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A system to get that listing: Walk away with that listing contract

By
Real Estate Technology with Content Marketing Factory

After working with hundreds of real estate professionals over the last decade, eNeighborhoods has identified some ideas and insights that consistently help agents create powerful listing presentations. Each presentation should accomplish three goals:

1)      Introduce yourself and your brand
2)      Agree on a selling price - don't just present
3)      Get the listing agreement signed

Introduce yourself - and your brand!

Successful agents lead with a dynamite resume and a professional CMA package such as eNeighborhoods. Your materials should include your photo, company logo and contact information. 

Along with your experience, include any certifications, professional associations and personal information that build your Neighborhood Expertise. Lived in the neighborhood for 20 years?  Let your clients know! 

Agree on a selling price

The key to agreeing on a selling price is to provide accurate information and insight into the pricing process. If prospects are comfortable with your research and methods, it's easier to break through any objections that stand between you and the listing.

Supply your seller with high-quality comps to quickly build credibility.  Explain why the comps are relevant and include FSBO comps if possible. Sellers should know about all their competition, not just broker-listed properties.

In addition to recently sold properties, be prepared to answer questions about current listings, FSBOs and expired listings to help determine an accurate valuation of their home.  Show them a map with the comps clearly identified so you can prove your data is good data. Accurate and detailed market research will help you answer the common objections from owners who find your selling price too low.

One way to break through price objections is to use research that shows that a properly priced home is attractive to a larger number of buyers and is likely to sell faster. Show them that overpriced homes tend to sit on the market and ultimately sell for less, and miss out on the buyer interest that new listings typically generate.

Get the listing agreement signed

If you want the listing, you often have to ask for it more than once, in different ways. Fortunately, using the eNeighborhoods CMA makes this easy. One technique that makes asking for the listing more natural is to include a marketing planner in your CMA that details all of the things you will do to get the property listed and sold. 

Your planner should include every task that's important for the sellers to know, starting with "Get Listing Papers Signed." Making the task of signing the listing agreement step one is a great way to gauge the seller's reaction to your presentation. If you encounter an objection at this point, you can handle the objection and move on before you pull out the contract. 

Another closing technique involves using your marketing planner to talk about scheduling open houses.  Suggest a date and time that you'd like to do the open house.  When you show sellers this task on your planner, ask them if they can be out of the home on that date.  If they say yes, you've made a powerful step toward getting the listing. 

To help seal the deal, consider taking a digital photo of the seller's home beforehand and printing several flyers with different design themes to show how you will market their home. Ask sellers if they like the photo, or the property description.  Ask them if the property features you've listed are accurate. 

After you have asked for feedback and you are listening to the seller's ideas, it's time to pull out the contract and ask once again for the listing. At this point, asking should not be that difficult - after all, it's the only way you and the seller can begin working together to get that property sold!

TIP: The end of your presentation should be the beginning of a working relationship. The key is to create marketing materials that not only show how you plan to sell the home, but provide the foundation of a productive relationship with that seller. eNeighborhoods provides CMAs, Neighborhood Reports and Flyers to help make any listing presentation a success - Here's an article I worked on with eNeighborhoods Online Trainer, Phil Culver, from our Prospecting, Conversion and Sales Monthly Newsletter.