Tech Tips - "How To" Manage Reports 

The basic steps for creating a new CMA package are:

• Click on CMA in the frame menu and select "New Comparative Market Analysis" 
• Name the CMA, and associate it with a client (if this is applicable)
• Enter one Subject property
• Enter Comparable properties
• Adjust the price of Comparables as appropriate
• Enter a Suggested List Price (to replace the automatically computed average of Sold Comps)
• Select Reports
• Publish the CMA.

Copy, Edit, Preview, Print or Email an Existing CMA 

To Copy, Edit, Preview, Print or Email an Existing CMA:

• Click on CMA in the frame menu and select CMA Manager
• Select one CMA in the list by clicking on its checkbox
• To Preview the selected CMA report, click on the address of its Subject Property 
• Click the appropriate button (Copy, Edit, Print, Email) at the bottom of the screen. 

See "CMA Error on Mac" for a description of and fix for errors caused by special characters in CMAs.

Customized Reports in your CMA's are fully editable in CTI Navigator Web. The system assigns "My" in front of a standard report that has been customized unless you give it a different name. 

To edit Custom Reports you have already created:

1. Open the CMA screen
2. Select the Reports tab
3. Select the report to be re-named in the "Customized Reports" list
4. Click the Edit button
5. Click the "Change Report Heading" button
6. Modify the Report Name (such as change "My" to "Our")
7. Optionally, you also can change the Report Heading on the same screen
   • click the OK button
   •  click Save. 

The CMA "Contents" Table lists reports by Name. The report itself will display the report Heading.

Email CMA in PDF format

To email a CMA report as a PDF file, first save the CMA in PDF format using a PDF converter (described below). Then you can either open your personal email program (desktop or webmail) and attach the PDF file to your email message;  Or you can open the PDF file in Adobe Reader and use Adobe's Send File email feature to send the CMA in PDF format.

Adobe Reader provides three options to email PDF files:

• Send as an attachment through your default desktop email application; or
• Send as an attachment through your web-based email; or
• Send as an attachment or Link through Adobe's "SendNow" subscription service (useful for large files).

Email MLS Reports in PDF format

To email standard MLS Reports as PDF files from Navigator Web, either select "Print Reports" on the Search Results screen or select the Print button on the Property Details screen. On the pop-up Print window, select the appropriate Options and the desired MLS Report. Then either click :

Listings do not exist as individual entities on the Internet, so they do not have a URL address themselves.  However, you can easily generate a URL address for a report on a specific listing or several listings together in CTI Navigator Web as follows:

1. Select the listing(s) on a Search Results screen 
2. Click the Email button at the bottom of the table 
3. Select the desired report (such as Buyer Handout) 
4. Click on the "Copy Link to Clipboard" button, and then paste the link wherever desired. 
   • Note: To paste from the Clipboard you can right-click with your mouse or use "Ctrl-V" keys in Windows or "Command-V" keys in Mac. 
5. Optionally: To display the address in your browser -
   • Click the down-arrow-head button ▼ beside the "Copy Link to Clipboard" button 
   • Click on "Show Link in Browser" 
   • Copy the on-screen URL address. 

Note: In CTI Navigator Desktop you can select the listing(s) in a Table of Results > click the E-mail icon at the top of the table > select the desired report (such as Buyer Handout) > change the format from HTML Link to Text-Link > click "Create Email" > copy the on-screen URL address.

▲ Back to Index of Report Management Tips▲  

Save CMA in PDF format

To save a CMA report as a PDF file:

1. Install a PDF converter in your computer if you or Microsoft have not already done so (see "PDF Converter Note" below).
2. In your Navigator Web CMA, click on the Print button under the Printing tab .
3. Change the selected printer to the PDF converter you have installed (do Not select the "Print to file" option).
4. Click the Print button on the Print dialog screen.
5. On the Create or Save As screen, specify the file name and folder location in which to save the PDF file.
6. Optional: Select any other desired features if available (such as password security or merge documents in Bullzip PDF Printer).
7. Click Save.

PDF Converter Note: You can install a PDF converter utility in your Windows computer so you can save a file as a PDF.  Windows 10 includes its own "Microsoft Print To PDF" converter.  Many popular PDF converters are free (such as Cute PDF Writer, Bullzip PDF Printer, or PDF Creator) and can be installed in any current version of Windows. (Beware that other free converters may display advertising either in the document or during the creation process.) Most PDF converters are extremely easy to use - once installed, you just select the PDF converter as your printer on the normal Print dialog screen when printing a document. The converter automatically saves the file in PDF format (instead of printing the document onto paper).

Select Comparable Properties for a CMA

At least five (5) sold properties should be selected unless the comparables (comps) are extremely close in all features to the subject property. The closer these comps are to the subject property in key features (such as location, square footage, bedrooms, baths, parking, lot size, year built, frontage, et cetera) and the more recently these comps sold, the more likely it is that a computed price based on them will reflect a realistic market price for the subject property. 

Unless you have the same model house for comps, try to balance the range in comps so that some are a bit larger and more expensive and some are a bit smaller and less expensive than expected for the subject property. For square footage in homes, a range of plus or minus 10% compared to the subject property is generally considered comparable if all other significant factors are also comparable. 

Just being on the same street does not necessarily make properties “comparable” as far as price is determined (although it may be useful to include these for comparison to the neighbors). A key question to ask in selecting comparables for a CMA  is what would buyers today consider most like the subject property?

Distressed property sales (foreclosures, short sales, and bank-owned sales) can present a special problem in determining true market value. In general, focus on the ratio of distressed to non-distressed sales in the neighborhood or local geographical area of the subject property. If the majority of recent sales are of distressed properties, then local prices probably are also distressed and distressed sales should be reflected in comps. However, if the majority of recent sales are traditional and the proportion of distressed sales is shrinking, you may decide to omit or only include a few distressed sales in your comps list. 

Selecting comps is a judgment call and it is often difficult to find many truly similar properties. The CMA program can make some statistical adjustments, but the more nearly alike the other properties are physically to the subject property before statistical adjustments, and the more recently they sold, the more reliable and reasonable will be the estimated market value for the subject property.