Claudia Backus, MBA

Get Started

Tag: Home Pricing

  • Should You Price Your Home to Get Multiple Offers? What Los Angeles Sellers Need to Know

    Should You Price Your Home to Get Multiple Offers? What Los Angeles Sellers Need to Know

    Should You Price Your Home to Get Multiple Offers? What Los Angeles Sellers Need to Know

    When homeowners prepare to sell, one of the biggest decisions they have to make is also one of the first: What should the listing price be?

    It can be tempting to think that the best strategy is simply to start as high as possible and see what happens. On the other hand, sellers sometimes hear that they should price their home lower in hopes of attracting several buyers and creating multiple offers.

    Both ideas can sound reasonable, but neither should be applied automatically. The right pricing strategy depends on the property, the competition, current buyer activity, and what is happening in the local market at the time the home is listed.

    For Los Angeles homeowners, where conditions can vary significantly from one neighborhood to another, understanding that context is especially important.

    What Does It Mean to Price for Multiple Offers?

    Pricing for multiple offers generally means choosing a listing price designed to attract a larger pool of qualified buyers and encourage competition for the property.

    That does not necessarily mean pricing a home far below its value. It means looking carefully at comparable sales, current competing listings, recent buyer activity, the condition of the property, and the price ranges buyers are currently searching.

    If several buyers see value in the same property at the same time, competition may develop naturally. Some buyers may decide to improve their price or terms because they know they are not the only interested party.

    However, multiple offers are never guaranteed. A seller can choose a thoughtful and competitive listing price and still receive one offer, several offers, or no immediate offers at all.

    The Market Has to Support the Strategy

    Before deciding how to price a home, I believe it is important to understand what buyers are actually doing in that specific market.

    How many similar homes are currently available? How long are they taking to sell? Are homes selling close to their original asking prices? Are new listings receiving immediate attention, or are buyers taking more time to make decisions?

    These questions provide much more useful information than simply assuming that a strategy that worked for another property will work for yours.

    Even within Los Angeles, two nearby neighborhoods can behave differently. The same can be true within a neighborhood when homes fall into different price ranges or offer very different features.

    This is one reason I pay close attention to active inventory in addition to recently sold properties. Sold homes tell us what buyers were willing to pay in the recent past. Active listings show us what your home would be competing against if it entered the market today.

    The Asking Price Is Part of Your Marketing

    Sellers sometimes think about price only as the amount they ultimately want to receive for their home. I also think of the listing price as part of the property’s marketing strategy.

    Before buyers schedule a showing, they are usually looking at homes online and comparing several options. Price affects whether a property appears in their search and how it compares with the other homes they are considering.

    A home can be beautiful and well presented, but if buyers perceive the asking price as disconnected from the market, some may decide not to see it at all.

    That matters because the first goal of marketing a home is to get the right buyers interested enough to take the next step and see the property.

    Could Pricing Too Low Be a Risk?

    Yes, which is why pricing for competition should never mean choosing an artificially low number simply to generate attention.

    There is no guarantee that buyers will bid a property up to the price a seller hopes to receive.

    The listing price should be a number the seller understands and is comfortable putting into the market as part of an overall strategy. The goal is not to gamble on a bidding war. The goal is to position the property intelligently based on the available information.

    Could Pricing Too High Be a Risk?

    Pricing too high can create a different problem.

    When buyers have access to many listings and can compare homes quickly, they often recognize when a property appears expensive relative to similar choices. Instead of making a lower offer, some buyers may simply move on to another home.

    If that happens repeatedly, the property can accumulate days on market. A later price adjustment may generate new interest, but by then buyers may also begin wondering why the home has not sold.

    This does not mean a seller should automatically choose a low listing price. It means the original price should be supported by the market as much as possible.

    The Highest Offer Is Not Always the Best Offer

    If a pricing strategy does result in multiple offers, sellers then have another decision to make.

    The offer with the highest purchase price is not automatically the strongest offer.

