A CMA Can Help You Set Your Listing Price
What is a CMA?
If you're considering selling your home, one of the first steps you'll want to take is to request a Comparative Market Analysis or CMA for your property. A CMA is an informal estimate of market value, based on sales of comparable properties in your area. It generally takes into account various aspects of your home, including size, features, and annual ownership costs. Reviewing comparable homes that have sold within the past year, along with the listing or asking price on current homes for sale, should help you determine a fair sale price for your property.
CMAs can include homes that are currently for sale and those which have recently sold. They can cover areas as narrow as one or two streets surrounding your home, or as broad as an entire subdivision.
A CMA contains valuable information on several recent sales, including:
How long each property stayed on the market?
How close the sale price was to the asking price?
Notes comparing each home to yours-number of bedrooms and baths, approximate square footage, sizes of major rooms, amenities such as fireplaces and pools, age of the home, property taxes, and more.
Price it Right
When you're ready to sell, don't make the mistake of overpricing. It could prove costly if it slows down the sale or makes other homes look like a better value.
If you overprice your home, you could easily disappoint buyers who will compare your home to other homes within the same price range. Plus, you may eliminate a pool of potential buyers who are shopping for homes priced closer to your home's true market value -- causing you to lose customers during the crucial first weeks that your home is on the market. And the longer your home stays on the market, the more buyers may begin to reason that there is something wrong with the property.
A CMA is not an appraisal but is similar to an appraisal. An appraisal is more in-depth snapshot of the current value of your home. An appraisal is usually ordered by the buyer's mortgage company during the sale process.