New real estate agents or agents who usually work with buyers may not be as fluent in preparing for a listing appointment. Our team at Local Leader® prepared several listing appointment tips to help agents meet their prospective clients’ needs and get the listing. So what should be on your real estate listing appointment checklist?
1. Get Important Details on the Phone
When a potential seller calls to ask how you can help them sell their home, you can’t just set up a listing appointment without some preliminary information. While you have them on the phone, explain that getting some additional information from them now can help you prepare a more accurate recommendation for a listing price. Then ask several questions, including:
- Do you have a number in mind already, or are you going to compare offers from multiple agents?
- Are you motivated to sell quickly, or do you want to wait for the perfect offer?
- Have you made any updates to the property since the last time it sold?
- Who is on the title, and will all titleholders be present for the appointment?
- When do you want to publish your listing?
Finding out this information can help you determine the best way to approach your listing appointment and selling process for any new listings.
2. Perform a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)
Based on your prospective seller’s answers, you can compare similar homes and find an appropriate listing price range. If the seller wants to sell quickly, look for homes that spent less than two weeks on the market to present to your prospective clients. Make notes about why they might have sold so quickly, including staging, price, desirable location, and unique features.
If the seller wants to sell for the full listing price, compare homes that sold for their listing price within the last six months in their neighborhood. Again, make notes about why those homes sold for full price. You will have to prove to the seller why your recommendation for the listing price is a good fit for their home.
3. Preview Active Listings in the Community
Many neighborhoods feature similarities in homes and homeownership, including homeowner income level, floor plans, taxes, HOA or municipal regulations, and more.
If there are other listings currently available in the community, schedule a walkthrough for yourself to see common design elements and upgrades in person before your listing appointment. Don’t forget to let the listing agent know that it’s just an agent preview and that you don’t have potential buyers (yet).
4. Consult with Other Agents Who Regularly Buy or Sell in the Neighborhood
Most real estate agents are happy to share information about a home or community, even with agents outside their office. Having a new listing available means a better opportunity for area agents to sell to potential buyers.
5. Leave a Pre-Listing Package
An essential part of your real estate listing appointment checklist is leaving a pre-listing package for the homeowners a few days before the listing appointment. In it, include your CMA, recent area sales, and current listings in the neighborhood. A pre-listing package with this information allows your prospective clients to have questions ready for your listing appointment.
6. Create a Buzz Post on Your Social Media Platforms to Test Market Interest
As you prepare for your appointment, post some information about your potential listing to test the waters. Consider including the square footage, lot size, neighborhood, and price range, and ask your followers if they have an interest in receiving more information when the listing goes live. Include your responses in your listing presentation.
7. Build Your Listing Presentation
Using PowerPoint or Google Slides, create a slideshow presentation for your prospective clients that describes your unique advantages in the local real estate market. Describe your selling process so potential sellers know how you will sell their homes.
Your listing presentation should include your marketing strategies, including the responses you got from your social media market interest test. Don’t forget to bring printed marketing media, including direct mail postcards, luxury home brochures, and print ads from local newspapers and real estate magazines.
8. Prepare the Listing Agreement and Other Documents
If you’ve done the appropriate preparations for your listing appointment, you should also prepare a listing agreement for your listing appointment, just in case. Your prospective sellers could decide that you’re the right agent for them and want to sign a listing contract before your appointment ends.
9. Contact the HOA for Any Restrictions and Showing Instructions
When you get the listing, contact the HOA to learn how to show the home, especially if there’s a gated entry or security guard. For example, the HOA might ban yard signs or require certain size specifications for a yard sign. You may also need special instructions to hold open houses if the HOA allows open houses at all.
10. Bring Yard Signs and a Lockbox
If you can post yard signs, bring one to your listing appointment. If your sellers are eager to list with you, you may be able to post your “coming soon” sign as you leave the appointment. For unoccupied homes, you might be able to install your lockbox the same day you sign the listing agreement.
11. Send a Thank-You Note the Same Day
Before you meet with prospective clients, drop a thank-you note in a mailbox. Thank them for their time in meeting with you, but keep the message short and generic. You want to deliver the note early because it could take one or two business days to arrive. Because you don’t know the results of your appointment when you deliver it to the post office, saying less is more.
Get More Listing Appointments with Our Real Estate Leader Tips
While working on your real estate listing appointment checklist, make sure you follow our productivity tips for real estate agents to stay focused and on-task. For more free digital resources for real estate professionals, subscribe to our newsletter at Local Leader®. We publish the hottest tips from the biggest names in real estate to help local professionals expand their influence.