You just set a good appointment to list a home with a motivated seller. You are excited and pumped up because you have an opportunity to meet face to face with a prospect. To give you the edge, agents need to develop effective pre-listing packages. Some people call these pre-sale packages. They are both the same items. The pre-listing package gives you an opportunity to sell the prospect before you ever walk in the door. It shows the prospect you are organized and professional.

The pre-sale package is similar to your stockbroker sending you a prospectus on a stock in which you are considering investing. The prospectus tells you about the track record for the stock, the trends, overall market information and the proposed future return.

The pre-listing package can either be hand-delivered or mailed out if you have enough lead time before the appointment. Here are some ideas of what you might enclose in your pre-listing package.

• Testimonials from 4 to 5 clients. If you have enough, try to customize for the specific seller. If you have an appointment with an expired, having letters from other expired clients will place you as being a successful problem solver.
• Charts and graphs about the importance of pricing and the correlation to selling and market time. This has to be a strong straightforward section, easy for the seller to understand and effective.
• Series of questions to ask other agents. I always sent this to knock out at least half of the other interviewees. I obviously knew the answers, but most of my competition had no idea.
• Your resume of sales or a list of all properties you have sold. You want to include training in the field and formal education. You should also include awards you have earned. Limit this to one page. Any longer and it will appear overdone.
• Include a copy of your marketing plan. This copy will enable you to avoid the subject during the listing presentation. Most agents spend too much time discussing marketing and not enough time discussing price. Price is the most important issue to be discussed on a listing presentation. 80% of the marketing happens when you set the price. If you don't get the home priced right, you are wasting precious time.
• You might include a section on staging your home and the preparation a seller must do to help you get the home sold.
• Many agents use pre-sale videos also. There are some that have been created that are effective. You can also develop one of your own. I used one we created for five years in my career. It was very effective in focusing the clients on price and what my team was going to do to sell their home. It was another tool that enabled me to reduce the discussions on marketing and get back to price.

A Word of Caution:

Many agents create novels when developing a pre-listing package. I don’t believe our prospects want to read a novel. They want information that will prepare them for your presentation. They want to learn more about what agents do and your strategy specifically. They are not trying to be the expert-- that is why you are there.

My goal was to give myself an advantage over my competition going in. Convey information to my prospects to reduce the time I personally had to invest on the appointment. Begin to prepare them for the price discussion that would take place at the appointment. Those should be your goals too.

Creating a compact hard-hitting pre-list package will help increase your batting average on listing appointments. It will also decrease the length of time on the appointment. Your clients will see your commitment to them and your business. Start putting together the components that will begin to sell you and your service before you even walk in the door.

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Published: June 28, 1999

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Dirk Zeller is recognized as the premier coach for the real estate industry. He is one of the most sought after speakers and authors for high volume production while attaining life balance in the real estate industry. Dirk is the President of Real Estate Champions. Real Estate Champions provides exceptional business and developmental training to real estate agents and managers through cutting edge coaching programs and seminars including the Four Day Work Week System ProgramTM. You can contact Real Estate Champions at 1-877-732-4676 or e-mail them at or visit their website at RealEstateChampions.com.