How to Win a Listing Appointment
To win a listing appointment, it’s important to show your wealth of knowledge about real estate and provide a successful marketing strategy. Whether you're an agent in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, or another booming real estate locale, these tips and strategies will help you crush your listing appointments and sign more clients.
What should I bring to the listing appointment?
There are a number of things to bring to your listing appointment if you want to show off your real estate strategy to a possible buyer. A CMA, a listing presentation, an appointment agenda, a sample listing agreement, and marketing materials from previous listings are just a few examples.
Always be sure to arrive one time and be prepared to explain to the sellers how you can sell their listing fast and for the most money possible.
We compiled a list of 15 things we believe agents should include in their listing presentation package to wow the sellers and win the listing.
1. CMA (Comparative Market Analysis)
Your prospective clients will appreciate your attention to detail when you come to your listing appointment with a CMA in hand. Providing a comparative market analysis is a good way to set expectations before you’re hired.
When you bring a CMA to your listing appointments, you’re showing the sellers that you’re prepared to win and that you are familiar with their community.
Create a CMA that is unique to your listing appointment by looking at comparable properties in the region that have sold. What are their similarities? What differences stand out between them? Then take a look at the neighborhood's quality, schools, and lot sizes.
2. Your Range of Value
The listing appointment is your time to shine! Don't be modest about what a seller's agent can do. Talk about your experience as an agent and highlight your achievements. Mention any skills or certifications you've gained. Agents who are successful don't have to be modest; loud and proud!
You don’t need to have these in a presentation, but do make sure you add them as key talking points.
3. A Handful of Client Success Stories
The sale of a home is an emotional rollercoaster for both homeowners and real estate professionals. Homeowners are likely to be stressed and concerned about the house selling process. This is an excellent chance to alleviate their worries with some client success storytime.
Tell an encouraging story about how you helped a family sell their home for more than they thought possible. Along with your success stories, share real estate photos that you believe helped increase showings and sell the home faster.
4. Multiple Net Sheets
Show sellers an estimated amount of what they will walk away with at closing with an expense net sheet in hand. Provide your prospects with several net sheets, rather than simply one. When showing offers, this approach will enable prospects to visualize various outcomes and build a "flex" space in their minds.
The preparedness you took to bring in more than one net sheet is guaranteed to impress.
5. Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
According to the 2018 NAR Member Report, there are 1.3 million realtors in the United States (up 6% from 2017). Competition between agents is more fierce than ever with an increase in REALTORs and a decrease in house inventory nationwide.
While a majority of agents have their real estate industry ‘niche’, you’re still competing for business against hundreds if not thousands of agents. That’s why it is crucial to have a USP. To have a USP is to have a brand identity. For new agents, it may take some time to discover your USP, but when you do, put it in writing.
Your USP or Unique Selling Proposition can be covered in the listing presentation, marketing materials, and your pitch. Stay true to your USP and make sure to feature it throughout your marketing.
6. An Eye-Catching Listing Presentation
If you don’t already have a generic PowerPoint presentation template, create one ASAP.
Your listing presentation should include an introduction of you and your brokerage, local market data, your sales process, and marketing strategies. Include your USP, net sheets, and range of value.
Be sure to add your previous listing images to your listing presentation, especially if you use professional real estate photography for all of your listings.
The strongest component of your presentation is that it needs to be visual to have a great impact on your viewers. Why? Because 90% of the population are visual learners and the human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text. Furthermore, when it comes to retaining information, people recall only 10% of what they hear.
7. Confidence
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”― Arthur Ashe
Homeowners appreciate confident, well-organized, and informed real estate professionals. Listing appointments are a very appropriate time to show your confidence as an agent. Confidence, however, is not to be confused with arrogance.
Confidence is demonstrated in a person's mannerisms, dress, speech, and interaction with others. It’s not about talking over anyone and it’s not about wearing the most expensive suit or dress.
“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.” ― Lao Tzu
8. Business Cards
A professional business card is a convenient and affordable way to provide homeowners with your contact information while also showcasing your brand and staying top of mind.
This seems like a bit of a no-brainer, but we can all admit we have forgotten our business cards while at big events…probably more than once. An easy hack to help you never leave your cards at home is to incorporate them into your listing presentation kit. Simply secure your card to your marketing materials with a staple or paper clip.
9. A Tablet or Notebook
Keep track of important information at your listing appointment by having a tablet or notebook and pen in hand! You’re going to be asking a lot of questions during your appointment and recalling those answers will be much easier with typed or handwritten notes.
If you decide on going with the tablet, just make sure it's charged!
10. An Appointment Agenda
An organized agent is a reliable agent. When you arrive with an agenda overview of the listing appointment, you’re showing the homeowners that you value preparation and efficiency.
Something as simple as an agenda with bullet-point topics is enough for homeowners to place confidence in your abilities and to consider you a methodical machine.
Here is an example of a listing appointment agenda:
- Tour of your home
- My consultation – Q & A session
- An overview of my brokerage and my business
- My listing presentation
- My marketing strategies
- Appointment conclusion
11. Your Listening Ears
Listings are all about attentively listening to the homeowners' needs. Make sure you schedule plenty of time during the appointment to ask open-ended questions that encourage them to share their story.
The homeowners want to close the appointment feeling like you have their best interests in mind. Listen more, talk less.
12. Printed Marketing Materials
We always encourage realtors to have a digital listing presentation prepared, but we also feel that printed marketing materials make a significant impact on homeowners.
Your new clients will appreciate having a tangible marketing booklet for their review. This strategy leaves a lasting impression on your new clients and can lead to future referrals.
Some of our favorite marketing packets include:
- A brochure or flyer with your preferred vendors (i.e. real estate photographers, professional stagers, landscapers, etc.)
- A marketing deck with real estate images from previous listings
- An infographic or flyer of the neighborhood real estate statistics
- A one-sheeter of the listing agent’s metrics for the year
- An outline of the listing agent’s tried and true listing strategy
- A few business cards
13. A Video of the Exterior
Here's a little hint we discovered on Facebook from a realtor. They advised to always take a quick video of the home's exterior before heading into the listing appointment.
When they win the listing, they tell the homeowners that they will send the video to all of the brokers in the area. This creates a buzz for a coming soon listing.
This action impresses the homeowners and shows the sellers that the agent is thinking ahead and eager to meet their needs.
14. Compliments About Their Home/Neighborhood
As soon as you walk into the listing appointment, you are the homeowner's biggest supporter and advocate. Compliment the features in their home and their neighborhood even if the home is not your style or the neighborhood isn’t your favorite. There will always be something positive worth highlighting whether it’s mature trees, a corner lot, or vintage hardware.
15. The Listing Contract
Finally, bring your listing contract. There's little doubt that you will leave the meeting without a listing if you follow the 14 items above. Homeowners know you’re a confident real estate agent if you arrive at a listing appointment prepared to win the listing.
We're sure you'll kill it at your next listing presentation with these 15 suggestions in your listing presentation packet.
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