Chicago Cityscape added a new filter in Property Finder and Property Sales Browser that filters out sales that are likely not arms length transactions. We are excited to offer this to our members who are brokers and appraisers as this will make it easier to identify incomparable sales. 

To find arms-length transactions we are using most of the filters that the Cook County Assessor's Office uses. Our filter uses the following flags to identify if a property is not arms length:

• sale price of $10,000 or less
• uses a quit claim deed, executor deed, or beneficial interest instrument
• has no instrument type specified
• has a value for any of nine Line 10 items in the PTAX-203 form

In one of our tests we found that 17 percent of property sales in the Near West Side community area had one or more of the flags and were not considered to be an arms length transaction.