What is a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)?

A comparative market analysis is a thorough evaluation of the prices at which similar properties in the same area recently sold. Making this comparison helps determine a price to list when selling a home or with buyers to check the value before offers to purchase.

What your Myrtle Beach real estate agent will do is look through sold properties in the MLS and choose recently sold properties that are similar to the subject property that are located in the same area. The agent will then compare the properties, making adjustments for differences in features, to come up with an estimated value for the subject property.

Many agents will also take into consideration similar properties within Myrtle Beach real estate listings that are current. This will help the seller and agent see who the current competition is and help determine if the subject property should raise or decrease the estimated value from the analysis of sold properties.

You may be surprised to find, when shopping for a listing agent, that each agent has very different valuations. This happens when each agent chooses different properties to use in their calculations. Usually, the agent with the Myrtle Beach real estate companies with the highest price range wins…though that doesn’t mean that was the best price to sell at.

When choosing comps, agents will determine when the property was sold. Sales more than three months out tend to not be the best to consider, especially in fast-moving markets. They will examine where the property is located. In an ideal report, the comparable homes are in the same subdivision and/or neighborhood. In some cases, this is not possible. Therefore, the agent will consider the general area.  The characteristics of the home are considered when running comps. How many bedrooms, baths, the square footage, size of the lot, and other features that make the house as similar as possible.

One key factor in creating a CMA are the adjustments. Your agent will make adjustments, like those of the appraisers, to adjust the sold prices of the comparable homes to match the subject property better. For instance, if our property is a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home with 2300 square feet and a two-car garage, we’ll search for a few comps with all of those exact same features. If we cannot, then we make adjustments to the sold prices.

Maybe one comp only has three bedrooms. In that instance, we assume the property would have sold for more money if they had four, so we add back some money to the sold price to adjust for have just two bedrooms. Your agent will figure this with bathrooms and garages, as well. If the comparable home has 6 bedrooms, then we’d subtract from the sold price as if it only had four.

Once adjustments are made to the comparable homes sold prices, we divide each sold price by its square feet to get the sold price per square foot. Then, we’ll take the average of the comps to get one average value per square foot. Multiply that by the subject house’s square footage and voila, we’ve got our estimated current market value.

Top real estate agents in Myrtle Beach SC will take time to do a thorough analysis to get you listed for the right price. Choosing top real estate agents in North Myrtle Beach SC at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Elliott Coastal Living will do just that for you! Please give us a call today for a FREE comparative market analysis!