Get the Listing Contract Signed Second-to-Last.

Get the Listing Contract Signed Second-to-Last.

I just finished printing 41 pages needed for a standard Silicon Valley listing package.  It's for an appointment tonight.  I don't take listings nearly as often as I used to in my hotshot youth when 90% of my business was listing business.  Nonetheless, over 36 years I've gotten pretty good at it, I think, I want to share the procedure I use. 

The process is intended to help overcome a seller's resistance to various terms of a Listing Agreement.  This post is a suggestion on how to persuade a homeowner to agree with the Listing Agent about: (A) the amount of the Brokerage Fee; (B) the Duration of the listing, and (C) the List Price. 

The homeowner already agreed to hire me, and they know I want to complete all the paperwork we'll need to market their home.  I've already pre-warned them we'll need 2-3 hours for the paperwork. 

I organize the  sequence of the forms from easy to progressively more difficult ones.  I always put the Exclusive Authorization and Right to Sell (the listing contract) second-to-last.  I'll explain why below.

As I go through the forms with the seller, I don't simply ask for their signatures.  I summarize what each form says, why it's required and often briefly explain its history.  It's good information and I try to make it interesting and sometimes funny.  But it's canned, although it doesn't sound canned. And it's easy for any agent to rehearse in advance.  

I ask for their signatures after the brief canned explanation of each document.  Why?  Because that process accomplishes several important things: 

1. It introduces the seller into the world of professional real estate sales. 
2. It increases the homeowner's understanding of and appreciation for the complexity involved in real estate sales.  
3. It increases their confidence in me; that I understand the business, that I want to do it right, and that I know what I'm doing. 
4. By completing the Seller Disclosures together, it reminds the homeowner that their home isn't perfect; there may be negative disclosures that need to be compensated for in the asking pricing.  I also learn more about the property by working on it with them.

The Listing Contract always comes second-to-last.  Why?  By the time we get to the Listing Agreement they're tired.  I've worn them down.  They had no idea of the complexity and regulations involved.  Their confidence and trust in me is enhanced.  Their resistance to a persuasive argument about (A) Brokerage Fee; (B) Duration of the listing; and (C) Listing Price is diminished.  And, after 2-3 hours, they'd like to get rid of me, and that works to my advantage overcoming their objections.  

That's why I always do the Listing Contract second-to-last.  Try it.

Last is the Net Sheet.  I calculate and explain a Net Sheet at a price a little lower than the List Price to moderate their expectations.  I tell them it's hypothetical and I'll do another one when an offer is presented.

Lloyd Binen

Broker/Realtor/DRE 572654

Certified Realty Services

19200 Shubert Drive

Saratoga, CA 95070-4046

Certified Residential Specialist (CRS); Graduate Realtors Institute (GRI)

408-373-4411; e-mail