Agent guide
How to do a CMA, step by step
A comparative market analysis is how you turn "what's my home worth?" into a number you can defend. The comps come from your MLS. The market context — where prices, inventory and days-on-market are heading — is where most CMAs fall short, and where the data on this site fits in. Here is the full process working agents use.
1. Profile the subject property
Record the facts that drive value before you look at a single comp: location, square footage, lot size, beds and baths, age, condition, and anything unusual — a view, a busy road, a recent renovation. This profile decides which comps qualify.
2. Pull comparables from your MLS
Search recently sold properties in the same neighborhood — the standard is four to six comps, sold within the last three to six months, matched as closely as possible on size, age, style and condition. Include one or two active listings (your competition) and any expireds (prices the market rejected). Public records fill gaps for off-MLS sales.
3. Adjust for the differences
No comp is identical, so adjust each sale price toward the subject property: add for features the comp lacks, subtract for features it has that yours doesn't. Local rules of thumb vary, but the discipline matters more than the exact dollar figures — a renovated comp is not the same as a dated home at the same square footage. The adjusted prices should converge into a defensible range.
4. Layer in the market trend — the step most CMAs skip
Comps tell you what buyers paid months ago; the trend tells you what the market is doing now. Before you finalize a price, check the subject market's current median listing price and its year-over-year change, days on market, price-cut share, and inventory direction. A price that was right in a 30-days-on-market spring can be wrong in a 60-days-on-market fall.
That context layer is exactly what CMAScope's market pages give you for every state, metro, county and ZIP — free at the state level, with buildable charts you can drop straight into a listing presentation, and branded PDF reports on paid plans.
5. Land on a price strategy, not just a price
Present a range with a recommended list price and the reasoning: the adjusted comps, the current trend, and the seller's timeline. In a softening market, pricing at the range's lower edge buys speed; in a tight market, the upper edge can work. Show the data that supports each option and let the seller choose with open eyes.
6. Present it like you mean it
The CMA that wins the listing is the one the seller can follow: a one-page summary, the comp photos and adjustments, and two or three market-trend charts that prove you know this market better than the other agents they interviewed. Update it if the listing hasn't launched within a month — markets move.
Common CMA mistakes
- Stretching the comp radius instead of adjusting honestly for location.
- Using comps older than six months in a moving market.
- Ignoring expired listings — they are the market saying "too high."
- Pricing on comps alone with no current trend data behind it.
- Presenting one number with no range and no reasoning.
Live prices, inventory, days on market and price cuts for every U.S. market — free to start.
A CMA is a pricing opinion, not an appraisal. Comparable-sale data comes from your MLS; CMAScope provides aggregate market statistics from named public sources.