23 Questions to win your next Real estate listing presentation

In this article, we'll introduce you to our 23 Listing Presentation Questions toolbox. It's the easiest way to create more meaningful engagement with your potential clients and win more listings.

Hands up if you have ever had this experience...

You go along to a listing presentation, do the meet-and-greet, sit down and start talking through your proposal. The owners sit there quietly, politely listening to your spiel, without asking many questions. Eventually, you finish talking, shake hands and leave, with that slightly sickening instinct in your stomach that you probably won't be selling their property.

It sucks, right?

Don't worry. We've all been there.

This is a flow on effect of presenting to owners without engaging them.

Let's put it another way...

If you walk out of a listing presentation without knowing more about your owners goals and motivations than when you walked in, you have missed a golden opportunity.

In practice, that means you should spend most of your listing time asking questions and listening intently to your client's answers. Ideally, your client should spend more time talking than you do.

You should be having a listing conversation, rather than a listing presentation.

Make it all about your clients

This shows owners that you care about them. Their goals, their needs, their aspirations. As opposed to your process, your company, your commission, your marketing.

In a listing conversation, you'll still get a chance to answer all those common questions, like What's your commission? How should we sell? How long will it take?

But in a listing conversation, after asking thoughtful open questions, your answers will be better tailored to suit your client's particular situation. You client will also pay far more attention to what you have to say.

In the words of Theodore Roosevelt — "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

ACTION STEP 1: Develop a question-led listing presentation.

The goal is to walk into every listing conversation with a toolbox of questions to draw from. And to be open to where the answers lead you. Rather than presenting a formal proposal, ask a whole bunch of questions, have a two-way conversation with your owners and refer to your proposal when needed.

Scroll down to see our full list of example questions, or click here to download the listing question toolbox.

Try this approach in your next listing appointment. You won't regret it.

ACTION STEP 2: Develop a customer-led listing mindset.

This goes hand in hand with the question-led presentation.

Rather than worrying about how good you are at closing, or whether you'll get the appraisal range wrong, focus on understanding as much as possible about what your client is trying to achieve. Then, provide tips and advice specific to their situation.

In other words, rather than presenting your standard 'this is how we sell properties' deal, find out what the owners need and present a solution that fits their situation.

For example, if your client is a teacher transferring to a different city in 2 months, your specific tips might be:

• Get on the market asap to allow maximum time to secure a buyer.
• Have as much info (LIM, builders report etc) available upfront to secure cleaner offers.
• Avoid campaigns (tender / auction) so that they can sell quickly if the right buyer is in the market right now.
• Do an early caravan in case one of your colleagues has a hot buyer before the client is ready to hit the open market.

If your client is a retiree living alone with lots of contacts in the local community, who isn't focussed on maximising price, specific ideas might be:

• Running an initial quiet listing campaign without open homes to maintain privacy and see if a buyer can be found with minimal fuss.
• Offering to donate part of your commission to a community group they are passionate about.
• Offering to exclude from your listing authority any private buyers they already know are interested.
• Include stories about the home in your advert.
• Avoid Auction-style processes where the owner won't get the opportunity to select their best buyer.
• Take your time at each appointment. Really take the time to get to know your client. Don't rush them through the process.

A bespoke solution for their biggest asset

The idea here is that you are creatively catering your service to help your clients. They may decide not to take your advice (which is fine) but your clients will love the fact that you paid attention to their needs.

23 Real Estate Listing Presentation Questions

Click here to download (Microsoft Word Doc)

Have a quick read through this list before you walk into any listing presentation so the questions are top of mind. After each presentation - review the list to see what you should have asked, but didn’t. You don’t need to ask all these questions. Just think of them as a collection you can draw from as needed.

When the owner makes their initial call to set the appointment:

• What has made you think about selling at this time? What are your goals? Why is that important to you?
• Why did you call me?
• When are you hoping to have this all sorted by?

At the start of every meeting / phone call:

• How are you going for time right now?
• What are you most wanting to get from our meeting today? What is top of mind for you right now? (Key question)

Listing presentation:

• Have you been through the selling process before? Tell me about that experience? What selling method did you use? How did that go for you? Would you use that process again this time? What would you do differently this time around?
• Do you have any concerns leading into this selling process?
• What are you looking for in a real estate professional?
• Have you found a home where you are going yet?
• What is the market like there?
• What tools are you using to look for a home? (This gives you clues to which marketing methods they might like to invest in).
• When you think about selling your home, what is most important to you? Timeframe? Privacy? Price? Choosing the buyer?

As you tour the property...

• What do you like most about living here? What attracted you to this home when you bought it?
• What do you think buyers will love most about this home / this neighbourhood?
• What improvements have you made during your time here?
• If you were staying, what would you change about this home?
• Moving forward, what do you think will be the biggest challenge in getting on the market? (Tip: is this something you can help with? For example, helping them find a reliable tradesperson).

On pricing…

• Here is what the recent sales say on price... Is this what you expected? What are you hoping to achieve?
• Have you heard of any other recent sales that I haven’t mentioned?
• Have you had other appraisals? What level were they at? Or, how does this fit with other appraisal info you have received?
• Do you have a dream price in mind?

Towards the end of the meeting:

• How would you feel about working with me?
• Do you have any questions that we haven't covered?
• When do you think you would be ready to have photographs taken?
• My photographer gets booked out weeks in advance, could I go ahead and pencil in a date for you so we don't miss out? (Soft close).
• Would you like me to organise a quote with our preferred (staging company / tradesperson / builder etc)?

Click here to download the listing question toolbox (Microsoft Word Doc)

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