As promised, another blog regarding Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) in the Niagara Real Estate market by your trusted St.Catharines Real Estate agent. WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A CMA To get a complete picture of your local real estate market, have a Niagara real estate professional bring you up to speed with a CMA. The data in the CMA report should include: 1) CURRENT AVAILABLE COMPARABLE LISTINGS. If you are selling your home, this is your competition.Remember that how you price your home relative to the competition is critical to your success. It's also a good idea to visit open houses in your area to see how your home compares aesthetically; 2) PENDING SALES. These sales represent the most recent sales activity and will serve as benchmarks for the price of your home. When analyzing this data, your Niagara Real Estate agent will likely disregard rumours about homes selling for inflated sales prices. The actual sales price, which might not be made public until after the sale closes, could be quite lower than anticipated; 3) SALES THAT OCCURRED IN THE LAST 6 MONTHS. Your Niagara Real Estate agent will analyze these sales to determine current market conditions, but if the market is changing rapidly, he or she might shorten the time frame to three or four months. For each listing in your CMA, your Niagara Real Estate agent might find out how long it took to find a buyer for the home and determine if there were multiple offers, if the listing took months to sell, or if the sellers had to lower their price to attract a buyer. This category should include only listings that have closed, that is, when the title of the property has changed hands from sellers to buyers; 4) EXPIRED LISTINGS.These are listings that did not sell during the listing period and usually indicate the markets high water mark. If a house does not sell during a listing period, it's likely that it was priced too high for the market. Analyzing this data will help you avoid the dangers of overpricing your home. I will be back soon with a checklist on how to make  your CMA work for you. Until then, so long from your trusted St.Catharines Real Estate agent.

Good afternoon from your trusted St.Catharines Real Estate agent! As promised, I am blogging today about how a Comparative Market Analysis can assist you in the Niagara Real Estate market. Whether buying, selling or refinancing, you want to determine a fair price for your home. How do you know when fair is fair? A Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is an important tool that can help you determine the estimated value of your property by comparing "apples to apples". Since market value is determined by what a willing-and-able buyer will pay, a CMA can establish market value by comparing it to similar properties that have sold in the area within the past year. IF YOU ARE A SELLER IN THE NIAGARA REAL ESTATE MARKET, A CMA CAN HELP YOU DETERMINE: 1) Recent selling prices for homes similar to yours; 2) The length of time these homes were on the market before they sold, and the length of time it will likely take your home to sell; 3) The homes you would be "competing with" should you decide to put your home on the market right away. If you are a buyer, a CMA can help you decide what to offer on a listing you want to buy. If you are refinancing, a CMA will give you some indication of what to expect when you have your home formally appraised. Buyers and sellers in the Niagara Real Estate market can find listing information by visiting their city halls, but conducting a CMA on your own is often complicated and time-consuming. Why not save yourself the trouble and ask your trusted St.Catharines Real Estate  agent to conduct the analysis? He or she has easy access to local listings and sales data, and your real estate agent's familiarity with the local market can affect the accuracy of a CMA, particularly in a neighbourhood with a lot of market variability. I will be back in a couple days to discuss what to look for in your Niagara Real Estate CMA.