A Comparative Market Analysis Benefits Home Buyers, Too

It doesn't matter if you're a home buyer or a home seller, you should get a comparative market analysis -- referred to in industry lingo as a CMA -- before buying or selling a home.

A comparative market analysis is an absolute essential before listing a home, but many home buyers are unaware that they can ask their own agent to prepare a CMA. After all, how you can possibly make an intelligent purchase offer if you don't know how many homes are presently on the market in your price range, the types of homes under contract and the prices of recently sold homes? Without this information, you're shooting in the dark, plucking figures from thin air and hoping for the best.

Properly prepared CMA reports will compare apples to apples, not mini mansions to fixers. You want to compare homes with similar square footage, about the same age, condition and location, among other factors. While a real estate agent can make adjustments to a CMA to bring almost any property's price up or down, you'll fare much better if you look at true comparable sales. Here is an explanation of a CMA and how to understand the data: read more

More Articles by Elizabeth Weintraub, click below:

• Figuring Home Pricing
  
• Overpricing Homes
  
• Lowball Offers

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