Last week, we chose Jessica LeDoux’s story as the winner of our CMA Success Story Contest. We also highlighted Mark Jones’ story for its ability to make us laugh. With so many other wonderful entries, we decided to share them with you. Here they are:

“We had a listing appointment to list a home.  We prepared the CMA report using the new and improved CMA program found in the RMLS™ Toolkit.  It has some exciting features such as pulling data from previous MLS numbers to populate and reference various cells.  It also saves the current data as you go through the process.  Our clients were impressed with our report.  It has a professional cover with a picture of their home. The report now has a bar graph that is easily understood instead of the scatter graph.  Our clients were very pleased with our report.  They told us that the other agents they had interviewed had only provided flyers from the info boxes on houses for sale in the neighborhood.  Using the new CMA program was not only easy but, as you know, first impressions are very important.  Needless to say, we got the listing.  This has been one of the best improvements made to RMLS™,  our thanks to those who took the time and created such a great real estate tool.”

Sherrill and Eric Lincoln
Oregon Realty Co.

“I wanted to commend you on the new CMA. I have used it seven times already with much success! It is very well put together and adds the extra professionalism you need when asking for the clients listing business and to show clients what the market research is saying about housing prices in their specific area.

I completed one on short notice on Saturday, June 26, after looking at the home on Friday. By showing her the CMA I prepared, complete with graph; she gave me  full price offer, with no closing costs, additions, or repairs. I was able to show her the home was worth full price; and asked her if she would be upset if someone came in at full price, and she offered 5k less. This was a total validation effort gone right!

In another instance, this week I used the new CMA for a past and “to be a repeat listing client” who needed back up for a loan modification request. With all the floor plans the same as hers, most were in short sale status in her community. We added the occupancy issues, kept up landscaping, current HOA dues no liens, and additional garage. This brought her home value up 20k, by noting the short sales, empty homes, no yard maintenance and stripped interiors. I believe this and the list price letter helped them receive an answer swiftly. Thanks for the effort in creating this valuable tool!”

Marleen Sperr
Keller Williams Premier Partners

“I used the new CMA when I was preparing for a new client, an investor. I needed to gather comparables nearby very quickly as he was deciding whether or not to make a bid on an auction property. Even though I hadn’t used it before, I decided to give it a try and see the changes. I found the new form to be easy to use and impressive in formatting.

With the new format, I was able to show that the property would be a good investment as the surrounding area supported the price he was considering and, my client was very happy that he received such a detailed report in just an hour’s time. He told me that even though he decided to pass on this property (his partner was out of town and couldn’t see it) he would like to continue working with me as I was the only Realtor able to gain access to the property and, gave him good resources to make decisions on!

I have also prepared the CMA for a new client for a listing and my client liked how well organized the material was for them to see the price range suggested. Thank you for the wonderful new CMA, it was a breeze to work with and a big improvement in the flow and format.”

Carol M. West
ReMax Equity Group, Inc.

“I received a call late on June 29th from a person needing to sell their mother’s home. She had recently driven her car through the garage door and on into the kitchen. Her kids understandably want to get her into supervised living right away as she has early Alzheimer’s. I know the area and house like the back of my hand and so I felt comfortable doing a CMA to take along on that first appointment. I got on RMLSweb and checked the new CMA even though I didn’t have a lot of time. I was delighted how easy it was. I just breezed through it, printed it and got home 1 hour ago with the new signed listing in my hand. Thank you RMLS™. I think the new CMA is great!”

Laurie Evans Mischel

“I initially was attempting to use Prudential’s system to input a CMA, until I became very frustrated when after uploading photos for my client and then creating the report, the photos were not included on the report. Being persistent I kept trying without using any help buttons, because I can usually figure things out quicker by observation and database experience. My attempts ended in frustration, so I turned to RMLS™, since in the past I have created CMA’s in their system. I found the new CMA process very user friendly and had no issues…although it would be nice to have the option of additional photos on the cover page. I didn’t actually experiment much since by that time I just wanted to get a complete CMA sent to my client without wasting anymore time, so maybe you can!!”

