Make Your Pre-Listing Packet About Their House

When a seller is interviewing two or three agents, most of them decide who they like before anyone walks through the door. The pre-listing packet is your chance to be the agent they've already picked.

Most packets don't do that. They're a glossy bio, a page of awards and a marketing plan that looks like every other agent's marketing plan. The seller flips through it and learns nothing about their house.

A good packet is mostly about their house. Here's what I put in mine.

1. A short note, from you

Three or four sentences. Thank them for the call, say when you're coming, and tell them what you'll do when you get there. Write it like an email to a neighbor, not a brochure.

2. The sales you'll be looking at

Build a pricing guide on their house before the appointment and pull out the comps. Send them with a line like this:

"These are the recent sales I'll be comparing your home to. You may have an inside scoop on one of these homes. If any of them are a bad match, tell me why."

That does two things. It shows the seller you've already done real work on their house. It also gets you information: sellers often know things about the neighbors' houses that you don't, like the one that sold to a relative or the one with the foundation problem. You want to hear that before you settle on a number, not after.

3. The market-trends section for their area

Include the three charts:

• Supply and demand

• Price per square foot, actives vs. solds

• Absorption

Add one sentence under each saying what it means for them. Sellers who've seen the gap between asking prices and selling prices before you arrive are much easier to talk to about list price.

4. A few questions about the house

Keep it to four or five questions. Ask:

• What have you updated, and when?

• What would you fix if you were staying?

• What do you think buyers will love?

Condition is the hardest thing to price from the outside, and this is the cheapest way to learn about it. It also tells the seller you care about the parts of the house the online estimates can't see.

5. What happens at the appointment

A few lines on what to expect: you'll walk through the house, go over the comps together, and leave them with a full pricing guide showing your range and how you got there. Every seller relaxes when they know what's coming.

Do you send the price ahead?

Agents disagree on this, and I don't think there's one right answer.

Sending a range ahead can win you the appointment, especially if the seller is shopping on price. The risk is that the number arrives without the reasoning, before you've seen the inside, and the seller anchors on it.

Holding it back keeps the number tied to the walkthrough and the conversation. The risk is that the seller feels you're making them wait.

Keep it short

Five or six pages is plenty. One page about you is enough. The seller should finish it thinking about their house, not your sales volume.

At the appointment

Bring the finished guide with every adjustment filled in and the seller's notes worked into it. When they see their own answers about the new furnace or the noisy road reflected in the numbers, the rest of the appointment gets a lot easier.

Build one for your next appointment. Make the guide a few days ahead, pull out the comps and the trends, and send the packet.