Filter Public Records Comps

• Remove token-amount transfers. $0, $10 and $100 deeds are almost always family, trust or entity transfers.
• Check the deed type. Warranty and special warranty deeds are typical for sales; quitclaims are often non-market transfers.
• Watch for related parties. An LLC selling to an LLC with the same manager isn't a market sale.
• Flag sales far below the others. A price at half the area's typical sale may be distressed, a partial interest or a non-arm's-length deal. Find out which before you use it.
• Look for multiple parcels on one deed. Portfolio sales spread one price across several houses.

How to Combine Both

1. Pull MLS sold comps (from an agent or a site that shows MLS sales) within your radius and time window.
2. Pick 3–5 that match the subject's size, type and finished condition, using the photos and remarks.
3. Confirm each sale's price and date on the county record where prices are public.
4. Search the county records for off-market sales on the same streets that the MLS missed, especially investor purchases.
5. Adjust for differences such as an extra bath or a garage; see comp adjustments explained.
6. Check your number against current pending and active listings; see pending vs sold comps.

The full comp method, from choosing a radius to turning comps into an ARV, is in our real estate comps guide.

Doing This in Deal Run

Deal Run is our product. Enter a property's address and it pulls sold and rental comps and calculates ARV in all 50 states, and carries that into repair estimates from the property's photos and a max offer. Check its comps the same way you'd check any source. The public demo on the homepage lets you enter an address and see the analysis before you pay; Analyze is $29/mo, and Analyze + Sell is $99/mo. Or pay per deal: $2 to analyze, $20 with 100 buyers. See how comp analysis works in Deal Run.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are MLS comps more accurate than public records?

For judging a comp, usually yes. The MLS record has the closed price plus photos, remarks, days on market and often concessions, so you can tell whether the house sold renovated or distressed. Public records are better at proving a sale happened and catching off-market sales, but they say nothing about condition. Use MLS sales to pick comps and the county record to verify them.

Do public records show what a house sold for?

In most states, yes: the sale price is on the deed, in transfer tax records or in the assessor's sales data. In the 12 non-disclosure states, including Texas and Utah, it generally is not, so public records show that a sale happened and when, but not the price.

Can I get MLS comps without an agent?

You can see MLS-sourced sold listings on public sites such as Redfin, and some paid investor tools license MLS data in the markets they cover. What you can't get without an agent or your own license is the agent-side record, including private remarks. An agent who pulls sold comps for you is still the most reliable free route.

Why are some sales missing from the MLS?

The MLS only has homes that were listed through a broker. Sales between investors, wholesale deals, sales to family, auctions and other off-market deals never go on the MLS, so they only show up in public records. In investor-heavy neighborhoods those can be some of the most useful sales for knowing what investors pay.

Which source should I use for wholesale comps?

Both, for two different numbers. Use renovated MLS sales for the ARV your buyer will resell at, and use public records to see what investors recently paid for houses like yours, which tells you what your buyer will offer. A cash purchase with no mortgage recorded is often an investor buy.

Sources and Check Dates

• National Association of REALTORS®, "First-Time Home Buyer Share Falls to Historic Low of 21%, Median Age Rises to 40" (November 4, 2025) — nar.realtor — 91% of sellers and 88% of buyers used an agent; primary-residence buyers, July 2024 to June 2025. Checked October 29, 2026.
• ATTOM, non-disclosure states (article dated October 31, 2022) — attomdata.com — the list of 12 non-disclosure states. Checked October 29, 2026.
• NAR, Handbook on Multiple Listing Policy, 2025 edition (PDF) — nar.realtor — IDX and VOW rules allowing an MLS to withhold sale prices where they aren't publicly accessible, and agent-only fields. Checked October 29, 2026.
• Redfin, Data Quality on Redfin — redfin.com — Redfin shows broker-listed homes from the MLS and US past sales records. Checked October 29, 2026.

Related Articles

• How to Get MLS Access as an Investor
• Non-Disclosure States: Complete List
• How to Pull Property Records Online
• How to Find Historical Fair Market Value
• Real Estate Comps: How to Pull and Analyze
• How to Get Comps Without MLS
• Best Property Data Tools
• Privy Review