When preparing your CMA, one of the best steps you can take is to test your list price. The process is pretty simple but easy to skip. Let’s go through the basics of a great CMA.

Look at the history of the market area of your property. This will give you an idea of the high-low range that the area can handle. Three years is a good time-frame to look at.
Narrow in on properties characteristics like yours. Now that you have the broad range, begin to narrow in on property characteristics that matter. If your property is a 4 bedroom home, eliminate the 2 bedroom sales. If your property has 1 bathroom, throw out everything above 2 baths. If your property has been recently updated, throw out the REO. Now you have a much smaller indicated range.
Get picky. Now that you’ve trimmed from possibly 100’s down to 20, select those 3-5 properties most like yours. This will give you a much tighter range within which to advise your buyer/seller.
Test your price. The steps so far should get you in the ballpark, but “confirmation bias” can be sneaky. Its time to see if you were truly objective. Take the price that you’ve come to and do a search in your market area of a (for starters, it may need to be tighter or wider) 10% plus/minus. Start looking at your property list and ask yourself the question, if I had $(Price) to spend, would I buy the house I’m looking at or this house.
In appraiser speak, this is called sensitivity analysis: The ability to look at two things and determine which is superior. As you move through the list of properties you should find the space where your property falls, the sweet spot, and that should inform the price that you place on the property.
If cheaper homes are better than yours - your price is too high. If higher-priced homes aren’t as nice as yours - your price is too low.

Home valuation is tough - that’s why appraisers have 300 hours of education and 1500 hours of experience before they can sit for their license. If you ever need advice, don’t hesitate to call. We also offer in-office training for free for real estate agents on a variety of real estate topics, including FHA/USDA/VA financing, CMA preparation, and others.