3 Ways to Wow Sellers at a Listing Appointment

Winning more listings is a key way to grow your real estate business. If you're getting plenty of seller leads but can't seem to seal the deal, try one of these strategies at your next listing appointment.

Talk less

If you're focused on delivering your listing presentation exactly the way you rehearsed it, you'll miss out on important opportunities to learn more about the seller's motivations and tailor your pitch to their needs.

Try to make the meeting less of a lecture about the local real estate market and more of a conversation about the seller and their home. What have they enjoyed most about living there? Have they made any upgrades? Do they have concerns about how the home will be received by buyers?

Give them what they want

Many agents present a fancy listing appointment book or iPad slideshow full of real estate market statistics, information about their brokerage, and a list of their credentials. That's nice – and for some sellers important – but what every seller really wants to know is how you plan to get their home sold quickly, for the most money, and with the least hassle for them. Worry a little less about creating things that market you and instead focus on sharing how you advertise the homes you list.

Show your prospective sellers real life examples of the things you'll do to help sell their home. If the photographer you use is top notch, bring shots of a comparable home you just sold. Build a beautiful, mobile-optimized single property website for all of your listings? Share the site you created for a similar home that just hit the market. And no need to badmouth the competition here; your work will speak for itself.

Demonstrate real neighborhood knowledge

Every agent you're competing against is going to bring a CMA to the listing appointment. All of those will include recently sold homes – probably the same ones you've pulled. Many will also include comparable active listings and may even reach the same recommendation regarding list price.

So how do you stand out when it comes to pricing advice? By actually visiting the active listings you've included in your analysis. Depending on how quickly they list and the average days on market in your area, those exact properties could be the seller's direct competition. Previewing comparable listings before your presentation will allow you to speak intelligently about the differences and give solid recommendations on both list price and any staging or home repairs that might be necessary to be competitive in the current market.

To view the original article, visit the HomeFinder.com blog.