Real Estate Listing Presentation Checklist [Complete Guide]

“I didn’t know what to say when I went on listing appointments, so I just kept losing listings.”

 Does that sound familiar? 

 Most agents find themselves groping in the dark when they give a real estate listing presentation because a lot of times, they don’t have a clue what to say and just “wing it”. Naturally, they end up losing the listing.

Or maybe,  you just finished your listing presentation and you thought you had it in the bag… when all of a sudden, the seller decides to go with another realtor!

No matter how hard you think about it, you don’t understand why you keep losing listings. You’re just tired of the constant frustration and struggle with what to say at a real estate listing presentation.

But now, you can finally put an end to that and follow this complete guide to crushing it at your next listing presentation…

The Keys to Mastering the Listing Presentation

First, remember that the goal of the real estate listing presentation is to lead the seller to a decision that is in their best interest. But for you to do that, you have to understand the key moving parts of a powerful listing presentation:

• A motivated seller (someone who wants to sell, not someone you have to convince to sell)
• Thorough pre-qualification to identify their motivation
• You show up prepared & with confidence. 
• The process of leading the seller to a decision

We’ll discuss these moving parts in more detail in the rest of this blog.

The Power of Preparation 

It’s shocking how most real estate agents get a listing appointment but don’t know how to do a listing presentation, and just make things up as they go. If you want to nail your listing presentation and know how to win a listing, you gotta have this one critical strategy…PREPARATION.

Success lies in the start… Not in the close!  

Every real estate listing presentation outline out there will say that the critical part in getting the listing at the listing presentation is in the close. But reality is…90% of getting a listing lies in the start, not in the “close”. How you start your listing presentation dramatically increases your chances of getting the listing. 

Prequalifying Your Seller

Your listing presentation begins even before you show up at their house. It actually begins with your prequalifying conversation with the seller.

Prequalifying is mandatory because it helps you accomplish the goal of a listing presentation which is to lead the seller to a decision that is in their best interest and inspire the Seller to hire you.

When prequalifying, use the Seller Sheet (that you can download for free here). This helps you clarify their motivation, identify their objections, understand their personality style, and establish rapport and trust.  As you prequalify the Seller, talk to them with genuine interest. 

How do you start prequalifying?

How you approach prequalifying has a huge effect on how they respond to you. You can inadvertently ask it the wrong way and cause your prospect to resist you… OR you can speak to them in another way that makes them feel like you’re on their side (instead of against them).

Here’s what NOT to say…

“Before we meet, I need to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”

When you hear this phrase, it connotes an interrogation and immediately creates negative energy between you and the prospect. They feel like they’re about to be interrogated…and nobody wants that!

Instead, say…

“Before we get together, I need to get a little more information from you so I can do my homework and make our time together most valuable for you. Do you have a couple of minutes?”

This tells them that they’re important to you because you’re interested in their situation and want to learn more about them. The words you use really make a difference! 

For the full script on prequalifying, get your free copy of The Book of YES: The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Conversation Guide. The scripts here are proven to work, so whatever you do, DO NOT change the script!

Have the right mindset when prequalifying…

• Don’t worry about making mistakes. Get better by making many mistakes fast
• Play to win and stop playing not to lose. Stop trying to avoid making mistakes.
• Believe.  Even if you don’t believe, act like you believe.  When you do that long enough, you’ll start believing.  Belief follows action.  Do it,  until you become it.  
• Your energy and attitude are everything.  Be confident and interested.
• Stop being too nice.  It makes people think you’re weak.  Show up like you mean business.
• Stop thinking you have to explain everything. 
• If you don’t ask, you don’t get.  
• Stop letting people waste your time.
• Take charge, so they know that you know what you’re doing. Don’t give up control.
• They have to buy YOU. 

Your “Shock & Awe” Pre-Listing Packet

The next critical thing you have to prepare before you go on a listing appointment and do your real estate listing presentation is your “Shock & Awe” Pre-Listing Packet. This will get the seller excited about hiring you. 

What goes in your “Shock & Awe” Pre-Listing Package?

