More homesellers are showing up to listing presentations with data around what they think their homes are worth, yet fewer of them are objecting to listing agent commission than in 2020.
That’s according to a new survey Lone Wolf and Giant Steps Advisors released on Monday that found nearly two-thirds of real estate professionals cited price objections as the No. 1 objection from their listing clients.
The survey received responses from 2,165 real estate professionals from 46 states who were surveyed between November and February.
The report sharing the survey’s findings noted signs that the real estate industry is already leaning into artificial intelligence to strengthen the value of their comparative market analyses and that they’re taking more time preparing CMAs ahead of listing appointments.
“When we ran the first survey in 2020, AI wasn’t even a question. Now it’s everywhere, and yet agents’ confidence in the CMA jumped 22 points,” said Greg Robertson, co-founder of Giant Steps Advisors and author of The Art of the CMA. “I think agents are telling us something important. An algorithm can spit out a number, but pricing a home is a human act. It’s local knowledge, judgment, and a conversation at the kitchen table. The more automated estimates sellers bring to that table, the more valuable the human-crafted CMA becomes. AI doesn’t replace it. It raises the stakes for it.”
Nearly 9 out of 10 respondents said that CMAs were becoming more important.
Nearly two-thirds said pricing is the No. 1 seller objection, as sellers arrive to listing appointments prepared with more sources of price information.
More agents are now conducting listing presentations virtually or otherwise remotely than they were in 2020, when the last Lone Wolf survey was prepared.
Ninety-one percent of respondents said that they trust data from the MLS the most. Fewer than 1 percent said they trusted the public portals for information.
More agents are creating CMAs at least a day before a listing appointment, up 12.6 percent from 2020, and fewer agents are creating them the same day as the listing appointment.
More than half of agents reported presenting both digital and printed versions of the CMA to their clients, the survey found.
