November 21, 2024 • 20 mins
Are you a new agent struggling to feel confident in listing appointments? In this episode, Neil Mathweg shares a step-by-step guide to help you secure your first listing with ease. Discover how to shift your mindset, ask the right questions, and connect with sellers on a deeper level. From mastering the ‘listening’ appointment to crafting a pricing strategy together, Neil covers everything you need to know to win over clients and build a business you love. Download the free guide by texting ‘listing’ to 833-500-1135, and take the first step toward becoming a confident listing agent today.
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Are you ready to elevate your real estate business to new heights? Join the Agent Rise Academy and gain access to all the tools, strategies, and support you need to build a business you love. With over 20 years of experience, I’ve put together comprehensive frameworks, including everything you need to master newsletters, stay top of mind with your sphere, find listings even when inventory is down, and attract leads through social media and YouTube. These are the exact systems and frameworks I used to sell over 1,000 homes in Madison, WI.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If you're a new agent, you mightfeel more comfortable working with
(00:02):
buyers than you do with sellers.
And you might even feel alittle intimidated going to
your first listing appointment.
Well, if that's the case.
This episode is for you.
I'm going to walk you through the stepsso that you can confidently step into
your first listing appointment and win it.
I'll help you approach the sellers withease so that you can understand their
(00:24):
needs so that you can best serve them.
I'm going to give you all ofthe steps you need to win your
first listing appointment.
Stick around
Welcome to the agent rise podcast,where we celebrate that you are
unique, one of a kind, instead ofasking you to do things that make you
cringe, we help you create a clear,personalized plan that aligns with you.
(00:47):
No more overthinking or wasting time.
Just a straightforward path tobuilding a real estate business.
You love.
Welcome risers.
It's that time once again, for theagent rise podcast, I'm your host, Neil
Matthew and today I want to help youbecome more confident as a listing agent.
If you're a brand new agent, you mighthave fallen into the same trap that
(01:09):
I did in the beginning of my career.
And that is, is that Ididn't want listings.
I was too intimidated by sellers.
I had thought, well, thesellers have already.
Ben through a transaction.
They, they probably areinterviewing other agents.
How am I even going to compete?
, I was, I was afraid of sellers andsubconsciously I kind of pushed them away.
And I remember a conversation that I hadwith my manager way back in the day, Joe
(01:31):
Evans was her name, rest in peace, Joe,a amazing, amazing woman in my life and,
uh, helped me in so many different ways.
And.
There was a meeting that I had withJoe, I was brand new agent and I
was telling her that I was going tofocus on working with buyers only.
I was going to become a firsttime buyer specialist and she
said, Neil, that's a great idea.
(01:52):
However, I think you're reallygoing to hinder your growth.
And I really think you're goingto find that you're going to
become a great listing agent.
If you just.
Put your mind to it.
And she thought that if I've workedonly with first time home buyers,
that anybody that would go to sellwouldn't hire me because I was a
first time home buyer specialist.
And she got me to understandthat it was just my confidence.
(02:15):
I just wasn't confidentin working with sellers.
I was confident in working with buyers.
I felt like I had that down and Ifelt like I was great at working
with buyers, but it was, it wasso true for me to realize that
it was just my confidence level.
Once I started stepping into.
The process and understanding how to puta marketing presentation together, how
(02:37):
to, how to handle a listing appointment.
And then I just kept getting betterand better at it over the years.
And so what I want to sharewith you here is I want to help
you grow in that confidence.
I want to help you as a brand newagent, realize that you can become a.
A great listing agent,and there's steps to this.
And I put it all together in a PDF.
(02:59):
It's I've got it allset up as a Google doc.
You can get that PDF.
It's the step by step guidethat I'm talking about.
Just text the word listing to 8 3 3 5 0 0.
1 1 3 5.
Again, text the word listingto 8 3 3 5 0 0 1 1 3 5.
(03:19):
And I'll reply with a Google doc thathas a full report that will help you
step into your listing appointments.
I'm going to cover a little bitabout that today so you can get
an idea of what's in the report.
Uh, and really we have foursteps that we follow to help.
You with your listing appointments.
And here's the thing we callit a listening appointment
(03:42):
and not a listing appointment.
And the reason is, is becauseit's all about listening.
When I first started as an agent,I would like lean forward and I
would present the entire time.
I would talk maybe 90 percent of themeeting and the seller would talk to me.
10%.
Well, then there was a day where Iwas meeting with a friend of mine
(04:03):
named Keith Gilmore, and he suggestedthat I ask more quality questions
during my listing appointment sothat I can better serve the seller.
I wasn't asking any questions.
I was just going in there.
I was kind of as a know it all, and I justwould go in there and explain everything
that they need And the reason that theyshould be hiring me as their agent.
(04:23):
And I just talked about how great itwas and all the services that I provide.
And really, I just kind ofthought they would be a fool
if they didn't list with me.
