I Want To Be a Lister – The Listing Presentation

by Russell Shaw

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

A couple of important questions:

Chris writes;

Here is a question, I have never been on a listing presentation, I have not yet taken a listing, and I’m a brand new agent. But I want to be an excellent lister, and I don’t care what amount of effort that takes.Where is a good place to start with a listing presentation? I have Tom Hopkins book, but is there a good up to date one online somewhere? IE “this is an ideal listing presentation from start to finish, these are all the points you need to hit”. I think if I get the bones, I can probably expand on it, change it a bit for me and make it work.The top agent in my city sold 150 houses last year. Figure an average house is $400k around here. She is the top dog, so that’s who I am aiming for lol!

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and Scott Cowan writes;

Thank you for the reply. I am looking forward to seeing the videos if you are able to post them online.

I do have a request for a bit more detail about a topic. Currently on BloodhoundBlog you have posted that it is vital to have a really good listing presentation. Currently my listing presentation is nothing more than the research I have completed on the house and the area. I have some local and national statistics that I share. Much to my disappointment (although now that I have been doing much more reading not to my surprise) my success rate is perfect. A perfect 0 for……… Would you be willing to point me in the direction of resources for putting together the really good listing presentation that you have been talking about? I have been reading online and everyone says that theirs is the best etc. I am overwhelmed with the amount of fluff and hype that I am seeing.

Your advice that I have listened to and read has been the most practical of the information available online. I am curious what your thoughts are on a rock solid listing presentation.

Thanks again for being such a valuable resource to the real estate community. I am very grateful to have your articles and interviews to learn from.

First to Chris, I believe that Tom Hopkins was an incredible and entertaining public speaker. I also believe that he sincerely intended to help agents sell. He did help too, but not because of any of the useless gibberish that was in his books. I first heard Tom Hopkins speak around 1979 and he was an inspiration to me. He spoke of keeping a positive mental attitude and getting out there and making sales calls and keeping going despite endless rejection. Almost all of his “sales techniques” however were invented data, crap he just made up, after he left actually selling real estate. For example, he taught that one should always respond to a question with a question: “Does the refrigerator stay?” “Would you want the refrigerator to stay?” “Yes, we would like that.” “Great, I’ll make a note of that here on the paperwork..” and the agent was supposed to start filling out a purchase contract. On every house they showed the buyer. Pretty silly stuff.

As all real estate instructors know, the big money and longevity in the residential real estate business comes from being a lister. And based on this “knowledge” most instructors attempt to get new agents to go list. Which is usually a mistake. Life is improved on a gradient. Taking listings – once you know how – is much easier than working a buyer. But when you haven’t learned either one yet, selling a home to a buyer is a much much better way to get started. The reason is selling homes to buyers is relationship based selling and getting listings is presentation based selling. The difference in the skill level required is due to who is paying you. Regardless of various arguments about how “buyers really pay the commission”, buyers don’t think they do. Sellers do think they are paying the commission. Buyers are looking for a house – NOT an agent. Of course, there are exceptions to this statement but if you are new, pretend there are not any exceptions. As most buyers were not looking for an agent but only looking for a house, a new agent offering to show them houses, get them pre-qualified, send them lists of homes new on the market, etc. is just as good an offer from their point of view as if an award winning veteran agent with loads of experience made the same statement. If this were not true, new agents would never make it out of the starting gate. But it is true. If you are new, that doesn’t make you less valuable to the average buyer. Have a lock box key, a car, access to the MLS and some time – you’re their guy.

Most sellers don’t see it that way. Now if you know the person or just sold them a house or some other relationship (referral, etc), so that your relationship skills can come into play, you can sometimes get around this view of the seller. Most agents who do get around it often also tend to get “ruined” as listers as they now think they know how to list.

If you were charging 6% on a $300,000 home sale (split 3% to each broker) that is a total fee to the seller of $18,000. If you were in competition for the listing (and if you think about it, you are almost always in competition – even if they never interviewed any other agent) you better have something better to say than, “I’ll put it in MLS and also have a really nice looking yard sign installed”. There are hundreds of thousands of Realtors whose “listing presentation” is not much more than saying that. Oh yes, they also do a “CMA”. But most sellers won’t agree to pay you 6% if you come empty handed like that.

