15 Ways Real Estate Agents Can Win More Listings | Dotloop

15 Ways Real Estate Agents Can Win More Listings

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dotloop

September 30, 2021 | comments

Follow These Listing Strategies from Top Marketing Guru Scott Le Roy to Create a Truly Memorable Listing Presentation

In a tight inventory market such as today’s, capturing listings can be competitive. However, these 15 expert tips from Scott Le Roy of Scott Le Roy Digital Marketing will help you stand out from the competition and capture more business while building brand awareness.

1. Identify Key Marketing Tools

What are your strengths as an agent? Do you have key marketing tools and resources that can help differentiate your services and highlight your selling powers? Maybe your CRM offers key functionality that can help get the listing out to potential buyers in your sphere of influence. Or perhaps you can show the seller what their listing would look like on a password-protected page on your website.

It’s important to convey to potential listing clients how many contacts you currently have in your CRM and how frequently you’re “touching” them with nurture campaign emails, special events, social communication and other forms of outreach. Prospective listers want to know how many buyers you know who are looking for a home just like theirs.

“At the end of the day, those are people who you already have a relationship with and who may be looking for exactly what you’re highlighting in your listing appointment, or they know of someone who is,” says Le Roy. “With inventory tight and the number of buyers outweighing the number of sellers, the fact that you already have a pipeline set up and can reach out immediately to those buyers puts you in front.”

2. Highlight Social Media Exposure

According to NAR’s Real Estate in a Digital Age report, agents cited social media as their best source for generating high-quality leads. Millennials, in particular, turn to social media to view listings. If you’re already using Facebook, maybe try to expand your social media exposure by adding TikTok, Instagram or LinkedIn to the mix.

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3. Point Out Paid Advertising

You might also explore paid advertising, especially if tech-savvy millennials comprise a big portion of your seller prospect list. Paid advertising re-targets online shoppers who are looking at properties similar to your listings.

“Going after Google AdWords and Facebook Ads can help drive clicks and leads to a seller’s property,” says Le Roy.

According to a study by comScore, the average attention span of a millennial is 5 to 6 seconds. Paid ads, however, help keep your listing top of mind among multi-tasking millennials who are online constantly and are more likely to see your ads. Paid ads also create brand awareness for your business, Le Roy reminds.

4. Integrate Presentation with Transaction Management

By integrating a digital listing presentation such as dotloop’s digital Ultimate Listing Presentation Template directly into a transaction management system, you can easily transition from the presentation to creating the transaction and capturing the seller’s eSignatures all on the same platform.

If you’re using dotloop to house and present your presentation, create a loop using the property address of the listing before your meeting. Whether you’re using dotloop for Teams or Business+, a preloaded Listing Template will allow you to incorporate all the People, Documents and Service Providers you’ll need for the transaction.

5. Present Digitally

There are many reasons why you should deliver your digital presentation in a digital format. First, it’s how digital-savvy millennials and really most sellers want to consume the information. It’s easy to send and receive the information with only a moment’s notice, and a sleek presentation on a tablet or laptop looks clean and professional.

Also, the data can be customized and updated on the fly. Dotloop’s Ultimate Listing Presentation, for instance, features a page dedicated to the Current Housing Market Status, where you can adjust bar graphs to reflect the current local Median Sales Price and Home Values.

Le Roy always recommends agents use YouTube to showcase their listings, especially those that contain drone or other videography. Not only is YouTube great for SEO optimization of your listing in a Google search, but it also demonstrates the wide range of marketing resources you utilize.

Before leaving the appointment, make sure you demonstrate to your clients how their listing will look in a mobile-optimized, responsive format, adjusting to whatever screen size on a device the user may be viewing.

6. Be Data Driven

Agents have more data available to them about a property than ever before, and in a listing presentation, numbers talk, especially in today’s ever-changing market. Prospective sellers want to know the current and future value of their property and, once they sell, what they can expect to find in another home of comparable worth. While the amount of data available can be overwhelming, staying locally focused will help differentiate your data from other agents.

“Come prepared with as much data as possible so that it’s not overwhelming but enough to show how much their home has increased in value over a X amount of years, what other homes are selling for in their area and what’s happening in their neighborhood,” says Le Roy.