And that was my approach.
And I later would, I would see thesellers, eyes just kind of glaze over.
Like I was over thereyapping about how great I am.
And they're over there, worried abouttheir challenge and worried about.
Um, something about, you know, howthey're going to sell the home and, and,
(04:45):
and what about the old roof that I have?
And they got all of their own concernsand they're not there to listen
to me talk about how great I am.
And so I flipped the script and Istarted asking quality questions.
It starts out with a questionnaire.
They're.
For the appointment.
And that questionnaire gives me so muchinsight on the, on the seller, the seller
(05:05):
situation, their dreams, their worries,what they're concerned about, uh, what
they're thinking about for pricing, uh,what they, what they like and don't like
about other listings and marketing andwhat they're looking for, uh, for, for
marketing for their home, what theirexpectations are, it covers so much.
And by asking these quality questions, youcan then go to the listing appointment.
(05:27):
And best serve them.
And so we get to the listing appointmentand we ask even more questions.
So we've got the questionnaire inthe very beginning, and then we get
to the kitchen table and we've gotmore questions that we asked them.
One of my favorite questions.
And again, all of these are in thePDF, but one of my favorite questions
is to ask, is there somethingthat they are concerned about?
(05:48):
Is there in the whole process of moving?
Is there something thatyou're concerned about?
Something Keeping you up at night.
And I'm telling you, when you askthis question and they respond and
they're vulnerable and they sharetheir worries and their fears with
you, there's an emotional connection.
And that emotional connection prettymuch signifies that you're their agent.
It really is amazing when that happens.
(06:10):
You can also ask questions like, haveyou worked with another agent before?
And if so, how did it go?
A question like that is going togive you so much insight on what that
seller is thinking and what theirexpectations are so that you can match it.
All right.
So you're going to get there.
You're going to get rightto the kitchen table.
This is super important.
I used to get to the, to the listingappointment and they'd ask me if they
(06:32):
want to sit down first or go on a tour.
And I would always be like, I don'tknow what do you, whatever you think.
I'm fine with whatever.
And that's the wrong answer.
So I highly suggest that yousit down at the kitchen table
first, because then you're goingto keep asking those questions.
And then another question that you'regoing to ask at the kitchen table,
that is going to really help set up therest of the appointment and the tour.
(06:54):
And that question is, is when I take atour of your home next I just want to
make sure that I have your permissionto be 100 percent honest with you.
And this question is just.
Is gold because, um, as you're touringthe home, you may run into some Pepto
bismal pink walls and some reallycluttered walls and some cluttered rooms.
You're going to have to givethem honest advice to get
(07:17):
them ready to sell this home.
And if you're not careful.
You can easily insult themwhen you're giving this advice.
If you're anything like me, I'm kindof like a bull in a China cabinet.
I just know what the house needsin order for it to get sold.
And so I just give that advice.
And I know that there's been sometimes where I've insulted sellers.
So I ask them for their permission now,ask them for their permission to make
(07:40):
sure that I can be 100 percent honest withthem and they're going to be OK with that.
And here's the thing.
Most sellers remember this question,and when you're giving them advice,
They'll even drop it in there andsay, Hey, Neil, remember, you got
my permission to be honest with me.
What do we really need to do here?
, so when you ask them this question,do I have your permission to be
100 percent honest with you, it'sgoing to help you better serve them
(08:03):
throughout the entire transaction.
Okay, so now you've asked questions,you've got the questionnaire,
you've got all that information.
You're going to verify more of that.
You know, if you, there's probablysome follow up questions that
you're going to have after theycomplete that questionnaire.
Uh, then you've got thequestions for the kitchen table.
It's then after that, you'regoing to present a little bit.
(08:23):
Now you got to be careful whenpresenting your marketing presentation
because you can easily lose the seller.
So keep it pretty short and sweet.
And by now you've asked questions tounderstand what's most important to them
when it comes to marketing your home.
So you can highlight those areas.
Let's say that they say, I wantprofessional photos, I want a drone video,
(08:44):
and I want Professional staging, right?
You can highlight all of that in yourmarketing presentation and say, Hey,
this is what we cover for that is whatwe cover for that without having to
bore them with all of the details.
All right.
And remember, they've alreadygot your marketing presentation.
If you email that they've already,they've already seen it and maybe
already have read over it, right?
So it's not like you've gotto go page by page by page.
(09:05):
You just don't want to take up alot of time here because you're
going to bore the seller with it.
All right.
So, so you've got that, those steps done.
Now you've got the questionnaire done.
You've asked questionsat the kitchen table.
You've gone over yourmarketing presentation.
It's now you want to getup and go tour that home.
And so go on a tour of that home.
And while you're touring that home,give them all kinds of advice, give
(09:27):
them a staging advice and things thatthey should do to get ready to list.
Just, just.
Pour out the advice at this point.
They're seeing you work, right?