• Personal Introduction Video (PIV). Shoot a quick video telling them that you’re excited to help them get their property sold, “Hi Mr. & Mrs. Smith! <your name> here of Keller Williams, and I’m just so excited to meet with you on <your appointment date> to talk about helping you make the move to San Diego…” The PIV is very powerful in getting new prospects to want to hire you because it makes you unforgettable to them. 

• Your Action Plan (e.g. 5-step action plan) /Company info/Stats (e.g. Average days of listings on the market)

• Testimonials & reviews. Third-party testimonials are powerful in giving you credibility as an agent that gets clients results. Send them the link to your testimonials, or a printout if you’re sending them the pre-listing packet as a hardcopy.

• Market Analysis. One key moving part in getting a listing is pricing a home right. Do a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), and send them the comps with a note saying, “Please keep in mind these are raw data. Will make necessary adjustments when we meet.” This will help them adjust their expectations to reality. 

• Seller Net Sheet. Send this only if the price has already been settled.

• All Listing Documents. These are all the forms they need to sign for you to sell their house. (e.g. Listing agreement, MLS input data sheet, disclosures, etc.). Never leave without a signature. 

After getting everything prepared and confirming the listing appointment, you can now go to your listing appointment and do your listing presentation with more confidence. Remember to show up prepared, pumped, and prompt.

Roleplay is Key

The best and fastest way to master doing a listing presentation is to internalize the scripts…and PRACTICE & ROLEPLAY. 

Agents hate roleplay because they feel stupid doing it. Sure, when you start, you will look like an amateur and suck. But don’t be afraid to suck first, because “SUC” is part of SUCcess.

Do a live roleplay of your real estate listing presentation with your coach. Either roleplay live with your coach or record it on video and have your coach watch it and give you feedback. Practice the way you play…that’s how you master the actual game!

Win listings with your ears, not with your mouth.

 Have you ever had a conversation with another person, and while you were talking, you could sense they weren’t really listening?

 So many sales professionals are talking more than the prospect, and they don’t listen to what the prospect has to say. What most real estate agents don’t realize is that you win listings with your ears…not your mouth. This is something you don’t normally find in a usual listing presentation checklist! 

 In a listing presentation, listening is probably one of the most powerful ways to get people to trust you, to get them to like you, and to get them to say yes to you. It comes down to this idea of listening to what they actually want and what matters to them. 

So, how do you really LISTEN? 

Step #1. Master the scripts so you stop thinking about what to say next. It’s important that you have a script. Okay? The best scripts on the planet are The Book of YES: The Ultimate Real Estate Agent Conversation Guide. You can get a free copy

Now, having great scripts is one thing, but MASTERING them is another. Because if you don’t master them, it sounds like you’re using a script. If you’re in your head, and you’re thinking about what you’re going to say next, you won’t sound authentic and you wouldn’t be able to really listen to anybody. 

Step #2. Listen to the client with total focus.

Listen to what matters to them… this is the biggest secret that most agents miss, and that is that you win listings with your ears, not with your mouth. I heard a friend of mine, Dan Lok, say that. He said you get people to say yes to you with your ears, not with your mouth. 

What that means is you listen to people, and when you listen to them, you’re telling them they … that they matter, they’re important, and what’s important to them is what’s important to you. 

Step #3. Take notes on the Seller Sheet. Take notes about their plans, motivation, their house, pain points… their goals and dreams… and the words they use. When you take notes of what the prospect says, you can use the exact words that get them ready to hire you.

On using a digital listing presentation

As you look around for real estate presentation ideas, you might find some that recommend that you use digital technology when you do a listing presentation. But here’s the thing…you are way more powerful when you’re a master who knows what you’re talking about. 

Truth is, using a digital presentation makes up for an agent’s lack of skill. But you don’t need digital equipment to distract the seller. They don’t want to see how tech savvy you are. They want to engage with you and see if they can trust you. They’re hiring you, not your technology.

Presenting the CMA

Just as critical as doing a correct CMA is knowing how to effectively present it to the seller (even the best free realtor listing presentation template out there might miss this). 

Because no matter how great your CMA is (or how fancy it looks), you won’t get the listing if you and the seller don’t agree on the right price. 

 The problem is, they don’t teach you this in pre-licensing schools. And with most other CMA training courses, they often skip this crucial part of teaching how to present the CMA to the seller to confidently convince them to agree on the price. 

