Selling a home involves not only a list of steps, but plenty of industry jargon related to those steps, too. We thought you might be interested in learning the meaning of the real estate related terms that you will inevitably come across while selling your home.

1. Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) - This is an evaluation of similar, recently sold homes in the same area as your home. A CMA provides the current market value of your home and is prepared by your Realtor® when pricing your home.

When buying or selling a home, having an appraisal done is an important part of the process for both the buyer AND the seller. Although the primary and direct benefit is for the buyer, it is still a necessary aspect of the real estate transaction for the seller, too.

First, let's discuss what an appraisal is and why you need one in the first place.

An appraisal is an estimate of a property's value based on factors such as location, amenities and condition in comparison to similar properties that have recently sold in your area. Further, an appraisal is required on all purchases being financed so lenders can ensure the property is worth at least as much as the buyer is borrowing from their lender. This is not only a benefit for the buyer, but is a direct benefit for the lender as it is the only way they get to see the property and know what they are lending their money on.

A lot of companies know consumers, like you, are interested in and looking for information about homes and real estate and have created slick looking websites to attract you to their sites. What you may not know is they are really just interested in using web traffic to increase the value of their ad space and then selling those ads to major companies. Although this is a common practice and not necessarily wrong, most consumers are not aware they are being used in this way.

Additionally, what may surprise you even more is that every time you register for one of these real estate websites, or request more information about a home, your information is actually being sold to real estate agents looking for new leads. Although you may not mind being contacted by a real estate agent with information about a property, you don’t know if you are actually being connected with a good agent or just one willing to pay the most money for access to you as a lead.