They're seeing your, your talents and yourabilities that you have to help sellers.
They're seeing this by you giving to them.
So as you're walking through thehome, give them a bunch of advice.
Then after the tour, and alsoduring that tour, ask a lot of
(09:49):
questions, like get the details oneverything and take a ton of notes.
So just get, you know, gothrough the home, ask them,
when did they remodel this?
What's the age of the furnace?
What's the age of the AC?
When did you put the new roof on it?
All of the details you could possiblyget and get them all into a list.
Just one question afteranother notes after notes.
I mean, pages of notes, if youcan, the more notes, the better.
(10:12):
Right now, after that, go back to thekitchen table and go over pricing.
And this is what you want to ingoing over pricing, you want to
arrive at the price together.
So don't have a CMA that you justslapped down the price and you say,
this is the price, uh, you wantto arrive at the price together.
Now, remember you have whatthey're already thinking, uh, for
(10:34):
pricing in that questionnaire.
So let's say in the questionnaire, theyput down that they think they want to
sell list and sell the house for 350, 000.
And, uh, you've pulled up a bunchof comparables and boy, that
seems a little bit on the highside, but we'll see, we'll see.
Okay.
Um, so you've got a bunchof active comparables.
You've got some sold comparables,but, uh, you know, the, the, the sold
(10:56):
comparables is just showing the dataand the past, the active is where
we're in current competition, right?
So you're going to haveboth active and sold.
And then what I recommend is.
Penciling them all up, markingthem all up with adjustments.
So if your house has 2000 squarefeet and you're comparing it to a
house that has 2, 500 square feet,it should have a price adjustment.
(11:18):
That house is bigger, right?
But let's say you got four bedroomsand they only have three bedrooms.
What, what's the difference there, right?
So you should do price adjustments.
And then go over each comparable andyou say, Hey, I understand that you
want to get three 50 for your home.
Well, this one here helps us.
This one here sold for three 40 andyours is larger and has a three car
(11:38):
garage and they'll have a two car garage.
Right?
So that, that three 50 is going towork according to this comparable, but.
If we look at this comparablehere, this one hurts us.
This one's sold for three 20.
Uh, it's a little bit smaller thanyours, but it, you know, it really
brings your value down to three 30.
This one here helps us.
This one hurts us.
This one helps us.
This one hurts us and gothrough all of the comparables.
(11:58):
And then at the end of goingthrough those comparables, ask them.
So now that we've looked at allof this data, what would you like
to list and sell your house for?
All right, and then just be quiet.
Let them, let them answer what theywant to list and sell for after going
all of going through all of that data.
Now, if they want to list on thehigh side, you know, let's say they
want to list three 50 or three 60.
(12:19):
And you're like, boy, this isreally going to overprice this home.
I would then at that point, Iwould not disagree with them.
Right?
Because that's the worst thing you cando is disagree with what the seller is.
It wants, but instead what you cando is help the seller help you.
All right.
So a couple of things here.
The first one is, is you want to explainthe three different pricing models.
(12:42):
Uh, you can list your propertyat retail, where if you think
about retail, everything isshiny and glossy and perfect.
And then the price is alittle bit higher, right?
For retail.
But if it doesn't sell,what happens in retail?
It goes on sale.
Right.
And the price comes back down.
So with retail, we can price high, butwe got to make sure that we, uh, make
sure that we perfect this house so thatthis house just shines and it is perfect.
(13:06):
So like every little thing that we kindof like, ah, should we fix that or not?
Or what should we do?
Um, all of those things should get fixed.
It should be retail.
It should be perfect.
Then if it doesn't sell quickly.
You need to do the price reduction.
You need to put it on sale.
Okay.
So that's retail.
The next category is fair.
So this is where you kind of price it.
(13:26):
You know, you're not going to go withthat high price of maybe 350 or 360.
Maybe we'd price it atthree 40 or three 30.
30, uh, and we wouldn't fix everything.
We would have a nice house.
We obviously want to stage and havegreat photos, but we're not going
to get to the details and makesure that it's like retail detail.
We're just going to, uh, you know, notperfect the home, but make the home nice.
(13:47):
Right.
And just keep the pricing fair.
Then the third option is auctionwhere you price it really low and
you hope to drive up the offers.
All right.
So those are the threedifferent pricing models.
So if the seller wants to pricehigh, explain the retail technique
to them so that, Hey, you know, ifwe do high, if we go high on this,
if we go three 5360, we need tomake sure we replace that carpeting.
(14:10):
We need to make sure weput that new front door in.
We need to make surethat we paint that room.
That's Pepto Bismol pink, right?
We're going to go through a list ofthings that we need to do to perfect this
home so that we can get retail pricing.
All right.
So you explain all of the threedifferent pricing models to them.
And then the other thing that'simportant to them, if they want
to price high, a great question toask them is around the appraisal.
