What Is My Home Worth? CMA vs. Zestimate vs. Appraisal

Quick answer: An online estimate is a computer model guessing from public records. A CMA is a licensed agent pricing your specific house against recent, verified sales of comparable homes. An appraisal is a licensed appraiser's opinion for a lender. They disagree with each other constantly, and only two of the three matter when you sell.

The three numbers, and what each one is for

• Automated estimate (Zestimate and similar): an algorithm using tax records, past sales and public listing data. It has never been inside your house. It is a starting point for curiosity, not a pricing strategy.

• Comparative market analysis (CMA): what a listing agent prepares — recent closed sales of genuinely similar homes, adjusted for condition, updates, lot, location and what is competing with you right now.

• Appraisal: ordered by the buyer's lender after you are under contract, to confirm the house supports the loan. This is the number that can actually break a deal.

Why the online number is off on your house

Automated models are decent at averages and poor at specifics. They systematically miss:

• Condition. A gut-renovated kitchen and a 1978 kitchen look identical in tax records.

• What is behind the walls. New roof, new furnace, updated electrical, a rebuilt septic — none of it shows up.

• Location inside a town. Two streets apart in the same Connecticut town can mean a different school, a different flood zone, a different commute.

• Land and layout. Usable acreage, a walkout basement, a functional floor plan versus a chopped-up one.

• Thin data. In towns with few sales, the model has almost nothing to learn from.

The estimate can be high or low. Neither is harmless: a high one talks sellers into overpricing, a low one talks them into leaving money on the table.

What goes into a real CMA

• Closed sales, not listings. What someone actually paid, usually within the last three to six months.

• True comparables. Similar square footage, age, style, lot and — critically — similar condition, in your town and ideally your neighborhood.

• Adjustments, stated out loud. If a comp has a finished basement and you do not, the number moves, and the analysis should say by how much and why.

• Current competition. What is active and pending right now tells you what buyers are choosing between this month.

• Market direction. Days on market and the gap between list price and sold price tell you whether pricing aggressively is being rewarded or punished right now.

The cost of getting the price wrong

Overpricing is expensive in a way that is hard to see while it is happening. A listing gets its most attention in the first couple of weeks — that is when the buyers who have been watching the market see it. Price above what the comps support and those buyers move on. What follows is the familiar sequence: no showings, a price cut, more time on market, and eventually offers below what the house would have brought if it had been priced correctly on day one.

Underpricing has its own risk in a slower market, where the hoped-for bidding war never materializes and you simply sold low.

What actually moves your number

In rough order of weight for most Connecticut homes: location, condition, size and layout, then updates and finishes. You cannot change the first one. You can change the second at reasonable cost — clean, decluttered, painted, with the obvious deferred maintenance handled. That work shows up in both the offer price and the appraisal.

About that appraisal

Once you are under contract with a financed buyer, the lender orders an appraisal. If it lands below the contract price, the lender lends against the lower number and the gap has to be solved — the buyer brings cash, the price is renegotiated, or the deal falls apart. Pricing off real comps from the start is the best protection against that conversation.

Get a real number on your house

Start with our home value page, or ask us directly and we will put together a CMA with the comps listed and the adjustments explained — no obligation to list.

When you are ready to talk about what selling actually costs, read what it costs to sell a house in Connecticut and flat fee MLS vs. a 1% listing agent.