Pricing a home is one of the most important decisions we make before putting it on the market. I don’t believe that decision should come from multiplying the square footage by an average number or running a quick automated CMA and calling it done. Homes aren’t that simple.
Two homes with similar square footage in the same neighborhood can compete very differently once buyers see them. Condition, updates, lot characteristics, location within the neighborhood, floor plan, age, maintenance, views, surrounding properties, current competition, recent sales, and what buyers are responding to right now can all affect how a home should be positioned. That’s why I take a much deeper approach to pricing.
I Don’t Price a Home by the Square Foot
Price per square foot can be useful as one piece of market information, but I don’t believe it should determine the asking price of your home.
A remodeled home doesn’t suddenly become identical to an original-condition home because they have the same square footage. A home backing to a busy road doesn’t compete exactly the same way as one on a quiet interior street. A pool, view, lot, floor plan, condition, improvements, or deferred maintenance can change the way buyers perceive two otherwise similar properties. I want to understand those differences rather than average them away.
Condition also deserves more attention than sellers sometimes realize. After living in a home for years, it is easy to stop noticing small maintenance issues or features buyers may react to differently. I discuss that in greater detail in my Home Repair Priorities Guide, which looks at what may be worth addressing before putting a home on the market.
I Start With the Properties Buyers Are Most Likely to Compare With Yours
When I’m preparing a Comparative Market Analysis, I’m not simply looking for homes that are nearby and roughly the same size. I’m looking for the properties that help us understand how the market is likely to interpret your home. That means studying relevant sales, active competition, pending properties when useful information is available, properties that didn’t sell, price reductions, days on market, condition, improvements, location, and other characteristics that may have affected buyer behavior. Then I look at the differences.
If one property is superior to yours in an important way, I need to account for that. If yours offers something the comparable property didn’t, that matters too. The goal isn’t to make every comparable fit the answer. The goal is to understand what the available evidence is telling us.
Adjustments Matter
This is one of the areas where I spend considerably more time than a quick CMA allows. I look at meaningful differences between your home and the properties we’re using for comparison. Depending on the property, that might include condition, renovations, lot characteristics, garages, pools, views, location influences, floor plans, age, size, or other features buyers in that particular market value.
Not every improvement returns what it cost. Not every difference deserves the same adjustment. And not every feature matters equally in every neighborhood or price range. That’s where experience and market knowledge become important.
I teach real estate professionals nationally, including subjects involving pricing and Comparative Market Analysis, but I still approach each property individually. I don’t want a formula deciding what your home is worth before I’ve studied the home and the market around it.
If you’re still deciding what work should be completed before we even talk about price, my Preparing for Your Listing Appointment guide explains what information and property details are useful to gather before we meet.
I Would Rather Give You an Evidence-Based Price Than the Price You Want to Hear
Sometimes my analysis supports what a homeowner was expecting. Sometimes it doesn’t. My job isn’t to win a listing by suggesting the highest price. It’s to give you enough information to make an informed decision about how you want to enter the market.
If I believe the market is likely to respond differently than you expect, I’ll explain why. I’ll show you the properties I’m looking at, the differences I see, the competing homes buyers will encounter, and the market activity influencing my recommendation.
You may ultimately decide to price differently. It’s your home and your decision. I want that decision to be made with as much useful information as possible.
Pricing Is Also About Positioning
A Comparative Market Analysis helps us understand the evidence, but choosing a listing price also requires strategy. We have to think about where your home will sit against the competition, what buyers will see when they search within particular price ranges, how much competing inventory is available, and what the current market is doing.
The question isn’t simply, “What did the house down the street sell for?” A better question is, “Based on everything we know, how is the market likely to respond to your home at this price?”
That buyer response matters. A seller can believe strongly in the value of a home, but once the property goes on the market, buyers begin making their own comparisons. I talk more about that shift in Your Home Is for Sale. Now Someone Has to Want to Buy It.
It’s also part of the broader seller strategy I discuss in Before You Can Move On, Someone Has to Move In. Pricing, presentation, showing access, and negotiation all eventually have to connect with a buyer who sees enough value in the property to move forward.
A CMA Is Not an Appraisal
I am a real estate broker, not a licensed real estate appraiser, and the Comparative Market Analysis I prepare is not an appraisal. There are, however, things we can learn from the disciplined way properties are compared. Rather than relying on a broad average, I study relevant properties, identify meaningful differences, consider appropriate adjustments, and use that information to develop my opinion of how your property fits within the current market.
That distinction matters. I’m not trying to produce an appraisal. I’m trying to give you a well-supported broker’s analysis that can help us make a better pricing decision.
You Should Be Able to See How I Reached My Recommendation
I don’t want to hand you a number and expect you to trust it simply because I’ve been in real estate for more than 40 years. I want you to see the information behind it.
When we talk about pricing your home, I’ll walk you through what I’m seeing, which properties I believe matter, where I see differences, what buyers currently have available to them, and how those factors influence my recommendation. You should understand not only what I think about the price of your home, but why I think it.
That’s the kind of pricing conversation I believe a homeowner deserves before putting a property on the market.