(14:33):
You have to explain that we'regoing to have to sell this
house twice, once to a buyer.
And if that buyer is obtaininga mortgage, which in today's You
know, current market about 60 to 70percent of buyers obtain a mortgage.
So if the buyer is obtaining amortgage, we're going to need to
sell it twice to an appraiser.
So if you want to price high, we needto make sure we have our comparables
(14:55):
ready and so when we're met with theappraiser, we've got to make sure
that we have comparables that showthe appraiser that this is why the
pricing is where it's at, right?
We, we have to sell it twice, onceto a buyer and once to an appraiser.
So what comparables are wegoing to use to support the 360?
Because right now I don't have anything.
Right.
(15:15):
Right now, the highest oneI've got the supports at three
50, but I don't have anything.
So, so you can explain to the seller,those two different scenarios.
One is the retail and one is wegot to get ready for the appraiser.
All right.
So now you've arrivedat the price together.
It's not your opinionversus their opinion.
And here is a story of where I lost.
(15:36):
, I had a past client.
I helped them buy it years earlier, andnow they're ready to sell this house and
they wanted to get three 75 for the home.
And I had no comparables to supportthat the highest I had actually
was like a three 30 or three 40.
So I just, I had no idea where theywere coming up with this price.
And.
I'm an honest guy, right?
(15:57):
I just told him like, Hey, Ithink somebody is misleading here.
The other agent that toldyou you could get 375.
I don't see any comparablesthat support that.
And I just don't want to mislead you.
I'll list it for whatever you wantme to list it at, but I just don't
believe that it's going to sell at 375.
And that's how I lost the listing.
She loves me.
(16:17):
She loved my service.
She thinks I'm a great agent, but shetold me that she now realizes that I
don't believe that it'll sell at 375.
And if that's the case, there'sno chance that it'll sell at 375.
And so she decided to go withthe other listing agent for 375.
Now.
We all know how this went, right?
(16:38):
We know that it did sell for 375.
They did a price reduction at 360 andthen down to 350 and then it expired.
And she ended up listing with me at330 and we ended up selling it quickly.
All right.
So, uh, you know, it was one of thosethat I lost the listing for six months.
And I was devastated.
I couldn't believe it.
And it was only because of theway that I structured it, right.
(17:01):
If we would have arrived at the pricetogether, and if I would have said,
Hey, we've got to also get ready forthe appraisal, what comparables are
going to work for that, if I wouldhave handled that different, instead
of slapping down my price and actinglike my price was written in stone,
and it's the only way to go, I made amistake because it was me versus her.
(17:21):
It was actually me versusher and the other agent.
Right?
And, and, and the cool part of thestory is eventually she listed with
me and it all came around, but justto show you, I lost the listing from
a client, a raving fan of mine didn'tlist with me because she realized
that I didn't believe in that price.
So don't make that mistake,arrive at the price together
(17:45):
and it goes over much better.
All right.
So now that we've got the price, I writethe price down on the listing contract.
Uh, I get out the listingtimeline worksheet.
So we have a worksheet that we usewith our sellers to go over all of the,
the, the steps that we need to take.
When is the sign going to get installed?
When are we doing photos?
When is the staging going to be done?
(18:05):
When is that new carpetinggoing to get installed?
Like everything has to have adeadline because everything falls
in after those deadlines, right?
Like we can't do photos until it's staged.
Right.
And, and so, um, but we also, when do wewant to put the sign in the front yard?
And, and when do we want to do theexterior drone and all of the exteriors?
Do we want to do coming soon?
(18:26):
Do we want to do open houses?
All of these questions need tohave yes or no answers to them,
but then they also have to havedates by him and deadlines by him.
So we do a listing checklist orlisting timeline worksheet to go
over this with the seller, andthen we sign the listing paperwork.
All right.
So, uh, so those are thesteps to follow again.
(18:46):
Start out with that questionnaire,get, get every question that you
can get answered and really setthe expectation with the seller.
Understand what's important to the seller.
Then go to the listing appointmentand get to the kitchen table
and ask more questions there.
Then briefly go over your marketing plan.
Then begin the tour, take abunch of notes on the tour.
Get back to the kitchen table, goover the pricing and arrive at the
(19:10):
price together, and then begin tofill out the listing paperwork.
And those are the steps.
So if you're a brand new agent, I mean,all you gotta do is ask questions, right?
Like the marketing plan and all of that.
You can, you can kind of limpyour way through that and make
that better throughout the days.
And of course we have a planfor all of Agent Rise members.
You can use our marketing plan.
Um, you get that marketing plan and then.
(19:32):
Then you can start to step intothese listing appointments and
you're going to get one listingafter another with confidence.
We've got all of this in a PDF.
You can grab everything that I talkedabout, all of the questions, everything
that you need, go ahead and text theword listing to 8 3 3 5 0 0 1 1 3 5.
