How to Win Real Estate Listings

You’ve worked hard to get that listing appointment. Today is the day. Now what?

Frankly, most listing presentations are boring, boring, boring. Every real estate agent’s spiel is just about the same – the exception being the price. The agent thinks “how do I present a realistic price but compete with an agent who comes in with a high number just to get the listing? Most Realtors® rely on “chemistry”. I’ve talked with too many agents who say, “We really hit it off – I don’t know why they gave the listing to someone else”.

Here are some tips to make you stand out and be that Someone Else.

Know Your Market.

Become a student of the local marketplace and share statistics that will have meaning for your potential seller. Also track trends in the national marketplace. Even though it will not directly relate to your seller, it will distinguish you as a well-read, well-connected, and well-informed agent.

Ask questions and LISTEN. If you could listen in on typical listing presentations, you’ll hear the agent doing 80% of the talking, with the prospect hardly getting a word in. I guarantee you that the seller will be bored with your one-sided dialogue.What the prospect has to say is more important than what you have to say. Great salespeople do less than 25% of the talking.

Ask questions.

Especially if you had the homeowner fill out your Pre-interview Questionnaire before the meeting, you already know the questions you need to ask. Your prospect will be blown away by what appears to them to be great insight into their needs. It will be easy to match your presentation to their hot buttons.

Be a Clock Watcher.

Don’t overstay your welcome. Just like on a hot (or not so hot) date, you’ll sense when it’s time to wrap up. And don’t save the price recommendation until the end of your presentation. If you put your price recommendation at the very end of a long presentation during which you did 80% of the talking, you can pretty well predict that your seller will be tuned out.

Keep it short and sweet. Get right to the point . . . a 90-minute presentation is neither short nor sweet. Sellers don’t want to sit through a long appointment – they have other things to do, and they most certainly don’t want to listen to an agent for that long.

Within the first few minutes of the appointment, inform your seller that your listing presentation will take no more than 45 minutes. I can tell you that more than half of the sellers will thank you when you tell them that your presentation will be brief. Many times clients will actually come out and thank you again for not taking up too much of their time, (as you are leaving with a signed contract). A good, brief presentation results from a proper structure, a clear presentation plan, and knowing what to say and how to say it.

One additional bonus tip: I’ve seen MLS listings with property descriptions that are so bland and uninteresting that even the most exquisite home appears (on paper) to be nothing much. I’ve also seen listings that the agent has taken time to write in detail and with well thought out descriptive terms that make buyers excited about viewing a property. Take a look at the MLS and find a listing that didn’t sell. Read the description. Now find the same property’s new listing with a different agent. If the new description is far superior to the original, take a screen shot of each. (If the property hasn’t been re-listed, find a different property with a great description and use that – then go get the listing of the property that wasn’t re-listed.) By showing the seller the difference between the two word pictures, you will be showing how an effective agent works vs an agent who is just going through the motions.

Now, go get those two listings!