CMA's for Leads

How do you handle CMA requests for leads?  or...people that visit your web site and ask for a valuation on their property?

Most of the leads I get are buyer leads, but they do have the ability to request a CMA at the same time.

This is what I have found to be the best course of action.

1. I call them if they left their number.
   
2. I check the MLS to see if the home is currently listed, some area.
3. If it is listed I send an email and tell them that I see their home is currently listed, I ask if it is ready to expire or if they are just looking for a second opinion. Most of the time, they are just looking for a second opinion and I don't hear back. 

If they really want to find out what their home is worth, I will ask them if I could do a quick 10 minute walk through of their home to give them an exact price range.

This is the most effective.

Occasionally they would rather I just send them information on the neighborhood. Which I am glad to do.

I send the following things.

1. My pre-lisiting questionairre.
2. Marketing plan
3. Both Actives and Solds in their neighborhood
4. I put it in CMA format and I do not make ANY adjustments. You can not adjust for home you have not been in, but you can get a rough idea based on neighborhood sales.
   
5. When I attach the CMA to the email I make sure I tell them again, this is just the current activity in their neighborhood and that to get a exact price point, I would need to walk through the home or condo.
   

Most of the time they are appreciative of all the information and we schedule a time to get together. Sometimes they are just trying to get a rough idea before they start to look at homes.

The point is doing a CMA is a skill and takes time. I am happy to help folks out, but I am not an automatic evaluation service. That is why I check the MLS before going one step further. Many times online leads don't realize that it is a real life person that does the market analysis. They think it is just a computer doing it.

Typically I spend 2-3 hours on a market analysis. I've been told that is tooooooo long of time, but getting that sweet spot to list a home at is so important.

Starting off with the right sales price is critical to getting the home sold. Do I ever list a home that is "slightly" over priced. Yes I do but this means no more than 10%, with a guaranteed price reduction in 30 days.

This happened to me last night and I realized I had not blogged on it.

Hope it helps .