Here is how most agents arrive at your price.

They pull the homes near you that sold in the last few months. They adjust for square footage and bedrooms. They hand you a number.

That is a CMA. It is not wrong, exactly. It is backward. Every one of those sales was negotiated weeks or months ago, under conditions that may not exist anymore.

Your house does not have to sell in the market that already happened. It has to sell in the one that is coming.

E is for Equity

Start with the number that matters most. Not the sale price. What you walk away with.

A higher sale price does not always mean a higher net. Spend thirty thousand preparing a house to gain twenty and you went backward while the headline number went up. So before anything else we look at current market value, estimated proceeds, selling costs, preparation costs, and what is left.

Four things a CMA does not study

P is for Presentation

Buyers decide emotionally and justify it afterward. The work here is making sure they are attached before they ever reach your front door.

That means professional photography and video, not phone photos on the fly. It means a listing written to show what makes your home specific instead of the same canned copy on every listing in the county. It means the first frame a buyer sees is the one that earns the second.

And this is where the second license changes the conversation.

I am a licensed general contractor as well as a REALTOR. CSLB #283343. When I walk your house before we list, I am doing two jobs at once. As your agent I am thinking about what buyers at your price point respond to. As a contractor I am looking at what the work costs, what a buyer's inspector is going to write up, and which repairs will come back as a credit request during escrow whether you fix them now or not.

Then I tell you three things.

"Lisa Bognuda is the go-to realtor for selling homes. She is very attentive and knowledgeable. My home was priced right due to her accurate research."

That is the whole job in one sentence.