Again, the word listingto 8 3 3 5 0 0 1 1 3 5.
(19:56):
The other really awesome thing with thisnew texting feature that we just invested
in is that if you have a question forme, any question, whatever it might
be, anything that I can help you with,you can text those questions to this
number and I'll reply to you again.
The number 8 3 3 5 0 0.
5 text me any questions you have, andI'll be sure to get right back to you.
(20:19):
Thanks again for listening.
I hope you have a great day andlike always remember to be the
reason somebody smiles today
If you're a new agent, you mightfeel more comfortable working with
(00:02):
buyers than you do with sellers.
And you might even feel alittle intimidated going to
your first listing appointment.
Well, if that's the case.
This episode is for you.
I'm going to walk you through the stepsso that you can confidently step into
your first listing appointment and win it.
I'll help you approach the sellers withease so that you can understand their
(00:24):
needs so that you can best serve them.
I'm going to give you all ofthe steps you need to win your
first listing appointment.
Stick around
Welcome to the agent rise podcast,where we celebrate that you are
unique, one of a kind, instead ofasking you to do things that make you
cringe, we help you create a clear,personalized plan that aligns with you.
(00:47):
No more overthinking or wasting time.
Just a straightforward path tobuilding a real estate business.
You love.
Welcome risers.
It's that time once again, for theagent rise podcast, I'm your host, Neil
Matthew and today I want to help youbecome more confident as a listing agent.
If you're a brand new agent, you mighthave fallen into the same trap that
(01:09):
I did in the beginning of my career.
And that is, is that Ididn't want listings.
I was too intimidated by sellers.
I had thought, well, thesellers have already.
Ben through a transaction.
They, they probably areinterviewing other agents.
How am I even going to compete?
, I was, I was afraid of sellers andsubconsciously I kind of pushed them away.
And I remember a conversation that I hadwith my manager way back in the day, Joe
(01:31):
Evans was her name, rest in peace, Joe,a amazing, amazing woman in my life and,
uh, helped me in so many different ways.
And.
There was a meeting that I had withJoe, I was brand new agent and I
was telling her that I was going tofocus on working with buyers only.
I was going to become a firsttime buyer specialist and she
said, Neil, that's a great idea.
(01:52):
However, I think you're reallygoing to hinder your growth.
And I really think you're goingto find that you're going to
become a great listing agent.
If you just.
Put your mind to it.
And she thought that if I've workedonly with first time home buyers,
that anybody that would go to sellwouldn't hire me because I was a
first time home buyer specialist.
And she got me to understandthat it was just my confidence.
(02:15):
I just wasn't confidentin working with sellers.
I was confident in working with buyers.
I felt like I had that down and Ifelt like I was great at working
with buyers, but it was, it wasso true for me to realize that
it was just my confidence level.
Once I started stepping into.
The process and understanding how to puta marketing presentation together, how
(02:37):
to, how to handle a listing appointment.
And then I just kept getting betterand better at it over the years.
And so what I want to sharewith you here is I want to help
you grow in that confidence.
I want to help you as a brand newagent, realize that you can become a.
A great listing agent,and there's steps to this.
And I put it all together in a PDF.
(02:59):
It's I've got it allset up as a Google doc.
You can get that PDF.
It's the step by step guidethat I'm talking about.
Just text the word listing to 8 3 3 5 0 0.
1 1 3 5.
Again, text the word listingto 8 3 3 5 0 0 1 1 3 5.
(03:19):
And I'll reply with a Google doc thathas a full report that will help you
step into your listing appointments.
I'm going to cover a little bitabout that today so you can get
an idea of what's in the report.
Uh, and really we have foursteps that we follow to help.
You with your listing appointments.
And here's the thing we callit a listening appointment
(03:42):
and not a listing appointment.
And the reason is, is becauseit's all about listening.
When I first started as an agent,I would like lean forward and I
would present the entire time.
I would talk maybe 90 percent of themeeting and the seller would talk to me.
10%.
Well, then there was a day where Iwas meeting with a friend of mine
(04:03):
named Keith Gilmore, and he suggestedthat I ask more quality questions
during my listing appointment sothat I can better serve the seller.
I wasn't asking any questions.
I was just going in there.
I was kind of as a know it all, and I justwould go in there and explain everything
that they need And the reason that theyshould be hiring me as their agent.
(04:23):
And I just talked about how great itwas and all the services that I provide.
And really, I just kind ofthought they would be a fool
if they didn't list with me.
And that was my approach.
And I later would, I would see thesellers, eyes just kind of glaze over.
Like I was over thereyapping about how great I am.
And they're over there, worried abouttheir challenge and worried about.
Um, something about, you know, howthey're going to sell the home and, and,
(04:45):
and what about the old roof that I have?
And they got all of their own concernsand they're not there to listen
to me talk about how great I am.
And so I flipped the script and Istarted asking quality questions.
It starts out with a questionnaire.
