Creating a Listing Presentation: 5 Tips to Help You Prepare

A listing appointment is your last hurdle to jump before you achieve your goal of procuring a new client. You have put in hours of work discovering and warming up your lead. Now it's finally time to sign them on as a client--if they like what they hear from your listing presentation. So creating a listing presentation that is well thought-out and drives home the point that you are the best agent for the job is crucial to the growth of your business.

To help you out with that, we have gathered some of the best tips on how to create a listing presentation that is sure to impress.

Learn Everything You Can About the Property

Proving to the homeowners you know the ins and outs of a property will show your competence and commitment to the successful sale of their home. In order to convince homeowners that you are the right agent to sell their home, you need to demonstrate you have enough background knowledge of their property to effectively price and market it, as well as negotiate on their behalf.

The process of demonstrating this knowledge can be done through presenting the sellers a CMA. In order to produce the most helpful CMA, search for about six homes that match your leads property in all relevant features and have sold within the last year. Attempt to match the following elements of your lead's home as closely as possible:

• Number of bedrooms
• Number of bathrooms
• Square footage
• Substantial features such as a pool, finished basement, 3-car garage, high ceilings, etc.
• Price point

Walking your lead through this process to price their home will help them to be realistic about their expectations when it comes to how much they will eventually get for their home.

Don't Forget to Investigate the Seller

While it's easy to get caught up in creating the perfect CMA to present to your clients, don't forget to investigate the seller just as much as you investigate the home. After all, it is the seller you are trying to accommodate and impress.

Research their social media accounts and take notes on any phone or email conversation where they happen to give you personal information. Here is some information to be on the lookout for:

• Do they have children? If so, what are their ages?
• Are they active on social media?
• Why are they choosing to sell right now?
• Is their work schedule extremely demanding?

Information like this helps you tailor the specifics of your marketing strategy to their needs and reinforces your commitment to providing them with the best service possible. For example, if a seller has young children, it is safe to assume that early morning or evening open houses are not something they would be interested in. It is also good to note how active they are on social media. If they are very active, you will probably want to include a lot of social media promotion in your marketing strategy.

Details like these may seem small, but they add a personal element to your listing presentation that your lead will greatly appreciate and remember.

Show Your Value

When creating a listing presentation, you will want to be sure to include a segment where you prove your value to the seller. Start this segment of your presentation with a short bio of yourself. Any information about yourself that would make your lead feel more comfortable with you is something to consider including. Start with the number of years you have been in real estate, if you are a top producer, if you have been a lifelong member of the community, and so on.

Next, it's time to give them tangible proof that you are good at your job. Provide them with testimonials from clients, personal statistics, and show them homes similar to theirs that you have successfully sold. Anything you can provide to them that would help put their mind at ease and trust that you are a qualified and professional agent is something you should give to them. Sellers want to know that they, and their home, are in good hands. So prove to them just that.

Give a Detailed Marketing Plan

One of the primary purposes for creating a listing presentation is to present your marketing plan to your lead. So ensure that your plan is in tip-top shape by the time of your presentation. Explain your plan fully to the seller from start to finish. You will want to include details about how you plan on doing the following:

• Methods to market the home, including yard signs, open houses, social media posts, MLS listing, etc.
• How to keep the home relevant as new properties are added in the area
• Methods you will use to get their home in front of the right buyer at the right time
• How to get the best price in negotiations

Now, you probably have a real estate listing playbook you pull from in order to accomplish all of that, but a few personal modifications to those plans in order to fit the seller is always a good idea. Every seller wants to know you take their specific case seriously. Prove that to them by using some of their personal information to adjust your plan to fit them. Putting that effort in beforehand is sure to go a long way with any seller.

Leave the Seller With Materials to Review

Often sellers will feel a bit overwhelmed with information at the end of your presentation and will want to go home and digest it all. Don't let them leave without ample materials to refer to, though. If they develop questions or forgot a certain part of your presentation, they will easily be able to find the information they are looking for if you provide them with a reference. An example list of materials to include in a reference folder would be:

• Your business card in a clear, easily accessible place
• Full CMA with pictures of homes you compared theirs to
• Marketing plan
• Seller FAQs
• Agency disclosure form
• Any homework or notes you want the seller to consider

To view the original article, visit the Transactly blog.