By Paul Wallin, Realtor – Group One

A CMA, or Competitive Market Analysis is your best method to determine your home’s current value.  At one time, your home mirrored others nearby in your neighborhood (the builder may have rebuilt your model several times).  But over the course of time, your home became unique. You may have added to it, updated it, and increased its value as compared to others in your neighborhood.

If you’re starting to think about selling your home… you’ll want to start by reviewing a well thought out, properly researched CMA.  For most, a CMA is the single biggest factor in determining if they will sell their house or not.  As a potential seller, a CMA is free for you.  Do not ever pay to have one done.

There are online sites you can play with to help value your home.  But these sites are only based on past sales… so if nothing has sold near you recently then the pricing may be skewed.  As you interview agents, you’ll be able to tell who is in touch with the market as the CMA presentation should speak for itself.

How is a CMA prepared?
First, an agent will walk through your home.  Don’t worry too much about the condition of your home at this stage.  Later on when your home is for sale… the condition is a huge factor.  Let the agent know of improvement items and other changes you have made to the house.

Next, the agent will research information about comparable properties in the area using the MLS (Real Estate industry resource call the Multiple Listing Service).  The agent will review and compare homes previously sold, active listings, pending sales, and expired or cancelled listings to your home.  By taking all these homes and the stages of being sold into account, along with changes made to your home – the agent will come up a report to present to you.  Often, you will find a “price range” rather than a set price in the CMA.  Also, the agent may write up a brief explaining differences in homes.

The ultimate goal of the CMA is to provide you research to better help you make an educated guess in pricing your home.  The agent will help with this (given their expertise in the local real estate market) but ultimately – it’s your money, it’s your decision!

Are you thinking about selling your home possibly?  Call or email me for a FREE CMA!!

Paul Wallin, Realtor
208-288-2976
paul@idahorealtyinfo.com