You have just nailed down an appointment to give an important listing presentation to a big client. This is the type of listing that could make or break your year.
On the one hand, you know that not many real estate agents have this opportunity to present their skills and resources to this exclusive client. On the other hand, you know there are going to be plenty of other agents chomping at the bit to get a piece of this client.
How can you best showcase your listing abilities while also fending off your competition? We’ll get to that answer soon, but first we need to do some homework.
Before you give any listing presentation, you should always do your research. This homework includes four steps:
- Researching the seller.
- Researching the property.
- Researching the neighborhood.
- Researching the competition.
Step 1 involves researching the sellers — finding their motivations, building rapport, understanding who is the legal owner and knowing who makes the final decision. If you don’t know your audience, your listing presentation will simply fall on deaf ears.
Step 2 involves researching the property — determining the condition of the home, understanding the flow and layout of the floor plan and making sure all of the systems and appliances are in working order. The best salespeople know the product they are selling like the back of their hand.
Step 3 involves researching the neighborhood — knowing what the other homes in the neighborhood look like, utilizing the neighborhood amenities and features and determining the correct market statistics for that area. Pricing your listing and marketing it for sale are all about knowing what else is happening around you in your local market.
Step 4 is what I like to call the “secret sauce” step to the listing presentation. This is a step that most agents and brokers don’t do. But this step may be the best thing you can do for the professionalism of your listing presentation and to help boost your sales income too.
Most, if not every, real estate agent completes the first three steps successfully, without question. If you don’t know more about your seller, your subject property and the neighborhood you’re looking in, you don’t have much to go on when you’re conducting a listing presentation.
But what most real estate agents leave out when they’re doing their research — whether intentionally or unintentionally — is research on their competition. And by competition, I mean other real estate agents who could potential list the subject property that you are about to give a listing presentation.
Researching your competition
There are several reasons you would do research on your fellow real estate agents in the neighborhood who could potentially list your subject property.
First, it shows to the sellers that you really did all of your homework. It shows that you have done the required research on the house and the neighborhood, but you went the extra step in researching things that other real estate agents wouldn’t look for. And the person who controls the data and the knowledge is the one that can control the conversation.
Second, the sellers are more than likely recruiting multiple real estate agents to get opinions about what their home might be worth and how quickly their home might sell. The sellers are more than likely going to look at the agents who are already listing and prospecting in their neighborhood.
Instead of letting the sellers tell you that they are looking into other agents to list their home, head the seller off by recommending the agents that they should already be considering.
The secret
Now, here’s the secret ingredient to the secret sauce of your listing presentation.
Before you even give your listing presentation, inform your targeted competition that you have a potential referral for them. That referral is going to be the potential seller you are giving a listing presentation to.
Why do that?
Hopefully, you will get the listing, and be able to close that sale yourself. But, if the seller chooses to go with your competition to close on their house, you can still be a winner by collecting a referral fee when the other agent lists and closes on that subject property.
Would you turn down a potential referral for a big listing presentation? The correct answer is definitely not.
The final reason for researching your colleagues is that it shows to the seller that you are very confident in the work that you have done so far and the work that you will do for them.
If you are confident enough in your work that you would be willing to recommend other qualified real estate agents to do the job too, there isn’t much that is going to get past you and your potential sellers.
The next time you have the opportunity to do a listing presentation, make sure to always do your research on your seller, your subject property and the neighborhood. But also make sure to pull some intel on your competition too.
Incorporate this “secret sauce” into your listing presentation routine. It will ensure that you will come out a winner on every listing presentation you make.
Nico Hohman is the broker-owner at Hohman Homes Real Estate Brokerage & New Home Consultants in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. Connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.
