How to Do Your Own CMA

You are selling your home and you've decide to skip the real estate agent and sell your home yourself. You've cleaned the house, repainted the walls, completed minor repairs and manicured the lawn. All that is left is to determine your asking price, but how?

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Notebook
• Pen
• Spreadsheet software
• A bottle of Tylenol

1. The first step is to make a visit to your local county courthouse and check in with the tax assessor. You want to see how much they valued your home at. Keep in mind that the tax assessor will see your modest shack as a mansion.
2. While you are at the courthouse go ahead and do some research on how much homes similar to yours were assessed for.
3. Now you will want to visit the records department at your courthouse. What you will be looking for are similar homes that have sold in the last three to six months. Notate any structural differences, upgrades, and amenities. Also notate the neighborhood location.
4. Next you will need to look at homes currently on the market. You want to find out what the asking price is, how long they have been on the market and if there have been any price reductions. This step may be a bit more difficult than the others because you will most likely have to obtain this information from the listing agent. Some will turn you away immediately but a few will be willing to help you out.
5. Finally, combine all your data into a format you understand (I recomment using a spreadsheet program such as MS Excel). Organize the data in such a way that details are comparable. What you are looking for is the dollar amount that will give you the highest possible selling price in the shortest amount of time.

Tips & Warnings

• Be realistic when setting your asking price.
• Call around. Some agents will do a free CMA in hopes of getting your listing in return.
• Your home has different values to different people. Your banker's value will be lower than your tax assessors (which is most likely higher than you would value your home). And the buyer...their value will be the lowest.
• Do not assume you home is worth more than you owe. Due to the relaxed lending practices of the last decade many people have second mortgages and HELOCS adding up to as much as (and sometimes more) than 150% of your actual home value.
• Do not expect to get dollar for dollar returns on upgrades and improvements. Many of these items fall under the regular upkeep and maintenance of a home.
• Do not go overboard on upgrades. A $70,000 home with $10,000 hardwood floors, jacuzzi tubs, marble countertops and a chef's kitchen will still sell within a few thousand dollars of other homes in the neighborhood.
• If you don't agree with what the numbers are telling you then set your selling price at what you think the home is worth--for THREE WEEKS. If you receive no interest during that time you will need to drop the price to a more realistic level.