They're.
For the appointment.
And that questionnaire gives me so muchinsight on the, on the seller, the seller
(05:05):
situation, their dreams, their worries,what they're concerned about, uh, what
they're thinking about for pricing, uh,what they, what they like and don't like
about other listings and marketing andwhat they're looking for, uh, for, for
marketing for their home, what theirexpectations are, it covers so much.
And by asking these quality questions, youcan then go to the listing appointment.
(05:27):
And best serve them.
And so we get to the listing appointmentand we ask even more questions.
So we've got the questionnaire inthe very beginning, and then we get
to the kitchen table and we've gotmore questions that we asked them.
One of my favorite questions.
And again, all of these are in thePDF, but one of my favorite questions
is to ask, is there somethingthat they are concerned about?
(05:48):
Is there in the whole process of moving?
Is there something thatyou're concerned about?
Something Keeping you up at night.
And I'm telling you, when you askthis question and they respond and
they're vulnerable and they sharetheir worries and their fears with
you, there's an emotional connection.
And that emotional connection prettymuch signifies that you're their agent.
It really is amazing when that happens.
(06:10):
You can also ask questions like, haveyou worked with another agent before?
And if so, how did it go?
A question like that is going togive you so much insight on what that
seller is thinking and what theirexpectations are so that you can match it.
All right.
So you're going to get there.
You're going to get rightto the kitchen table.
This is super important.
I used to get to the, to the listingappointment and they'd ask me if they
(06:32):
want to sit down first or go on a tour.
And I would always be like, I don'tknow what do you, whatever you think.
I'm fine with whatever.
And that's the wrong answer.
So I highly suggest that yousit down at the kitchen table
first, because then you're goingto keep asking those questions.
And then another question that you'regoing to ask at the kitchen table,
that is going to really help set up therest of the appointment and the tour.
(06:54):
And that question is, is when I take atour of your home next I just want to
make sure that I have your permissionto be 100 percent honest with you.
And this question is just.
Is gold because, um, as you're touringthe home, you may run into some Pepto
bismal pink walls and some reallycluttered walls and some cluttered rooms.
You're going to have to givethem honest advice to get
(07:17):
them ready to sell this home.
And if you're not careful.
You can easily insult themwhen you're giving this advice.
If you're anything like me, I'm kindof like a bull in a China cabinet.
I just know what the house needsin order for it to get sold.
And so I just give that advice.
And I know that there's been sometimes where I've insulted sellers.
So I ask them for their permission now,ask them for their permission to make
(07:40):
sure that I can be 100 percent honest withthem and they're going to be OK with that.
And here's the thing.
Most sellers remember this question,and when you're giving them advice,
They'll even drop it in there andsay, Hey, Neil, remember, you got
my permission to be honest with me.
What do we really need to do here?
, so when you ask them this question,do I have your permission to be
100 percent honest with you, it'sgoing to help you better serve them
(08:03):
throughout the entire transaction.
Okay, so now you've asked questions,you've got the questionnaire,
you've got all that information.
You're going to verify more of that.
You know, if you, there's probablysome follow up questions that
you're going to have after theycomplete that questionnaire.
Uh, then you've got thequestions for the kitchen table.
It's then after that, you'regoing to present a little bit.
(08:23):
Now you got to be careful whenpresenting your marketing presentation
because you can easily lose the seller.
So keep it pretty short and sweet.
And by now you've asked questions tounderstand what's most important to them
when it comes to marketing your home.
So you can highlight those areas.
Let's say that they say, I wantprofessional photos, I want a drone video,
(08:44):
and I want Professional staging, right?
You can highlight all of that in yourmarketing presentation and say, Hey,
this is what we cover for that is whatwe cover for that without having to
bore them with all of the details.
All right.
And remember, they've alreadygot your marketing presentation.
If you email that they've already,they've already seen it and maybe
already have read over it, right?
So it's not like you've gotto go page by page by page.
(09:05):
You just don't want to take up alot of time here because you're
going to bore the seller with it.
All right.
So, so you've got that, those steps done.
Now you've got the questionnaire done.
You've asked questionsat the kitchen table.
You've gone over yourmarketing presentation.
It's now you want to getup and go tour that home.
And so go on a tour of that home.
And while you're touring that home,give them all kinds of advice, give
(09:27):
them a staging advice and things thatthey should do to get ready to list.
Just, just.
Pour out the advice at this point.
They're seeing you work, right?
They're seeing your, your talents and yourabilities that you have to help sellers.
They're seeing this by you giving to them.
So as you're walking through thehome, give them a bunch of advice.
Then after the tour, and alsoduring that tour, ask a lot of
(09:49):
questions, like get the details oneverything and take a ton of notes.
So just get, you know, gothrough the home, ask them,
when did they remodel this?
What's the age of the furnace?
What's the age of the AC?
When did you put the new roof on it?
