How Do You Generate a CMA?

The Six Step Sequence

You generate a CMA by defining the subject property, pulling recent comparable sales and current competition from the MLS, removing the comps that do not represent the subject's market, adjusting the remaining comps for their differences, setting a supported price range, and delivering the report with a follow-up plan attached. Automation handles the pulling, the math, and the formatting. Comp review and the price itself stay with the licensed professional, and the finished document is a comparative market analysis, not an appraisal.

Here is each step in practical detail.

Step 1: Define the Subject Property

Start with what you are pricing, in enough detail that the comp search has something to match against. Address and parcel, living area, bed and bath count and configuration, lot size and position, year built, garage and parking, condition and recent updates, HOA if any, and school attendance zone.

Two fields get skipped and cause problems later: condition and recent updates. If you have not seen the property, note that, because everything downstream inherits the uncertainty.

Step 2: Pull Comps and Active Competition

Query the MLS on tight criteria first, then widen only if the result set is too thin. A reasonable first pass is closed sales within the last three to six months, within the same subdivision or a half mile, within roughly fifteen percent of the subject's living area, and same property type.

Pull two sets, not one. Closed sales establish what buyers actually paid. Active and pending listings establish what the seller will be competing against next month. A CMA built only on closed sales prices the past, and sellers list into the present.

Step 3: Remove the Comps That Do Not Belong

This is the step that separates a defensible analysis from a formatted spreadsheet, and it is the step software is worst at. Pull out:

1. Non-arms-length sales. Family transfers, estate dispositions, and portfolio sales close at prices the open market did not set.
2. Sales across a boundary. A property four hundred feet away can sit in a different subdivision, a different HOA, or a different attendance zone with a persistent price gap.
3. Unmatched lot position. Identical floor plans back onto a greenbelt and a commercial lot respectively. Structured data calls them equivalent.
4. Undisclosed renovations. A comp that closed after a full kitchen and bath rebuild pulls the whole range upward if nobody catches the one line in the remarks that mentioned it.
5. Stale sales in a moving market. A five month old comp is fine in a flat market and misleading in a fast one.

Read the listing remarks on every comp you keep. That is where renovations, concessions, and odd circumstances hide.

Step 4: Adjust Each Comp

An adjustment answers one question: what is this difference worth in this market, today? If the comp has something the subject does not, adjust the comp down. If the subject has it and the comp does not, adjust the comp up.

Two rules keep this defensible. Every adjustment should be explainable in one sentence to a seller who is not in the industry, and every adjustment value should come from your market rather than a default the software shipped with.

Step 5: Set the Range and Write the Recommendation

Adjusted comps produce a cluster, not a single number. Present the range, name the price you recommend inside it, and say why. Tie the recommendation to the seller's stated timeline, because a price for a sixty day close and a price for a patient seller are not the same price.

State clearly on the document that this is a comparative market analysis and not an appraisal or a guarantee of sale price. Show the comp set. A range with visible supporting sales is defensible. A number with nothing behind it is not.

Step 6: Deliver It and Set the Follow-Up

Send a hosted link rather than only an attachment. A link renders on a phone, survives email filters, can be updated after the meeting without resending anything, and tells you whether it was opened.

Then create the records that keep the conversation alive: a contact with the subject property attached, a task the day after delivery, a check-in set to the seller's actual timeline, and an alert when a nearby sale or price change gives you something worth calling about. Wiring that into your CRM at generation time is the difference between a report and a pipeline.

That final step is the one most workflows skip, and it is the core argument in the automated CMA pillar. If you want the steps above running as one path, the Auto CMA workflow covers MLS intake, human review, branded output, and distribution. Doing it entirely by hand is also a valid choice, and can I do my own CMA covers what that costs you.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many comps should a CMA include?

Three to six closed sales is the working range for most residential CMAs, supported by two or three active listings that show current competition. Fewer than three makes the range hard to defend. More than six usually means the criteria were widened past the point where the sales still represent the subject's market, so tighten the search rather than padding the set.

How long does it take to generate a CMA?

By hand, a careful CMA commonly takes one to three hours depending on how clean the comp set is and how much formatting the agent does. With a tool that handles retrieval, adjustment math, layout, and branding, the remaining work is comp review, adjustment approval, and writing the recommendation. The time saved comes out of assembly, not judgment.

Does generating a CMA require MLS access?

For a credible one, effectively yes. Public records and consumer sites miss condition, concessions, sale terms, and withdrawn activity, all of which change how a comp should be read. That is why CMA tools connect to an MLS feed rather than scraping listing sites, and why a homeowner's comp study is a useful starting point rather than a finished analysis.