Your Home Has Many Values

One to the tax assessor, one to the appraiser, and another one to you.

It also has different values to prospective buyers depending on their needs, wants and financial resources.

However, in the end, what determines the selling price of your home isn’t necessarily any of these things, nor is it what you paid, nor the proceeds you might need from the sale. What determines the selling price of your home is the market.

One of an agent’s most important jobs is to set a listing price that creates a market — the best possible market — for your property. In order to do that, your agent will perform a Comparative Market Analysis or CMA. A CMA compares your home to similar properties — both currently on the market and recently sold. It takes into account factors such as location, price, features and property condition.

But a good agent will probe beyond the information a computer spits out. They will look inside the numbers for events like price reductions and re-listings. They will rely upon first-hand experience in determining how the presence or absence of unique features impact the value to potential buyers. And they will conduct their own, independent analysis to gauge market forces such as supply and demand and consumer confidence — on a macro and micro level.