    Price matters, but so do financing, contingencies, the proposed closing timeline, the buyer’s deposit, and other terms of the transaction. A slightly lower offer with strong financing and terms that work well for the seller may sometimes be more attractive than a higher offer with greater uncertainty.

    Every offer should be evaluated as a complete package.

    Real estate broker reviewing comparable home sales and active listings to determine a pricing strategy for a Los Angeles home seller
    A thoughtful pricing strategy considers recent sales, current competition and how buyers are responding to similar homes in the local market.

    What I Would Look at Before Pricing a Los Angeles Home

    Before recommending a pricing strategy, I would want to understand the property and the seller’s goals first.

    I would then look at comparable sales, current listings, pending activity when available, days on market, price changes, neighborhood competition, property condition, and the way buyers appear to be responding to similar homes.

    I would also want to know what makes the property different.

    A remodeled home may compete differently from one that needs significant updating. A home with a view, an unusual lot, a desirable location, or another feature that is difficult to replicate may require additional judgment when comparing it with recent sales.

    The numbers provide the foundation, but they still need context.

    There Is No Universal Pricing Formula

    One of the things I continue to appreciate about real estate is that the more market information we have, the better the questions we can ask.

    There is no single pricing strategy that makes sense for every seller.

    Sometimes pricing very close to expected market value may be appropriate. In another situation, positioning a property to encourage greater buyer interest may make sense. There may also be circumstances where the characteristics of a particular home require a different approach entirely.

    The important part is understanding why a price is being chosen and what the seller hopes that strategy will accomplish.

    If you are considering selling a home in Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, or elsewhere on the Westside of Los Angeles, I would be happy to help you look at the current MLS data, comparable properties, and competition before deciding on a strategy.

    For me, pricing should not begin with a guess. It should begin with information, a conversation about the seller’s goals, and a careful look at the market the home is actually entering.

    Claudia Backus, MBA
    California Real Estate Broker | REALTOR®
    Serving Pacific Palisades & the Westside of Los Angeles

  • What Is a CMA in Real Estate? What Los Angeles Homeowners Should Know Before Selling

    What Is a CMA in Real Estate? What Los Angeles Homeowners Should Know Before Selling

    If you are thinking about selling your home, you have probably asked some version of the question, “What is my house worth?” Today, homeowners can find estimates online in seconds, but understanding how a home fits into the current market usually requires more than one automated number.

    A Comparative Market Analysis, commonly called a CMA, is one of the tools real estate professionals use to help answer that question. A thoughtful CMA looks at relevant properties, current market conditions, active competition, and the characteristics of a specific home to help a homeowner understand a reasonable pricing range and begin thinking about a selling strategy.

    As a mom of three young children, the word “homework” has taken on a whole new meaning in my life. But there is another kind of homework I have come to appreciate in real estate: the work that should happen before advising someone about the value and pricing of their home. To me, a good CMA is exactly that kind of homework.

    What Is a CMA in Real Estate?

    A CMA is an analysis of comparable properties and market conditions used to help estimate how a home may compete in the current real estate market. It usually includes recent sales, but a good analysis goes beyond finding a few homes nearby and averaging their sale prices.

    The goal is to identify properties that are meaningfully comparable and then understand the differences. Location, size, condition, renovations, lot characteristics, views, layout, privacy, and other property specific details can all affect how buyers perceive value. Two homes can be close to one another and still compete very differently in the market. This is one reason I believe a CMA should be researched rather than simply generated. The data matters, but so does deciding which data is actually relevant.

    One statistic that caught my attention at The MLS Summit 2026 was how strongly real estate professionals continue to value the CMA, even as consumers have access to more online home valuation tools.

    Why Does a CMA Still Matter When We Have Online Home Estimates?

    Homeowners now have access to more real estate information than ever before, and I think that is a good thing. Online valuation tools can be useful as a starting point, and artificial intelligence is creating even more ways to organize and analyze information. I use technology myself and enjoy learning how these tools can help us work more intelligently.

