How to Rock a Listing Appointment
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Many agents assume that their expertise alone should be enough to win a listing appointment. But if you want to dramatically increase the chances of acquiring a listing, it’s not enough to just go through the motions. You must treasure every opportunity that comes your way and approach each listing presentation as if it’s your very first one, every single time. Here’s how:
Research the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
You need to know the MLS inside and out. The active listings will tell you exactly what you and your seller will be competing against. The closed transactions will tell you what buyers will pay for this type of home at this time. The pending transactions act as early indicators of what’s happening in the marketplace and will dictate whether to be cautious or optimistic about how you price the property. Lastly, the expired listings are the most powerful group of homes you can look at. Show your potential seller these and explain that you definitely don’t want your property to end up on that list.
Research the market
Taking time to research the area is critical.
You may be familiar with the area, but how well do you really know this market? It’s important to roll up your sleeves and spend time in the location before you go on a listing presentation. The industry may have become a little ‘white glove, white collar’ in attitude, but the most successful listing agents have a ‘blue collar’ mentality. You don’t want to be just another agent who affects value by showing comparables from the MLS. When you sit across the kitchen table from a seller, you want to be a voice of value by knowing all the relevant factors – if there’s a library or a school in the area, for example. Taking time to research the area is critical.
Study the home
You should always know the condition of the home you are going to view, even before you go inside. This isn’t difficult – you can gather a lot of information simply by driving by, researching when it was built, finding out who constructed it and investigating whether any major improvements or renovations have been carried out. When you study the MLS, you get the macro view. When you take the time to study the home, you get the micro view – which means that you can be extremely powerful on the listing presentation.
Make your presence a present
As the old saying goes – you never get a second chance to make a first impression. You must always present yourself in the best possible way, especially to someone who has never met you before. Dress like it’s the first appointment you’ve ever gone on every time, and strive to keep your energy and your focus high. You may be facing difficulties and challenges in your working day, but sellers don’t need to know about any of these. Every interaction you have should be about them or their home, not you.
Price the property to sell
The day you list the property is the day you sell it. Everything else is a formality after that. Here at Buffini & Company, we recommend using the ‘slightly less, slightly more’ pricing dialogue to explain this to the seller. This dialogue isn’t intrusive or pushy, but it gets the job done in an extremely effective way:
[box size=”medium”]Mr. and Mrs Jones, if our goals is to get the most money possible for your home and do so in a timely manner, I highly recommend we use the ‘slightly less, slightly more’ pricing strategy. Here’s what I mean: when a home a priced slightly less than the competition, but slightly more than recent sales, that home becomes one of the most attractive homes in the entire market. So, let’s revisit the comparables and determine what price the home should be priced at based on that strategy.[/box]
Follow these guidelines and you’ll be at your best, rock every listing appointment and have a much higher success rate too!
For more great information and free resources on working with Sellers, visit the Buffini & Company Resource Hub.
Joe