7. Create “Coming Soon” Collateral

Instead of simply adding a listing to the MLS, take it one step further than the competition and create a “Coming Soon” asset that features your prospect’s property, showing the seller exactly how you may market their property should they choose you as their agent.

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8. Sell the Neighborhood, Not Just the Property

Le Roy advises doing your homework on the area and, if you haven’t sold in the neighborhood before, research the school district ratings, taxes and any HOA fees. “Don’t just focus on the specific home; know the area. Demonstrating that you’re a neighborhood expert even if you haven’t sold in that neigbhorhood will help tremendously,” he advises.

9. Let Clients Talk for You in Testimonials

As Le Roy reminds, “No one will speak for you better than the cheerleaders among your clients. No matter what your materials look like and no matter what you tell someone, having those people convey their own stories will be most effective in getting the listing.”

Place your testimonials front and center in your listing presentation. In dotloop’s listing presentation template, testimonials feature large pull quotes and images, all of which agents can customize to meet new listing clients’ goals.

10. Highlight Past Sales

Similarly, you can “show not tell” your selling proficiency by highlighting past sales. A digital, customizable listing presentation allows you to easily interchange previous sales depending on your listing prospect’s needs. Align your past sales with similar features, such as same beds/baths and square footage, and make sure you include other homes you’ve sold in the neighborhood to demonstrate your local area expertise.

11. Don’t Forget “Old-School” Strategies

While social media and paid ads drive much of today’s lead gen, digital marketing doesn’t always work or resonate with every seller. Le Roy reminds agents to highlight any print marketing or door knocking they may add to the total marketing mix. While many agents are glutting Facebook and websites with their listings, a printed flyer showing local comps and your recent sales may be just the piece that stands out and gets a buyer to see your seller’s property.

12. Include Your Preferred Vendors

Many sellers don’t have an active list of a preferred lender (if they’re looking to buy in addition to selling), title company or even a mover. “This extra touch will help you stand out a little more to the client,” says Le Roy.

Dotloop’s Listing Presentation is a great way of recommending Local Service Providers. In addition, the portal includes a Client Moving Checklist. As dotloop’s Director of Training Hunter Morgan points out, “You can wow them with all the work you’ve already done and they’re not even your client yet.”

13. Ask the Right Questions

The listing presentation is as much an opportunity for you to discover the right strategy or selling approach to the listing as it is to sell the client on your skills as an agent. So asking the right questions is key.

“The No. 1 question every agent asks is ‘Why are you selling? Is it work related? Are you looking to upgrade? Downsize? Get into a different school district?’ That will open up so many doors for what you can do during the selling process,” says Le Roy. “The more you build that rapport, the more likely the client will go with you.”

Also, asking a client what they love most about their home can help uncover key insights that will inform the description.

By asking the right questions, you can help to level expectations and address any blind spots.

Additional questions may include:

  • How can I make this process simpler for you?
  • What does your ideal selling rocess look like?
  • If you have sold a home previously, what was your experience like?
  • If you’re brand new to selling your home, what are you expecting from the transaction?
  • Is there anything that keeps you up at night?
  • What type of marketing tools are you looking for? Online, print or both?

14. Create a Sense of Urgency

The market is rapidly changing and what has been a red-hot sellers market could start shifting toward a buyers market. One way to create a sense of urgency is to show sellers the current worth of their home and any projections over a three-, six- or 12-month timeline.

“Many people are looking at the here and now and not the future,” says Le Roy. “We may be at the top of the market now, but in a few months, there may be a small divot and you want to make sure your client is aware of that. For some clients, the time frame of selling in January may be better than selling in September, so it’s always helpful to look at a forecasting model to see what the property will look like six months or a year from now.”

15. Under-promise. Over-deliver.

The agent who over promises and under delivers may get the listing but might also very well end up with a disappointed client; whereas, the agent who over delivers on promises will almost always exceed expectations. Toward that end, Le Roy cautions agents listing anything that they can’t follow through with to completion.

Crushing the listing presentation really comes down to what and how you present your experience in a particular market. While every market is different, every listing should comprise three basic elements: comps, past sales and a marketing plan. Layer “local” over all three of those elements, integrate it in a digital transaction management system like dotloop, and you have a winning combination.