 So, here’s a brief overview of how you train the seller on how to interpret the CMA:

• When you show them the CMA, you keep it in your hand. Don’t give it to them.
• Visually anchor their brain on how you define these comps: Active (Dreamland), Sold (Reality), Expired (Never Neverland) 
• Explain to them the purpose of the CMA.  Create a buyer’s and appraiser’s perspective in their brain.

If you want to get more in-depth training on this, check out our CMA Mastery Course. You’ll learn Visual Anchoring techniques to help sellers understand the CMA and have them interpret the CMA correctly so they choose the right price every time.  You’ll also learn how to handle the toughest pricing objections, so you can finally break the cycle of losing listings & sales because of uncertainty and disagreement with sellers on pricing. 

Don’t Put the Seller to Sleep

 If there was just one single strategy to having a more powerful listing presentation (that beats even the most experienced agents), here it is…STOP BEING BORING!

 The biggest mistake most real estate agents make during a listing presentation that turns the seller off fast (and the seller doesn’t even know why they don’t want to list with you) is… being boring! 

 Why do they get bored with you? Because you keep talking about yourself. And then you start pulling up a Powerpoint presentation that drags on and on and makes sellers mentally check out in a matter of seconds. 

 Here are 3 actionable strategies to keep sellers from falling asleep on you and to keep them engaged…

1. Have more energy and enthusiasm. Be excited about what they’re excited about. Show genuine interest because sellers want to work with an agent who truly cares about helping them sell their house.Be careful though, because over enthusiasm (which is prominent among real estate agents) comes across to the seller as fake. Be genuinely interested in helping them because when they sense that you really care, they intuitively know that you’ll do a great job at helping them get what they want.

2. Ask questions to keep them engaged in the conversation. Instead of doing all the talking, ask them questions. Ask them questions that focus on what they want, and repeat and affirm their answers. The key is to have a conversation, and not make it just you talking and trying to impress them.One of the powerful ways to engage them is by using NLP tie-downs. Here are some examples of tie-down questions to use throughout the presentation:

Does that make sense? 

Does that sound good?

Are you with me? 

Are we on the same page? 

Are you following me? 

Are you liking what you’re hearing?

That’ll be cool, right? 

These questions engage the seller, get them moving along with you in the conversation, and make them believe that you’re on their side. The secret to getting the seller to hire you on the spot is having them say more yeses throughout the conversation.. 

3. Get to the point. This communicates tremendous confidence and competence when you know how to get to the bottom line quickly while communicating to the seller that you care and that you know what you’re doing. Most agents don’t understand that sellers don’t want to list their house…they want to sell it and move. Sellers are interested in the result, not the process of the listing presentation. 

Handling Objections During the Listing Presentation

Rejection sucks.

When a sales prospect is giving you objections while you’re doing a real estate listing presentation, it may feel like an attempt to attack or reject you…but that’s not the case. Truth is, the reason they’re asking you questions because they THEY WANT TO WORK WITH YOU. 

They are begging you to be different than the average, incompetent agents they’ve seen. They just don’t know how to say it, so they challenge you with questions and objections. Behind every objection is only ONE real question: “Are you the best agent to give me the best results?”

Here are some of the most common objections from sellers (and how to handle them):

“Will you cut your commission?”

This is the one question that real estate agents have quite regularly (and sends chills and shivers up and down their spine!).

How do you approach the conversation when you’re going to the listing presentation as the 2nd, 3rd agent in a competing situation, and the seller tells you that the other agents are cutting their commission?

If your goal is to get listings without cutting your commission, there’s a better way than answering, “No.”

1. Acknowledge the question.
2. Explain that you don’t discount your commission because you don’t deliver discount results. “I assume you’re not looking for discount results, right?”
3. Shift the conversation from your commission to the result they want (getting the most money for their house). Ask them, “Are you looking for the cheapest agent or the one who can give you the most money in your pocket?”

When you’re skilled and you know how to represent your seller, you EARN your commission. And that makes you worth so much more.

“I’m just gonna lower the price and use the same agent.”

How do you handle this killer objection when a seller- who knows that his expired listing is overpriced- insists on using the same agent and selling it for a lower price?

1. If the seller says it’s their fault that it was overpriced:

Explain to them that a professional agent wouldn’t follow their advice instead of his expertise just to please them.

