A CMA — a comparative market analysis — is the report an agent builds to estimate what a home should sell for, using the homes a buyer would actually cross-shop against it. The National Association of REALTORS® describes a CMA as the tool generally used to provide information to sellers or buyers in determining listing price or offering price. It is not an appraisal, not a Zestimate, and not the last five sales on the block pasted into a spreadsheet. A CMA is an argument: these are the homes, this is what buyers paid for them, this is what it means for your price. When it's not easy to sell, the CMA is where "trust me" becomes "here's the proof."
What goes into a CMA?
The competitive set first: homes a buyer would genuinely cross-shop — size, beds, baths, garage, lot, location, timeframe — not a zip-code average. Then three inputs: what's for sale now (the active homes competing with you), what just closed (what buyers actually paid), and what didn't sell (the listings that expired or withdrew). Supply and demand sit on top: months of inventory and the pace of new listings against sales. A CMA without the didn't-sell column is a sales pitch; those listings are the ones that overpriced and lost.
CMA vs appraisal vs online estimate
An appraisal is performed by a licensed appraiser for a lender, to protect the lender's collateral. A Zestimate is an algorithm's guess with no walk-through, no adjustments, no competitive set. A CMA is built by an agent who has seen the homes: condition-adjusted, competing-set-specific, and made to be shown. The seller doesn't need the vocabulary. They need to see that your number comes from somewhere they can check.
How long does a CMA take?
The honest answer: longer than sellers expect, shorter than agents admit. Pulling the market and building the set is the work; showing it well is the rest. If your CMA takes one screenshot and a rounded number, it will lose to the number the seller saw online.
What does a CMA look like when it's done well?
Run the public sample on ListLogic and you can see the whole argument on one page. The sample listing — 1843 24th Ave Ct, 2,392 sq ft, 4 bed / 2 bath, built 1969, West Greeley — sits in a market with 2.2 months of inventory, a median 46 days on market, and a well-priced new listing holding about a 46% chance of going under contract in any given 30-day window (sample report, fetched 2026-10-01). The recommended list price: $410,000, range $396,000–$426,000, against 24 active homes and 257 recent closings — and 69 listings that did not sell. That last number is the one sellers never see in a CMA, and the one that wins the argument about price.
How do you show a CMA to a seller?
Not as a PDF dump. Lead with the three levers — price, condition, location — then let them move the price and watch odds and timing respond. When the seller says "what if we start at $425,000?", the answer is on screen: the odds, the days, the queue of cheaper homes that sits under them while they wait. That's the difference between quoting the market and proving it.
FAQ
Is a CMA the same as an appraisal?
No. An appraisal is for a lender by a licensed appraiser; a CMA is your market evidence for pricing, built from the competitive set.
Do sellers have to accept my CMA?
No — but a CMA they can check beats a number they can't. Show the homes, the dates, the sources.
Is a CMA free?
Building one is part of listing a home. Seeing a full sample of the finished product costs nothing: the public sample on ListLogic runs free, no account needed.
See a real CMA story live — open the free sample.
See a real CMA story live — open the free sampleRelated: Free CMA software for realtors · CMA software for realtors · What is an interactive CMA? · Months of inventory · Pricing · FAQ