I've been busy, this year, with CMA's. Lot of people have come out of the woodwork, ready to sell their condos in Skokie, and sell single-family homes in Evanston. They've asked me to come out and give them a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of their home Wilmette, and suggest a price that would be competitive in today's market.
All of the CMA's I've done this year have been for prices that are below what the owner paid for the property. All of the owners have purchased their properties fairly recently, the oldest of which was 2004. Ordinarily that would have been enough time to build up some equity, but unfortunately not in today's market. Each and every one of the CMA's I did, showed that they would have to price at or below what they paid... and probably end up taking a loss at closing.
Several of those that I've given prices to, thus far, have been 
disappointed, but are realistic and are planning on listing with me. Part of the reason they've given is that my analysis was more realistic than the other agents they'd interviewed, and they felt that starting with a more realistic number would allow them to lose less money than if they started with an inflated number. I have to agree (especially since that's the very same language I stressed when I made my pitch).
I'm thinking of adding a tag line to the bottom of my business cards that say "Lose less money with Alan". Do you think that's a winning phrase in today's market? Do you think that would help me sell more real estate in Evanston, IL? Or sell more condos in Skokie?
(okay, for all of you who were about to give me a serious response to that... I'm just kiddin'. I am not going to add "lose less money with Alan" to the bottom of my cards... but some days I feel like it.)
Comments(75)