Manually Calculate Your Own CMA

If you buy a home with a real estate agent, your agent will perform a comparative market analysis (CMA) on your behalf before you make an offer on a home. However, calculating your own CMA is a good way to help decide if a home is within striking distance of an amount you're willing to pay.

In a CMA, the home you want to buy is your target home, and the sold homes to which you are comparing it are Comparables. Complete the following steps:

1. Set criteria: Define the criteria for choosing comparable homes.
2. Build your list of comparables: Search Redfin for comparable homes that recently sold.
3. Evaluate comparables in-person: Drive past the comparable homes to decide if they are quality comparables.
4. Summarize: Create summary statistics for your list of comparables.
5. Decide on the current market value: Estimate the value of your target home based on the summarized statistics.

Choosing the most relevant set of comparables is the most important step because widely differing comparables can yield an inaccurate price range. A good estimate generally has 3-5 quality comparables.

To determine if a home is a quality comparable, consider the following criteria:

• Type: Condos are compared to condos, homes are compared to homes. Condos are not compared to homes.
• Date of sale: In a fast-changing market, the most recent comparables are best. Within three months is ideal, but further out than 6 months is not recommended.
• Size: Comparables should be within 15% of your target home's square footage.
• Last sale price: Homes at the very high or low end of the estimated price range may be earlycandidates for removal. It is often an early indicator that the comparable home doesn't meet one of the other criteria in this list (particularly age/style or condition).
• Neighborhood & school district: Only evaluate comparables in the same neighborhood and school district as your target home.
• Views & waterfront access: Don't compare waterfront homes to homes not on the water, or homes with great views to homes with partial or nonexistent views.
• Number of bedrooms & baths: Exclude properties with significantly more or less beds and baths. Comparing homes with 3, 4 and 5 bedrooms is okay; comparing those homes to ones with 1 and 2 beds is not.
• Age & style of home: If you have seven or more homes in your list of comparables and can be picky, exclude homes built in significantly different decades or in different styles.
• Condition of home: This is relevant only if the condition of the comparable home differs greatly from the target home. Don't compare a fixer-upper to a recently remodeled home.
• Lot size & usability of land: Lot size is a significant factor only when the difference is big; for example, a home with an acre of horse pasture can't be compared to one with a modest yard.

The easiest way to build your list of comparables is to search for homes on Redfin. To search for recently sold homes on the Redfin map, do the following:

1. Set the neighborhood: In the field to the top left of the map, type the neighborhood where you're searching.
2. Turn on past sales and set your search criteria:
1. Click Price, Beds... to the right of the search box to see search options.
2. Under Property Type, include only houses or condos, depending on which property type you're searching for.
3. Under Include, check Sale records, and in the drop-down below, choose Last 1 month. Increase to Last 3 months if the search doesn't return at least ten to fifteen past sales.
4. Set criteria: beds, baths, square footage, lot size, year built. Don't filter on price. Make sure the criteria matches with the home you're looking to buy. Searching with the wrong criteria will give you bad comparables.
5. Click Search Listings. Blue icons showing past sales will appear on the map alongside green icons showing current listings. If your search returns more than 500 results, zoom in to narrow the range of results returned.

Set Your Search Criteria

3. Adjust the map's zoom-level until it includes ten to fifteen past sales. If there aren't enough comparables, adjust your search criteria to include more beds and baths, or broaden the range of past sales included.
4. Look at the list below the map for summary statistics, including median price, square footage and price-per-square-foot.
5. Download the data by clicking the Download Results link to the left of the list. (Please note: due to MLS restrictions, this feature is not available in Georgia.)

Zoom In and Download to Excel

You'll have the same homes that were on the map in a spreadsheet. (Note: Due to MLS restrictions, this feature is not available in Georgia.)

One way to validate the condition of the comparables that you want to include in your estimate is to drive by each one and evaluate the exterior of the home and its location in-person. You can't go into homes that were recently sold, but you can get a quality sense of the neighborhood and evaluate the home from the outside.

The following conditions could factor into a comparable home's quality or desirability (don't forget to take notes as you go):

• Yard including the condition of the landscaping, slope, and size.
• Exterior of the home including condition of the paint and general repair.
• View, at least as much as you can tell from the street.
• Nearby traffic and noise level.
• Presence of a garage or other outbuildings .

After seeing the homes, add comments to the spreadsheet from your notes or remove homes that are clearly not quality comparables. Keep in mind that you only need three to five quality comparables for your CMA, and you should only look at past sales because those prices are proven by the market.

Comparable Properties

Now you're ready to look at the summary statistics for your selected comparables. Add a column to your spreadsheet for price-per-square-foot, which you can calculate by dividing the price by the square footage for each comparable, as illustrated in the yellow column below. At the bottom, calculate the average statistics across all your comparables.

Comparables, including Price Per Square Foot

Price-per-square-foot is an important benchmark for the market value, but there's a lot of variation around the average due to a home's maintenance level and special features.

Check your comments. If the list-price-per-square-foot of your target home is well above the average price-per-square-foot of your comparables, make sure you know why. Does the target home have a better view? A newer kitchen? Is it constructed better or in great shape? Take note of characteristics that can all factor into price.

To calculate a fair value range for your target home, multiply the average price-per-square-foot of your comparables by the square footage of your target home. This will provide a baseline for the market price.

Then, if the target home has characteristics that make it more or less desirable, adjust the value up or down to account for them. For example, does it have a better view, a big garage? These differences can affect the value of your target home.

Keep in mind that the value you arrive at in the estimate may not be the price you actually use for your opening offer. However, it can give you an idea of what the home's current market value is.

Before you make an offer on a home or list your home to sell, you should consult the advice of an agent who is experienced in buying and selling in your area. When you work with a Redfin agent or partner agent, they will prepare an estimate on your behalf, and help you determine an offer price. Our experienced agents are knowledgeable within the local market and will be able to advise you on pricing based on what they know is in demand and selling.

Ready to give it a try? Start by searching for a target home on Redfin.

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