Marketing Your Property For All It's Worth Apr. 2014 | Page 4

Step#1 Market Overview & Consultation Review the big picture and then zoom into the CMA. The technology that is used in the real estate industry today is extremely current and effective in helping buyers and sellers navigate the overall real estate landscape. However, the same thing can’t be said about the strategies traditionally employed to help you determine the best price at which to sell your property. “The original list-to-sales price ratio is 89%, an average of $16,210 nation wide in 2011.” You see, the same protocol for pricing that has been used for years - a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) - is still used today...and using it “by itself” is literally killing sellers’ ability to maximize the sales price of their property. In fact, using a CMA “by itself”, is so detrimental to sellers getting top dollar, that the average list-to-sales price ratio of a property across the country is only 89%. That is a full 11% less than the asking price and worth about $16,210 to the average property seller in 2011. The inherent problem with a CMA is that it only takes into consideration the sale of a small sampling of properties in your competitive range, without considering the reason why those properties may or may not have sold at a specific price. The condition of the property, loss of job, dated interior, low curb appeal, staging, foreclosure, short sale, etc can all create a false sense of value. What does that mean? If the agent is only using the CMA to determine how you are going to price your property, they could be using properties that sold for much less than a property such as yours. Since the agent picks the comparable properties this could skew the market data significantly, causing you to lose valuable equity. The approach we use to help you determine list price is different. We first review the housing market from a