The decision to buy a home, whether it is a used or brand new home, is a major life step for any person or household, not to mention a serious financial responsibility, so naturally, anyone on the real estate market will want to make the best informed decisions so that they can find a good deal on a new home that satisfies all their needs. They are not alone; realtors are available to lend their expertise, and these agents have more than a clipboard and good intuition; nowadays, they can make use of advanced software and programs to find the most cost effective and desirable homes for their clients, and this means making use of realtor CMA, or Comparative Market Analysis. Realtor CMA software and CMA reports will help both a realtor and his/her client find the right home. How can this be done?
The Housing Market
First, one may want to be more familiar with recent trends in the housing market, such as who is buying what, and for what price. The American housing market is a big one; all together, the homes in the United States are worth $31.8 trillion, and in the year 2017, the value of American housing stock had gone up 6.5%, or $2 trillion. Some of the loss from the 2008 crash was recovered, with median home prices going up 16.9% from $177,000 in the year 2008 up to $207,000 as of 2017. It is also believed that around 80% of all residential growth will take place in the suburbs in the upcoming decade.
Who is buying? Many home buyers are middle aged or younger, with those of the Millenial generation (born 1982-1995) and those of Generation X (1963-1981) together making up about 34% of all home buyers in the year 2017, and experts believe that this percentage is likely to increase in the future. Many of these younger buyers can perform their initial, amateur research by a newfound means: YouTube. This website is useful for much more than frivolous videos; it is often used for very educational and practical purposes and learning, and this can include finding advice and trends on the housing market, including what a buyer should look for in a home and what pitfalls to avoid. Given how YouTube reaches more 18-34 year olds and 18-49 year olds than any given cable network, anyone looking for a home can tap into this website’s educational power when going on the market for a home.
Real Estate CMA Software
Just what is Comparative Market Analysis? Realtor CMA means drawing upon large amounts of data to compare a given home to those similar to it and compare prices, how fast they sell, and when they sold, and this can allow a homeowner to get an estimate on what their house is worth if they want to sell it, or the value of a home that they want to buy. A second, separate realtor CMA job can be undertaken to compare a home’s value to that of homes currently on the market, as opposed to those that have already sold. In this way, realtors can use software on computers or tablets to give their client a fair and accurate deal on what homes may be worth, as well as what their own home may be worth compared to similar houses that are in the same area.
Realtor CMA is an important step, but of course, even when a good home is found on paper, an on-site visit will be needed to evaluate the home completely. Some things have to be seen in person, such as maintenance and landscaping. The interior should be clean and in good repair, the roof should not leak, there should be no mold or chipped wood, the windows should not be drafty, no faucets should leak, the floor should not be warped, and windows should open and close easily, among many other maintenance issues. The features of the front and back yard can be checked as well, such as the hose faucet, the quality of the home’s sidings, the condition of the gutters and roof, and whether an outdoor swimming pool or the porch or deck are in good repair.