All of the details you could possiblyget and get them all into a list.
Just one question afteranother notes after notes.
I mean, pages of notes, if youcan, the more notes, the better.
(10:12):
Right now, after that, go back to thekitchen table and go over pricing.
And this is what you want to ingoing over pricing, you want to
arrive at the price together.
So don't have a CMA that you justslapped down the price and you say,
this is the price, uh, you wantto arrive at the price together.
Now, remember you have whatthey're already thinking, uh, for
(10:34):
pricing in that questionnaire.
So let's say in the questionnaire, theyput down that they think they want to
sell list and sell the house for 350, 000.
And, uh, you've pulled up a bunchof comparables and boy, that
seems a little bit on the highside, but we'll see, we'll see.
Okay.
Um, so you've got a bunchof active comparables.
You've got some sold comparables,but, uh, you know, the, the, the sold
(10:56):
comparables is just showing the dataand the past, the active is where
we're in current competition, right?
So you're going to haveboth active and sold.
And then what I recommend is.
Penciling them all up, markingthem all up with adjustments.
So if your house has 2000 squarefeet and you're comparing it to a
house that has 2, 500 square feet,it should have a price adjustment.
(11:18):
That house is bigger, right?
But let's say you got four bedroomsand they only have three bedrooms.
What, what's the difference there, right?
So you should do price adjustments.
And then go over each comparable andyou say, Hey, I understand that you
want to get three 50 for your home.
Well, this one here helps us.
This one here sold for three 40 andyours is larger and has a three car
(11:38):
garage and they'll have a two car garage.
Right?
So that, that three 50 is going towork according to this comparable, but.
If we look at this comparablehere, this one hurts us.
This one's sold for three 20.
Uh, it's a little bit smaller thanyours, but it, you know, it really
brings your value down to three 30.
This one here helps us.
This one hurts us.
This one helps us.
This one hurts us and gothrough all of the comparables.
(11:58):
And then at the end of goingthrough those comparables, ask them.
So now that we've looked at allof this data, what would you like
to list and sell your house for?
All right, and then just be quiet.
Let them, let them answer what theywant to list and sell for after going
all of going through all of that data.
Now, if they want to list on thehigh side, you know, let's say they
want to list three 50 or three 60.
(12:19):
And you're like, boy, this isreally going to overprice this home.
I would then at that point, Iwould not disagree with them.
Right?
Because that's the worst thing you cando is disagree with what the seller is.
It wants, but instead what you cando is help the seller help you.
All right.
So a couple of things here.
The first one is, is you want to explainthe three different pricing models.
(12:42):
Uh, you can list your propertyat retail, where if you think
about retail, everything isshiny and glossy and perfect.
And then the price is alittle bit higher, right?
For retail.
But if it doesn't sell,what happens in retail?
It goes on sale.
Right.
And the price comes back down.
So with retail, we can price high, butwe got to make sure that we, uh, make
sure that we perfect this house so thatthis house just shines and it is perfect.
(13:06):
So like every little thing that we kindof like, ah, should we fix that or not?
Or what should we do?
Um, all of those things should get fixed.
It should be retail.
It should be perfect.
Then if it doesn't sell quickly.
You need to do the price reduction.
You need to put it on sale.
Okay.
So that's retail.
The next category is fair.
So this is where you kind of price it.
(13:26):
You know, you're not going to go withthat high price of maybe 350 or 360.
Maybe we'd price it atthree 40 or three 30.
30, uh, and we wouldn't fix everything.
We would have a nice house.
We obviously want to stage and havegreat photos, but we're not going
to get to the details and makesure that it's like retail detail.
We're just going to, uh, you know, notperfect the home, but make the home nice.
(13:47):
Right.
And just keep the pricing fair.
Then the third option is auctionwhere you price it really low and
you hope to drive up the offers.
All right.
So those are the threedifferent pricing models.
So if the seller wants to pricehigh, explain the retail technique
to them so that, Hey, you know, ifwe do high, if we go high on this,
if we go three 5360, we need tomake sure we replace that carpeting.
(14:10):
We need to make sure weput that new front door in.
We need to make surethat we paint that room.
That's Pepto Bismol pink, right?
We're going to go through a list ofthings that we need to do to perfect this
home so that we can get retail pricing.
All right.
So you explain all of the threedifferent pricing models to them.
And then the other thing that'simportant to them, if they want
to price high, a great question toask them is around the appraisal.
(14:33):
You have to explain that we'regoing to have to sell this
house twice, once to a buyer.
And if that buyer is obtaininga mortgage, which in today's You
know, current market about 60 to 70percent of buyers obtain a mortgage.
So if the buyer is obtaining amortgage, we're going to need to
sell it twice to an appraiser.
So if you want to price high, we needto make sure we have our comparables
(14:55):
ready and so when we're met with theappraiser, we've got to make sure
that we have comparables that showthe appraiser that this is why the
pricing is where it's at, right?
