Great listing presentations are clear, concise explanations of how you will help sellers sell their home. The best presentations focus on listening to the seller talk 80% of the time and you asking and answering questions 20% of the time. The secret is to be prepared with a list of questions you will ask and a strategy for how you will move the discussion forward to cover each of your key points.

Most people have a short attention span and don’t want to listen to a long-winded sales pitch from a real estate agent. They want just the facts – how will the home be priced, how will it be prepared, and how will it be marketed.

1 – Price

How the home will be priced will determine its selling potential. While you can make suggestions for what the selling price should be, ultimately, it is up to the seller to determine the asking price. You can prepare a computer-generated comparative market analysis (CMA) to estimate the price, but that doesn’t take into consideration a number of factors – such as how the home is presented or what the turnaround selling timeframe is – that may influence the actual selling price.

Because many sellers will go with the agent who estimates the highest suggested asking price, it’s up to you to educate your prospects on the merits and drawbacks of CMA analysis and what components sellers should use to determine a reasonable price buyers are willing to pay.

In addition, you should clearly explain the difference between selling a home for top price and selling a home for a quick turnaround sale. If sellers have a set timeframe, they might not be able to get top dollar for their home. Finally, explain options for re-adjusting the asking price if the home doesn’t receive any showings or offers within a set timeframe.

2 – Home Preparation

The second part of your listing presentation should tackle how to prepare the home for sale. You will want to address any glaring obstacles, tips for how to remove clutter and personal items, how to increase natural light in the home, how to make the exterior more presentable, and what information buyers are likely to ask for such as community information, a list of upgrades, and appliance warranty information. You don’t have to get into the specific detail of what you would do to stage their home at this point, but give them an idea of what work might need done as well as tip sheets and checklists to help them make their home more presentable to buyers.

3 – Marketing the Home

Finally, how will you market their home? Have a step-by-step marketing plan that outlines where you will advertise their listing, what your flyers and brochures will look like, how will market it on the internet, whether you will hire a real estate photographer or offer a virtual tour, how large your list of email subscribers is, how many visitors your website gets, and so forth. Have plenty of samples of ads, flyers, brochures and websites you’ve used to market your clients’ homes available to show them during the listing presentation.

By educating prospects upfront about the key components of the home selling process that will influence how quickly their home is sold, you can manage expectations and set the stage for better client communications during the working relationship.

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