When real estate agents work with home sellers, they usually conduct a comparative marketing analysis (CMA) so they can determine the estimated value of a property without the cost of hiring an appraiser.
Trouble is, the seller feels obligated to use the agent because they went to the trouble of creating the CMA.
So, what if you could accurately predict the resale value of a piece of real estate without the help of an agent or appraiser?
If you’re a real estate investor who has been doing everything on your own, you’ve probably tried to do the following to determine the value of a home:
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Sift through estimates from real estate websites
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Check the assessor’s website
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Compare the property with other properties in your area
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And more…
It involves a lot of work and if you’re a new investor, conducting a CMA on your own can be quite confusing. It also may not be very accurate...
That’s why HouseCanary started. The company’s goal is to make it easier for brokers, appraisers, lenders and investors alike to do a CMA.
Forecasting the Impossible
Its recent cash infusion of $33 million (yep, with m) from prominent investors, such as Google’s very own, Eric Schmidt, enabled HouseCanary to make a mark in the real estate data and analytics market.
The company claims that it’s technology is able to accurately know and “understand” the prices of homes at a local level. It “understands” the depth of how prices are quick to change across 4 million blocks.
Another reason why a lot of investors choose HouseCanary is that it offers a unique feature that lets you access information that was only available to big companies and appraisers – until now.
HouseCanary tries to solve a problem most real estate professionals face: a lack of quality data that can be used to accurately make forecasts. Real estate investors miss out on dozens of great deals just because they lack the data to identify or model them.
40 Years of Historical Data = More Comps
If you plan to buy a home, the perfect comp for it would be the one that’s:
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Exactly like the sale price of the same property
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Located next door
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Was sold a day before you’re planning to buy it
But of course, what are the odds of finding that perfect comp?
Even though you plan to look through a few years’ worth of MLS data, finding that perfect comp is downright impossible. But what if the perfect comp for a certain property got sold 25 years ago?
HouseCanary channels are complex algorithms to look for the perfect comp for you – even if it was sold when you were 5 years old. Their systems take note of that sale and then updates the price – including inflation, price trends and everything that happened in 25 years – to match the current price.
HouseCanary a.k.a. a Crystal Ball?
According to HouseCanary, their algorithms and data gathering are so on point that they claim to provide its users accurate values of properties with only a 5% error rate. If that’s not enough, they claim that their technology is able to predict the value of your listing in three years with 99.3% accuracy.
Be the King in Your Market
The real estate industry is a competitive market. Obviously.
Dog eats dog, they say...
So, if you’re trying to win over home sellers or convince buyers as a wholesaler in the sea of sharks, namely in San Francisco, New York, LA, and the like, you’re going to need a solid support system.
Using HouseCanary’s big data and analytics can be your shield.
Since the industry is becoming more complex, HouseCanary promises to aid investors in creating returns that surpass the market. Plus, you’ll gain more information since it lets you analyze real estate trends by typing in zip codes.
With the amount of data promised, it’s more than enough to keep your head above water.
When using a new piece of technology, every user’s concern is the ease of use. HouseCanary knows this, so they made the system very intuitive to use.
And don’t worry, you don’t need to be a computer whiz to be able to type an address and look for the suggested comps HouseCanary generates for you.
Plus, you can customize your CMA, and if you’re not satisfied with the results, you can plug in your own comps.
Too Good to Be True?
While all the features above are tried and tested, there are a couple of limitations...
The system doesn’t have a presentation tool. And, there is the lack of a direct MLS integration. They aren’t putting all of the data into the CMA even though the system makes use of MLS data to generate the valuations. Just be prepared to manually add the square footage, number of bedrooms, and the listing pictures.
Or better yet, you can ask your virtual assistant to do this for you since it usually takes about one or two hours to get it done. This time can be spent generating leads, cold calling and closing deals.
Another limitation is that it only covers certain geographic areas (as of this writing). But, the company continues to grow and add new markets.
The other drawback is the pricing. At $99/month you may want to hold off until you’re doing a decent volume of transactions. But if it saves you one Realtor commission through a CMA guilt trip, HouseCanary could pay for itself many times over. You can try it for free for 30 days as well.
As with other software solutions, HouseCanary is not perfect. But if you’re aiming to dodge the sharks as you swim in a saturated market area, HouseCanary may be the perfect CMA software for you. The amount of data and the number of comps in their system will help you land deals with a sure profit.
Sing to Me
Have you used HouseCanary or something like it? Tell us about it below.
Keep up with the latest technology. Technology is constantly updating. So make sure you keep up with it and stay a step above your competitors.
Consult a professional. If you’re hesitant to trust a system, it wouldn’t hurt for you to get a second opinion. You can consult a professional to perform a comparative market analysis for you.
Do a comparative marketing analysis. This is definitely pretty obvious by now, but it is very important to do one even though you don’t use any software.