Ways to get comps

Key ingredients are location, sq footage (calculate your own rather than relying on listing or gut feel), number of bed rooms and bathrooms, condition of the apt, light and view. Last two are the most subjective in terms of pricing. Find comp sales in the building and general location and adjust for the above mentioned factors and market condition. Keep in mind that exact comps are hard to come by.

Also, why would not want to use a buyers broker as some like Keith Burkhardt will give you some money back in addition to fair value opinion.

Sorry, forgot to mention, pre war, post war or newish construction. Also, maintenance and taxes need to be factored in.

Thank you 300_Mercer. Your advice is helpful. As for buyer's broker, so far we weren't lucky enough to find one who is truly working for us. They tend to rush us to a decision, and really don't provide much insight on the sale price. I am sure there are brokers out there doing this, but we just didn't run into one yet. However, your idea of using fee based independent NYC real estate expert might be something we might pursue.

Just use an appraiser. They will charge $1000 per appraisal. Jonathan miller, I believe has a consultancy firm. Think, you will get tired of this soon as in order to get a deal done, by definition, you will be the top bidder despite every buyer thinking he/she got a good deal. Deals of 2009-11 are gone. In addition, if you care about valuations that much, you need to go to open houses and put in a few bids and see what actual sales price were. You may decide that market is too expensive for your liking.