    But an estimate and an analysis are not quite the same thing. An automated tool may not fully understand a remodeled kitchen, an unusual floor plan, the quality of a view, the condition of a property, or why buyers may respond differently to two homes that look similar on paper. A CMA gives us an opportunity to look at the data in the context of the actual property and the market around it.

    That distinction became even clearer to me at The MLS Summit 2026. As public real estate data and AI tools continue to grow, I do not think the professional role becomes less important. I think the responsibility shifts toward understanding the information, verifying it, interpreting it carefully, and explaining it clearly to the homeowner.

    A CMA Is More Than Looking at Sold Homes

    One of my favorite practical takeaways from the Summit was the importance of looking closely at active inventory. Sold properties tell us what buyers were willing to pay in the recent past, which is important, but active listings tell us what a buyer can choose today.

    If you are preparing to sell, your home is not only being compared with properties that sold three months ago. It will compete with the homes buyers can tour and consider right now. Understanding that active competition can help put pricing, condition, presentation, and strategy into perspective.

    This is also where the idea of a micro market matters. Asking “How is the Los Angeles market?” is often too broad to be very useful for one homeowner. The more helpful question is: what is happening in the particular market in which this particular home will compete? Price range, neighborhood, property type, size, condition, and buyer expectations can create very different markets within the same city.

    A Home Is Not Just a Collection of Data

    A CMA depends on data, but a home is not simply a collection of numbers. This is where professional judgment and local context become important. How does the home compare with the competition buyers are seeing right now? Which comparable properties are truly comparable? Does a renovation add the value a homeowner expects it to add? How might buyers respond to the condition, layout, lot, view, privacy, or location?

    Those questions do not mean the data is less important. They mean the data needs to be interpreted. A good CMA should help a homeowner understand not only what the numbers say, but why certain properties are more relevant than others and what those comparisons may mean for the home’s position in the market.

    Pricing Can Be Personal

    Pricing a home is both analytical and personal. For many homeowners, a house represents far more than an investment. It may be where children grew up, where holidays were celebrated, where years of improvements were made, or simply a place filled with memories. It makes sense that conversations about value can carry emotion.

    Pricing was a major theme during the CMA discussion at The MLS Summit 2026. The presentation shared survey data showing that pricing was the number one seller objection at a listing presentation, reported by 63.7 percent of surveyed agents. I do not interpret that statistic as homeowners being difficult. I see it as a reminder of how important it is for a real estate professional to arrive prepared and be able to explain the evidence behind a pricing recommendation.

    Pricing was an important part of the CMA discussion at The MLS Summit 2026. A thoughtful CMA can give homeowners an evidence based starting point for understanding how their home fits into the current market.

    A CMA Is a Starting Point for a Conversation

    I do not think the purpose of a CMA is to walk into someone’s home, announce a number, and end the conversation. The more useful approach is to walk through the information together. Which properties were selected as comparables? Why were they selected? What is currently competing for buyers’ attention? Where is the subject property stronger or weaker? What has changed in the market?

    The homeowner’s goals matter too. One seller may prioritize achieving the highest possible price and have flexibility with timing. Another may need to move within a certain period. Someone else may value privacy, simplicity, or certainty. The market data helps inform the strategy, but the strategy should also reflect the person making the decision.

    That is why I like thinking of a CMA as the beginning of a thoughtful pricing conversation rather than a final verdict on what a home is worth.

    Doing the Homework Before Selling

    The more I learn about real estate, the more I appreciate how much responsibility comes with giving someone guidance about their home. A CMA may begin with numbers, but its purpose is not simply to produce a number. It is to help a homeowner understand the market, ask better questions, and make a decision with more information and confidence.

    To me, that is what doing the homework is really about. If someone trusts me enough to ask for guidance about one of their largest assets, I want to come prepared, keep learning, explain what I see as clearly as I can, and do my best to be of service.

    Claudia Backus, MBA, REALTOR®
    California Real Estate Broker
    Serving Pacific Palisades & the Westside