3 Tips for Closing 90 Percent of Listing Appointments

Despite what some “real estate experts” claim, no listing presentation is guaranteed to work 100 percent of the time.

Still, there’s no doubt that some strategies are more effective than others. Recent Real Estate Rockstars guest Brian Moses has a presentation strategy that he claims works with over 90 percent of sellers.

I believe it, and here’s why:

Moses was one of Coldwell Banker’s top agents in the world. More specifically, he was their No. 2 agent, short of tying for the spot of top agent by just four deals.

Additionally, what he shared during our discussion made a lot of sense to me – a billion-dollar agent who has won countless listings. If I was still selling homes, I’d definitely give his strategy a shot.

For Moses’ top three tips on closing more listing appointments, read on.

Or, if you want full details on all aspects of his strategy for winning over sellers, including multiple scripts not shared in the article, listen to my podcast interview with Brian Moses below.

Show sellers your buyer leads

If buying online leads is part of your business, you can leverage your buyer leads during listing appointments. To do it, simply print out a report showing the leads you or your team have on hand. When meeting with sellers, you can show them this report and say something like this:

“This is a printout of the active buyers we’re currently working. As you can see, there’s 372 that we received just last month. Price being a function of supply and demand, can you see the advantage of working with an agent who has already attracted buyers in your market and price range?”

Let sellers settle on the price

Before covering comps with a seller, Moses puts them in the right frame of mind by asking some specific, easy-to-answer questions to simplify the pricing process. Here’s how he starts:

“No two homes are identical. Some homes are bigger. Some homes are smaller. Now, generally speaking, if a home is smaller, is it worth more or less than your home?”

Most sellers would answer that the smaller home would likely be worth less.

Continuing on, Moses asks, “If a home is bigger, newer, and has more amenities, is it worth less or more than your home?”

Again, most sellers answer as you’d expect – that the newer, bigger home is worth more than theirs.

After that, Moses takes a blank piece of paper and puts the seller’s property at the top. He then writes in the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the square footage, build year, property tax, and lot size. These are specific details he includes because he doesn’t want sellers thinking about things like granite countertops or upgraded appliances when formulating their price.

Moses then shows comps, starting with a property that sold for far less than he believes the seller’s property is worth. As he moves on, he moves up in price to reach the comp closest to what he believes the seller’s home is worth.

From there, Moses then asks the seller, “What do you believe the top of the market for your home is?”

In most cases, the seller typically gives a price close to the last comp shown and is willing to settle on a price near it. This strategy helps Moses win listings and gives him a realistic price to work with.

Give your listing presentation last

Some agents like to present to sellers first, hoping to get a signed contract before other agents get a chance to take the listing from them. Moses, on the other hand, prefers to present last.

As you’ll hear in my podcast interview with Moses, he does this because it automatically makes him more memorable to sellers and because it allows him to minimize other agents’ presentations.

To ensure that sellers don’t sign with someone else prior to his presentation, he specifically asks to present last when qualifying the appointment. Here’s the rationale he gives:

“I want to show you everything we do over and above the competition to get you the best price for your home. If you meet with everyone else first, it’ll really stand out and make a difference. If I go first, it won’t make as much of an impact.”

That’s usually all it takes to land the last listing appointment, especially since most other agents will be eager to get into sellers’ homes as soon as possible. If used in conjunction with Moses’ other tips for closing, this can really make a difference when it comes to winning listings.

Pat Hiban is the author of NYT best selling book “6 steps to 7 figures — A Real Estate Professional’s Guide to Building Wealth and Creating Your Destiny”, founder of Rebus University and the host of Pat Hiban Interviews Real Estate Rockstars an Agent to Agent Real Estate Radio Podcast with Hiban Digital in Baltimore, Maryland. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter.