Four Pre-listing Steps To Boost Your Commission And Add Value To Your Clients

When you’re focused on adding value for your clients, increased and more steady commissions naturally follow.

4 Things to Do Before You List a Home

While some pre-listing tasks are the same in any housing market, you may need to tweak your planning as the market in your area shifts.

1.   Provide the best possible comparative market analysis (CMA). The most important thing you can do for your clients is to help them price their home accurately when it first goes on the market. Your sellers rely on you to help them understand how much they can expect to receive for their property. When markets shift, it’s often wiser to base your CMA on the current competition of listings, including homes that linger on the market, rather than sales from even two or three months ago. Bring net sheets to your listing presentation to help your sellers visualize their potential profit from a sale under various scenarios. A home that’s priced right will sell faster and for a higher price than one that lingers, which impacts your bottom line and your time.

2.   Advise your clients on the most cost-effective presale prep. Depending on the property, a quick decluttering, some plants and fresh paint may be enough to get their house buyer ready. But homes that need more work may be best served by a presale renovation program such as Revive. After a thorough analysis of the costs and return on investment of needed renovations in consultation with you, Revive funds and coordinates the project and is reimbursed after the closing. The sellers are likely to receive a bigger profit and your commission will therefore be higher, too.  

3.   Pay for pro photos and videos. Buyers start house hunting online and tend to visit fewer properties in person than in the past. According to the 2022 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers from the National Association of Realtors, buyers looked at a median of five homes before making an offer – and four of those visits were online only. Great photos and videos can make a difference in the speed of a sale and the size of the offer.

4.   Use every marketing tool available. Higher prices, higher mortgage rates and a slower pace of sales encourage buyers to be pickier when looking for a home. Make sure your listing gets seen by as many buyers as possible through your MLS, your website and social media. The more prospects that see your listing, the better your chances of getting a higher offer and a bigger commission.

To build a long career as a real estate agent, use the best available tools and focus on serving your customers in every market.

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