When it comes to looking for a house, money can play a huge role. All homes in the United States are cumulatively worth $31.8 trillion and the value of the U.S. housing stock increased by 6.5 percent (about $2 trillion) in 2017.
As they look for their dream homes, prospective home owners will turn to a variety of sources to make their choice. According to a recent study, 96 percent of consumers cited design over content as the main reason they “trusted” a Web site. Additionally, to the National Association of Realtors, 56 percent of buyers 36 years old or younger found their homes online.
However people find homes, money plays an important role. The housing market regained some of the loss from the 2008 crash with median home prices rising from 16.9 percent from $177,000 in 2008 to $207,000 in 2017. According to the Census Bureau, the median sales price of new houses sold as of February 2018 was $326,800.
With so much money at stake in the real estate market, a CMA (comparative market analysis) is important. A CMA examines prices at which similar properties in the surrounding area have sold. The CMA software and CMA reports help realtors offer information to clients to determine a list price for selling a house or an offering price when buying a house.
To someone interested in selling their house, a CMA offers several benefits:
- Surveying the market: Real estate agents are constantly keeping tabs on changes in the market they work in and if they’re good at what they do, they’ll know what buyers are looking for. They’ll know what kinds of amenities buyers are watching out for, what kinds of things draw people into the local housing market and what will make potential buyers want to make an offer.
- Improvements: Making improvements to a home, whether you’re renovating or updating can increase the value it. Investing a little bit of money to give your home and property some needed TLC could drastically pay off in the long run. A CMA takes everything about your home and property into account from the number of bathrooms to the amount of garage space and can also tell you where improvements might need to be made.
- Pricing: When you sell your house, ideally you’d like to get the most money you can. A CMA can give you a realistic expectation of what your house might sell for, based upon several factors.
To help realtors determine a CMA, real estate software is available. Two of the most widely used types of CMA software are Toolkit CMA and Cloud CMA.
Toolkit CMA is web-based and allows realtors to make CMA reports, proposals, property flyers and presentations with picture CMAs. Some of the features of Toolkit CMA include:
- listing presentation with picture CMA reports and mapping
- presentations have document menus of content for each presentation type
- interfaces for local MLS and allows for downloaded property data and pictures which can be merged into CMA documents
- property flyers
- buyer presentations
- customer support
- subscriptions for individuals and team run about $200 and include MLS interfaces
Cloud CMA is cloud-based and has several features that in some cases make it easier to use in the eyes of some realtors. Some of the Cloud CMA software features include:
- automatic integration of MLS data
- works easily with a tablet without having to download additional real estate software
- the ability to create a custom brand for CMA reports
- flexible pricing
- a lead generation tool for social media
- customizable property flyers and other important documents
CMA software can make things easier for realtors and customers can feel more confident in buying or selling property. In 2016, homeownership in the United States was the lowest it’s been in 50 years. But over the next decade, 80 percent of resident growth will happen in suburban communities.
With more and more millennials and Generation Yers making up the housing market, accurate CMAs could go a long way toward increasing home sales. Millennials and Gen Yers made up about 34 percent of home buyers in 2017, a number that’s only expected to go up.