We, we have to sell it twice, onceto a buyer and once to an appraiser.
So what comparables are wegoing to use to support the 360?
Because right now I don't have anything.
Right.
(15:15):
Right now, the highest oneI've got the supports at three
50, but I don't have anything.
So, so you can explain to the seller,those two different scenarios.
One is the retail and one is wegot to get ready for the appraiser.
All right.
So now you've arrivedat the price together.
It's not your opinionversus their opinion.
And here is a story of where I lost.
(15:36):
, I had a past client.
I helped them buy it years earlier, andnow they're ready to sell this house and
they wanted to get three 75 for the home.
And I had no comparables to supportthat the highest I had actually
was like a three 30 or three 40.
So I just, I had no idea where theywere coming up with this price.
And.
I'm an honest guy, right?
(15:57):
I just told him like, Hey, Ithink somebody is misleading here.
The other agent that toldyou you could get 375.
I don't see any comparablesthat support that.
And I just don't want to mislead you.
I'll list it for whatever you wantme to list it at, but I just don't
believe that it's going to sell at 375.
And that's how I lost the listing.
She loves me.
(16:17):
She loved my service.
She thinks I'm a great agent, but shetold me that she now realizes that I
don't believe that it'll sell at 375.
And if that's the case, there'sno chance that it'll sell at 375.
And so she decided to go withthe other listing agent for 375.
Now.
We all know how this went, right?
(16:38):
We know that it did sell for 375.
They did a price reduction at 360 andthen down to 350 and then it expired.
And she ended up listing with me at330 and we ended up selling it quickly.
All right.
So, uh, you know, it was one of thosethat I lost the listing for six months.
And I was devastated.
I couldn't believe it.
And it was only because of theway that I structured it, right.
(17:01):
If we would have arrived at the pricetogether, and if I would have said,
Hey, we've got to also get ready forthe appraisal, what comparables are
going to work for that, if I wouldhave handled that different, instead
of slapping down my price and actinglike my price was written in stone,
and it's the only way to go, I made amistake because it was me versus her.
(17:21):
It was actually me versusher and the other agent.
Right?
And, and, and the cool part of thestory is eventually she listed with
me and it all came around, but justto show you, I lost the listing from
a client, a raving fan of mine didn'tlist with me because she realized
that I didn't believe in that price.
So don't make that mistake,arrive at the price together
(17:45):
and it goes over much better.
All right.
So now that we've got the price, I writethe price down on the listing contract.
Uh, I get out the listingtimeline worksheet.
So we have a worksheet that we usewith our sellers to go over all of the,
the, the steps that we need to take.
When is the sign going to get installed?
When are we doing photos?
When is the staging going to be done?
(18:05):
When is that new carpetinggoing to get installed?
Like everything has to have adeadline because everything falls
in after those deadlines, right?
Like we can't do photos until it's staged.
Right.
And, and so, um, but we also, when do wewant to put the sign in the front yard?
And, and when do we want to do theexterior drone and all of the exteriors?
Do we want to do coming soon?
(18:26):
Do we want to do open houses?
All of these questions need tohave yes or no answers to them,
but then they also have to havedates by him and deadlines by him.
So we do a listing checklist orlisting timeline worksheet to go
over this with the seller, andthen we sign the listing paperwork.
All right.
So, uh, so those are thesteps to follow again.
(18:46):
Start out with that questionnaire,get, get every question that you
can get answered and really setthe expectation with the seller.
Understand what's important to the seller.
Then go to the listing appointmentand get to the kitchen table
and ask more questions there.
Then briefly go over your marketing plan.
Then begin the tour, take abunch of notes on the tour.
Get back to the kitchen table, goover the pricing and arrive at the
(19:10):
price together, and then begin tofill out the listing paperwork.
And those are the steps.
So if you're a brand new agent, I mean,all you gotta do is ask questions, right?
Like the marketing plan and all of that.
You can, you can kind of limpyour way through that and make
that better throughout the days.
And of course we have a planfor all of Agent Rise members.
You can use our marketing plan.
Um, you get that marketing plan and then.
(19:32):
Then you can start to step intothese listing appointments and
you're going to get one listingafter another with confidence.
We've got all of this in a PDF.
You can grab everything that I talkedabout, all of the questions, everything
that you need, go ahead and text theword listing to 8 3 3 5 0 0 1 1 3 5.
Again, the word listingto 8 3 3 5 0 0 1 1 3 5.
(19:56):
The other really awesome thing with thisnew texting feature that we just invested
in is that if you have a question forme, any question, whatever it might
be, anything that I can help you with,you can text those questions to this
number and I'll reply to you again.
The number 8 3 3 5 0 0.
5 text me any questions you have, andI'll be sure to get right back to you.
(20:19):
Thanks again for listening.
I hope you have a great day andlike always remember to be the
reason somebody smiles today
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