When pricing your house which should you use to base your price, a CMA or an Appraisal?

Price against Comparable Sales in Your Neighborhood! No Matter how attractive and polished your house, buyers will be comparing its price with everything else on the market. Your best guide is a record of what the buying public has been willing to pay in the past few months, (the past 30 days in our market) in your neighborhood. Your Realtor can furnish data on sales figures for those comparable sales and analyze them to help you come up with a suggested listing price. The decision about how much to ask, though is always yours. A CMA, Comparative Market Analysis is a list of comparable sales your ATR Realtor brings to you, along with data about other houses in your neighborhood that are presently on the market. The other option to a CMA is an appraisal. An appraisal differs from a CMA in several ways. One major difference is that an appraisal will be based on past sales. Also, an appraisal is done for a fee while a CMA is provided by your Realtor and may include properties currenly listed for sale and those currently pending sale. For the average home sale a CMA will probably give enough information to help you set the proper price. In addition the CMA can be run frequently to help determine changes in the market. The market we are currently in is changing daily. Having your Realtor run a CMA often will help you know exactly where you are in comparison to other homes on the market. Be prepared to adjust your price as the market changes.