So, two things, Chris: one is you don’t need to aim FOR the top agent – use that type of aim. Aim for the top. There is enough business in your community for you and her to both sell 150 – 200 houses every year. Two, the best place to start is the easy place – with a buyer. Go sell 10 – 12 homes to buyers. Get the feel of how a deal goes together. Learn the streets in your town. Find out (by physically seeing them) what different houses cost. Learn to spot the difference between a really well-priced property and an over-priced one. Learn what buyers will respond to and develop a sense of rhythm in talking to people about real estate. It will take you about a dozen sales to accomplish these things, so you get your “sea legs”. You will most likely just fall into a couple of listings doing this and that is fine. But what you really need to do now is NOT learn to list, you need to learn to sell homes to buyers first. Then spend every waking moment you aren’t with a buyer working on your listing presentation. But get the above stuff under your belt first.

Scott, if you are looking for a resource center, Starpower has a great one. You have to register but it is free. Loads of stuff there. There is a great pre-listing package also at Starpower, I think it is about $300. You will likely only use it once or twice so you might consider sharing it with a friend. You are welcome to use any of the ideas (actually anything but the name, No Hassle Listing) from my pre-listing package, and you can download it here. No, I didn’t misunderstand your question, you were asking about a LISTING PRESENTATION not a pre-listing package. There are NO good presentation packages out there. None. Never have been, never will be. I will give you mine if you want it but it won’t help you. Anybody selling a “listing presentation package” is pretty much selling crap. Why? Well your listing presentation is your listing presentation. You can get a LOT of really good ideas and download some stuff that you can put in your listing presentation – but it will be you deciding what goes in and what stays out. It is YOURS.

I believe that the most important thing you can buy to help you become a competent lister is a binding machine. I strongly prefer the plastic comb type. I recommend not using the spiral binder and emphatically say do not use the thermal binders. You want something that you can add a plastic cover to (for the front) and some colored card stock (probably a light grey) for the back cover. The front page needs to have the seller’s name, as in Prepared Especially for Scott & Sally Cowan. It must be able to LIE FLAT on their table. This rules out the thermal binders and if they have a high gloss wood table I think it should rule out the spiral metal binder, as well. You may need to be able to slide the booklet back and forth between two sellers (like a husband and wife) and don’t want to scratch their table.

When you are getting started your pre-listing package can be the same as your listing presentation package. As you develop, you will make them into two different things. The specific reasons I strongly suggest a comb binder are you need to get something in writing to take in to give to them. We live in a society that has an unwritten rule that “if it is not written it is not true“. People are much more likely to believe statements that are printed rather than just something you say. So it is a must that all of your important points be in writing. Then there is the issue of WHAT you put in writing. If you can afford a good color printer get one. The best (in terms of cost per page and speed) is the Xerox 8560 series. The specific model we use is the 8560DN. It prints on both sides, full duplex printing. I suggest you also upgrade to the 3 year on site warrenty. That is about $500. You will get that back many times over. If you can not afford a color printer design (or have designed) a page that has a photo of you holding a sold sign or a photo of your sign with a sold rider, like this:

But get something with color professionally printed that you can then use for most every page of your presentation. You can use some simple program like Microsoft Publisher to layout the various pages. All of that can be in black and white. But every page has color! I’ve even seen it all done (quite well, too) in Word. All of the printing is done on a regular laser printer but looks like it was all custom made for them. If you know how to write a macro in Word you can have their name appear at the top of each page and in a larger font on the front page.

The main reason that you want a plastic comb binder for both your pre-listing package and your listing presentation is that if you (when you are starting) were to have a pre-listing package designed, printed and bound (like mine is now – done with a saddle stitch) you will be sorry. Real sorry. If you only have a few printed, you pay way too much per copy. If you get enough printed that you get your cost per copy down then you will wish the hell you had not ordered so many. In fact, within ten days of getting them back from the printer you will already be thinking of things you wished you would have changed. If you have a comb binder, those changes are easy. As you progress you will be finding new and better statements to put in your listing presentation. For some years, you will find ways to improve it, so it is wise to get a “doughnut” type design with your name, company name printed in color and then you can put whatever you like on the individual pages using Word and your regular black and white laser printer.