2. If the seller says it was the agent who suggested the wrong price:

• Ask the seller why they would go back to the same agent when he has already mispriced the expired listing.  
• Make them realize the problem of having an agent who will list it at the WRONG PRICE- knowing that it’s overpriced- just to get the listing and make them happy.
• Remind them that as a skilled agent, you get every one of your listings sold for top dollar because you never take a  chance on mispricing it.

A skilled agent knows that a lot of preparation and follow-through at the post-negotiation stage are major factors in selling expired listings for top dollar

“We need to think about it.”

Thinking it over is not an objection, but a mask for their real concern. 

To handle this, first acknowledge that it’s obviously okay to think about it, because this is a big decision for them. Circle back to their motivation and then go over each of the 3 major issues that usually need “thinking about” and help them get clarity. (Get the complete objection handler (for this and all other objections in The Book of YES).

Many objection handlers out there are basically designed to silence the seller in a way that makes the seller feel totally shut down, but no one likes to feel like they just lost an argument.

The BEST objection handler is an answer that is straightforward, honest, answers the intent of the question, and then redirects the focus to what the sellers really want. 

Doing a Successful Virtual Listing Presentation

 Nowadays, more and more listing presentations are being done online. Although in-person is always the best, certain circumstances call for a virtual listing presentation instead. This may be the second best option, but you can still make it as powerful and effective as an in-person listing presentation.

 Here are 7 strategies to make your virtual real estate listing presentation extremely powerful

1. Master the in-person listing presentation. Master the script, don’t read it. Get your FREE download of the YesMasters Listing presentation from the Agent Power Pack here . Some agents say that they get distracted by the script in front of them when they’re doing a listing presentation. The problem is, you either don’t know the script enough or you don’t trust yourself that you know it.
   What’s the solution? Practice. Role play on Zoom and record yourself, so you can replay it and learn.

2. Zoom in your camera. Face the camera at eye-level, leaving just a bit of space between the top of your head and the top of the screen. Have a good webcam and good lighting in front of you. Check out this Diva Ring Light on Amazon. 

3. Smile and nod more than ever. These are visual cues that make people trust & like you because they see that you’re interested. 

4. Have a powerful voice & good audio. Be articulate and don’t talk fast, so they understand you. Get a quality mic like the Yeti Blue mic.

5. Make eye contact. Look directly at the camera (not at the computer screen), so you’re looking them in the eye.

6. Engage them with questions. The listing presentation that you’ll get in the FREE Agent Power Pack is a question-based presentation that engages them. It becomes a real conversation where they’re engaged and feel that you care about them. 

7. Expect a decision on Zoom. Be mentally prepared that they will decide on the call. Have the e-docs ready for them to sign (Docusign in their inbox). 

Stop Thinking About “Closing”

How many times have you been told that you have to be a strong closer? The phrase, “Always be closing” gets tossed around a lot, that’s why agents keep using this approach when doing their listing presentation.

Unfortunately, closing creates resistance because nobody likes being “closed” on…and yet this is what real estate agents are being taught.

So if you want to be a “strong closer”, here’s what you must do instead…

completely eliminate the idea of wanting to be a strong closer from your mind.

You gotta understand that sellers tell you “No,” because they believe you’re just trying to get something from them for your own benefit.

Why do they believe that?. Because the more you focus on closing, the more they feel pressure from you. They sense that all you care about is getting something for yourself. They know that the real reason you’re there is to “get” a listing, and not to help them. 

They don’t feel safe…when you’re trying to GET something from them for your benefit.  When you’re at a listing presentation and all you think about is closing, you end up making sellers more resistant.

BUT when they know that you’re there because you have something to offer for their benefit (and you are passionate about it), they will follow you gladly…without reservation.  

Lead, don’t close.  Focus on inspiring them to hire you without the pressure. You’d be surprised at how much easier it will be to get them to say YES to you! 

Keep in mind that every time you go on a real estate listing presentation, you’re auditioning for a paycheck. Sellers are interviewing you to see if they can trust you enough to hire you and give you a huge commission to sell their house. 

Follow the guidelines above, and you can expect that at the end of your listing presentation, you will WIN and get the YES!