The Insider's Guide To Selling Your Home By Owner- Rocio Fausto I | Page 64

Doing a CMA for a For-Sale-by-Owner requires an upfront,
out of pocket cost but wouldn’t be a problem at all. Specific costs
will vary by agent.
Do your own homework: There is a free way of getting a
decent valuation of your home, but it is risky and time consuming.
You can use the Internet to scout out other homes that are
for sale in your area, and narrow them down to those that are
similar to yours. The prices on these homes can give you a good
benchmark to go from in your own price.

How to find accurate comparable sales and
use them to determine your home's exact
value
Go to Realtor.com and click on the "Recently Sold" Button
on the top. To search for homes similar to yours, enter criteria,
such as square footage, the number of bedrooms, etc.
The key to finding accurate comparable sales is to find the
properties that are closest in location, condition, square footage,
features, etc.

How to determine which comparable sales
you should use and which to ignore
The following comparable sales should not be used. Very
few of these properties sell for a fair value. Here is why each of
these property types are NOT good comparable sales.
Bank Owned / REO Properties. Banks always sell their
homes for less than they are worth. I don't know exactly why this
is. But, they do it so often that I know it is true.
The average bank owned home in today's market is selling
for 5-10% less than its fair value. This is true even for the homes
that are in good shape.
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