Now, what actually should go into your presentation package? What are you going to do? What will you promise to NOT do? What are you going to cover during the presentation? I will cover the actual presentation steps (in the home) in far more detail in a later post. But will cover now these vital parts: you have a pre-listing package you have sent them or delivered to them. You have used a seller interview questionnaire prior to booking the appointment. You arrive on time. If you are man, under the age of 50, you wear a shirt and tie. (I won’t presume to tell women how to dress – other than to say it would be the equivalent of a shirt and tie). You are there to apply for a job. It is a job interview. It is showtime.

Once you enter the house you find the kitchen or dining room table. You do NOT permit yourself to be seated in the living room. The only exceptions to this are if the seller is physically blind or very elderly. Otherwise you are AT the table. Period. You pick where you will sit. You must sit so you can see both of them at the same time without turning your head back and forth. You would not then allow yourself to be seated in the middle of a long table with one of them at each end. If you need to sit where one of them usually sits or get them to move stuff or clean off the table, you do that. Once you’ve picked where you will sit you put your briefcase in that chair and then ask if you may see the house.

Go through the house. Every room. Listen to whatever they want to tell you about how fantastic the house is – acknowledge what they have to say so they can tell you got it. If you have not seen the house and sit at the table it won’t matter what you say when you tell them what it is worth, they will say, “But you haven’t even seen our home”. So see it. First. Seeing the house is step one.

Step two is back at the table. You cover all of the reasons they should hire you. You do not discuss price or anything about the price of the home. You cover your commission, what you will do, not do, etc. to market their home. Here is where the presentation package comes in. It has, in writing, every major point you are going to cover. You turn the pages as you go. So for the quick decision types (DISC system, high D) you can skip all the stuff they won’t care about. For the DISC system, high S, you can linger on the photos of your title person or loan officer or your own photo. For the high C, you can go over every word on every page. What is on those pages is what you want there. Are you going to do open houses? If so, put it there. We promise in our presentation to never do open houses. It is in writing. You put what you will charge, the specific terms, basically the answers to all of the questions someone might ask if they were going to decide yes or no to hire you, based on what they saw in in writing. This should be 3 – 6 pages, if in a large font.

Step three is where price is discussed. You now show them all of the relevant listings in their area. Active, pending, expired, canceled and sold. I want to see a one-line print out on top (one for me and one for them, which is the last page in their presentation package). My copy has the one-line version on top and then has stapled to it the full (broker version) print outs of each listing. I can then go to the full print out of the ones that are important enough to talk about. But first I want to see – at a glance – the supply and demand (the current absorption rate) for their neighborhood. There is lots of very complicated math you can do (and some complicated people will tell you you need to do the complicated math) to get the current absorption rate. Here is a simple way, anyone can learn to do in a few minutes: count the number of active listings. Count the number of closed sales for the past six months. Always use 6 months. Not less, not more. That is how far back an appraiser will go too. To make this easy, lets say that 6 sales occurred in the past 6 months. If you had 3 homes for sale you have a 90 day supply. One home for sale would be a 30 day supply. Eight homes for sale would be a 8 month supply. 30 day supply = extreme upward pressure on prices. 90 – 100 day supply = gentle and slight upward pressure on prices. 6 – 8 month supply = flat to declining prices. You can also have a list of all of the active listings from a broader area (like an agent looking for a home for buyer would use – a search area large like that) as that is their real competition.

Step zero. This is before you even go – you have the viewpoint that if they won’t list it at a price you can sell it at you are not going to take the listing.

Again, step 1 – see the house, step 2, why should they list with you, step 3, the relevant listings. You’ve usually made the sale or not during step 2. Lots of agents skip most of step 2 and make the sale on step 3. Those are called overpriced listings. 🙂

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My wife and I are leaving on Easter for Maui for our 25th anniversary. My first time there, it should be fun. I won’t be able to respond to your follow up questions until I get back in a week. But I’ve given you enough here to get you started.