Kathleen Griffin
Prudential Northwest Properties

“I love it, I do a lot of REO and BPO work and the banks are now requiring an upload of a one page CMA. I used to have to do it in excel and since I am not that good at excel it took HOURS! With the new program I just load the three active and three sold MLS # into the MLS# page hit new CMA and the first page is exactly what I need, I save it to a PDF and load it. I also like the fact it has no contact info on that page so I can pass it around! Thanks!”

Leigh Golson

“My landscaper told me that the owner of a house in our neighborhood was in the process of preparing their house for sale and that he didn’t think she had an agent yet.  I logged onto RMLSweb, clicked on the new CMA tool link, and quickly put together a reasonably comprehensive CMA for the surrounding area.  I like the fact that the user interface is very clean, clear and concise, and I was able to get the report done in a fraction of the time that the old report took.  I dropped by my neighbor’s house later that day with the CMA report, a business card, and a listing agreement and now I have one more house in my inventory to sell.”

Jeff Bob

“I first tried the new CMA and thought it was way too complicated so I opted for the old one. I was preparing a CMA for a rural property and the lot sized really mattered. I finished the old one and remembered the lot sizes were not included so it was rather useless. This forced me to the new one which includes the lot size in the comparables. I was able to pick and choose what I wanted to fill out for my clients needs and was done in no time. My clients thought it was very helpful. I would recommend making the plunge and checking the new one out!”

Marilyn Cooley
Coldwell Banker, BSSP

“I recently saw the new CMA module, so I thought I’d check it out. Timing was perfect. I discovered a home that was foreclosed on recently by a bank client. So, I set up a profile for the bank & did a preliminary CMA on the home. The bank then asked me for a CMA on this lot they own, and I simply went in and created it, using the bank’s profile. It took me all of 15 minutes as the new program was so much easier to use, and allowed the ability to save the CMA, thus allowing further tweaking if I missed something. I forwarded it to the client. Then, I further refined the foreclosed home and added some relevant comps, and sent it in too. Had it been with the old CMA program, I’d have had to start over the 2nd time around. The bank seemed pleased with the work.”

Eugene Lew
RE/MAX Equity Group, Inc.

“Hello  just wanted to let you know a great story about the new CMA system. I am in the process of a short sale with HSBC Bank and the negotiator said they wanted 220 from an old BPO.  I told them that was old and there was only 4 sales in the radius of .25 miles that are at a lower amount. The bank said to send over a CMA for the property. So I used the new CMA system and printed it out and faxed it over to HSBC. The new graphs and charts showing how we were at the top of the range worked. I got approval within 24 hours. I can not believe how fast that was. I like the new CMA it is so easy to use and also shows very well to a bank or at a listing appointment. This is just my little story.”

Gary Horton
RE/MAX Signature Properties

“I’ll make this short and sweet and to the point. I used the new CMA and was impressed at how easy it was to use. Also I love that it saves your work and allows you to go back and get more information without losing all your hours of hard work.”

Patty Aubert

“We recently used your New CMA Unit to provide our sellers with new comps in order to get a price reduction on their home, it worked after seeing the new comps they said yes to a new list price…thanks.”

Don Love

“I am considered as a fairly new real estate agent. I have knowledge about properties and real estate but I was so troubled when my clients asked me to prepare comp reports for them.  In order to provide a very well prepared and thorough comp report, I had to visit different websites to obtain detailed information about each property. It usually took me about one or two whole day to prepare a report with only 3 to 5 properties to compare with.

Now with RMLS’ help by creating the CMA tool, it really saves me so much time so I can spend more time on taking care of more clients.  I can now enter the information about the subject property, the tool then generates tones of properties that are comparable to the subject property.  With the list, I can easily browse through and change any specification if necessary and only select the ones I think that most fit my clients needs.  I can also add information about my experience and any other information I would like my clients to know about in one single report.  It is just one click away – a complete and professional looking report is created and ready to be sent to serve my client.”

Shih-Han Lu
Keller Williams/PDX Central