Pricing your home for the current market is a crucial first step towards a successful sale. My goal is to sell your home in the least amount of time possible and for the highest price; not just to list your home. Your home is only worth what buyers in today’s market will pay for it (not what you need or hope to get out of it).
I provide a very comprehensive CMA (comparative market analysis) to all my clients. A CMA looks at comparable:
Sold listings – Ideally sold in the last 6 months. These are the sales an appraiser will use when appraising your home for the buyer, along with the pending sales (which will likely have closed by the time your home is sold). Look long and hard at the comparable sales because those are your market value.
Active listings – Homes currently offered for sale but not under contract. These listings matter only to the extent that they are your competition for buyers.
Pending/Under Contract listings – Formerly active listings that are under contract. They have not yet closed, so they are not yet a comparable sale.
Withdrawn/Off-Market listings (market rejected) – These are properties that were taken off the market for a variety of reasons.
Expired listings – Those homes that never sold. Most likely due to price or condition. This group will reflect the highest median sales price because they did not sell and were probably unreasonably priced.
After reviewing all of these listings I then compare them to your home’s:
Location
Square Footage
Age of construction
Amenities, upgrade and conditions
A CMA is not an appraisal. A real estate appraisal is a comprehensive evaluation performed by an independent professional appraiser. Typically, a CMA prepared by an experienced agent with good knowledge of the local market is right in line with your home’s appraised value. A CMA can therefore be a very useful tool in a real estate transaction.
If you are looking for an automated report to give you a very general idea of prices in a neighborhood I suggest Value Map (click on the picture below). Value Map provides an estimated value of a property based on recent sales and current listings in our local market. This information is drawn from our local MLS.
