One of the most common tasks for a real estate agent is to prepare a Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) for homeowners that are considering selling their home. I prefer to call it a "Price Analysis".  Anyway, most of us agents  provide this service for FREE as a way to endear ourselves to potential sellers.  We hope, of course, we will be hired to sell the home when the time comes.   

One of our greatest challenges in preparing a price  analysis is to put a value on a home that is unique, meaning it is difficult to find true comparables.   In a case like this, it's necessary to find the "most comparable" properties then use adjustments and compensating factors to establish a price.    When doing a CMA we try to find homes of similar actual age, square footage, lot size, and  location.  We use recently "sold" and currently "listed" properties in our analysis.   When we can't find homes of similar actual age, we try to find homes with a similar "effective age"... or use a depreciation factor to offset the age difference.  An example of the  "effective age"  factor would be a home that is actually 20 years old but has been highly updated and upgraded, giving it an "effective age" of, say, 5-8 years.  This is somewhat of an arbitray opinion... but, nevertheless, a way realtors and professional appraisers value properties.   So, once you have the "effective age",  you can compare the home to homes of similar "effective age" and not actual age.   Also, if you must compare the home to newer homes, a depreciation factor can be used.

There are other considerations, of course, but this gives you an idea of some of the variables we use to determine value on a unique property.   Ultimately,  it comes down to what price a  buyer is willing to pay for the home.    Most sellers, regardless of their list price, are willing negotiate at least some  on price... or give some other concessions such as paying part of the buyers closing costs.   

If you are interested in selling your home, I would be happy to provide a FREE price analysis based on current market conditions.  It's an excellent time to sell, while interest rates are still low!   We anticipate sales activity will slow down when rates begin to rise, but we don't know when that will happen  or how dramatic the slow down will be.   

If you've been following my past posts... you'll know I am pretty confident in our local economy and  that talk of a burst in the housing bubble will NOT occur in the Wenatchee area.   There are two articles:  1) Wenatchee Housing Bubble? and 2) Housing Bubble Continued.    Other articles can be found in my archives.