Real Estate Pro Tips, 20 Listing Questions Answered with Nazar Kalayji
So today you guys, I want to discuss listings. I thought the easiest and funnest way to do that would be able to do a quiz. And so I want you guys to be able to get either a pen and paper. Or, you know, if you wanna do it on your phone, you can do it on your phone, that’s fine as well.
We’re gonna go over 20 questions this afternoon or this morning, and I want you guys to, you know, write your answers down. We’re gonna discuss each one of those answers when it’s all said and done. Now, I don’t want you to cheat, so like don’t, don’t ask people for help. Don’t look at other people’s responses.
I want you to see if you can get these answers down by yourself and then we’ll go from there. The good news is they’re, they’re true or false questions, and so hopefully you have 50, 50% chance of getting the answer right. Okay. All of it revolving around listings. So I’m gonna share my screen.
We can go over each one. If you guys could turn your cameras on, that’d be awesome. If you can’t, then you know, it is what it is. I know there’s some, some issues sometimes that comes along the way. So those of you guys are in the office there. Can you guys hear me? Perfect. All right, so you guys have your pen and paper ready?
All right, let’s get these let’s get these questions going here.
#1 Comparative market analysis is unnecessary when determining the listing price. True or false?
So doing a comparative market analysis is unnecessary when determining the list listing price when we go to list of house. Okay. True or false? Doing where? We’re gonna cover every single one of these in a minute, but we’re gonna go over the 20 questions first.
Okay. Everyone got that? True or false. All right, next question.
#2 True or false? An agent should always accept the seller’s preferred listing price.
This is a little bit of a tricky question, so an agent should always accept the seller’s preferred listing price. Next question.
#3 It’s recommended to take professional photos of your listing. True or False?
#4 True or false? Open houses are the best way to sell a property.
#5 Staging a home can help it sell faster and for a higher price. True or false?
Am I doing this too fast or you guys good? You good? Okay. Moving on. Oops.
#6 True or false? The best time to list a property is during the summer.
#7 It is mandatory to disclose all known defects of the property when listing it?
#8 True or false, an exclusive right to sell listing means only the listing broker can sell the property.
#9 Online listing descriptions do not significantly impact the sale of the property, true or false?
Next question. Am I going too fast? No, we’re good. Okay.
#10 Listing agents are responsible for arranging and attending the home inspection. True or false?
#11 True or false, it’s best to set the initial listing price high as you can always negotiate or lower it later.
Some people might say this would be like the wiggle room that people have, right? Next question.
#12 The multiple listing service is accessible to all members of the public?
Next question.
#13 Sellers should be present during property showings to answer all of the buyer’s potential questions, true or false?
#14 As a listing agent, you should always have a pre-listing packet ready for potential clients. true or false?
Next question.
#15 The best way to determine the listing price is by how much the seller owes on their mortgage. True or false?
Next question.
#16 A pre-listing home inspection is not necessary. Is that true or is it false?
Next question.
#17 The listing agent has this final say in accepting an offer. True or false?
#18 It’s not important to remove personal items when staging a home for listing photos. True or false?
#19 The first offer of a property is typically the best one. True or false?
#20 The length of time a property stays on the market does not affect its perceived value.
So, on a scale of one to 10, was that 10 super, super hard or one super, super easy? How would you guys rate, rate that one? Super easy. Okay. All right, well, we’ll see how you guys did. All right, I’m gonna go back to the first question here.
Okay, so comparative mark analysis is unnecessary when determining the listing price. So I’m gonna need you guys to participate, unfortunately. So you’re gonna have to unmute yourself. Answer if you feel like you’ve got the right answer.
Yes, no, true or false. What do you guys think?
One question. Can you put up the questions again so we can follow along with the question? Oh, yeah. I guess we can do that. Thank you. Mm-hmm.
False.
Okay. Very good. Why, why do you think it’s false?
Because the, it pretty much is there to show the seller what’s going on in the market around their house to how you came up with the value of their home. Okay. Yeah, absolutely important that you guys do, you know, compared to market analysis, because especially when like the times in which I’ve felt that it’s been most impactful is when I do the comparative mark analysis.
In front of them with them, because if you just do some your own analytics beforehand, you go in there and say, well, here are the cops. It’s a lot harder for them to be able to see like a little size of picture of a home that you have. And then some of the data. But if you’re able to actually go on the MLS and pull up the data in front of them, and you’re able to thumb through all of the photos of that particular listing and then compare how that home compares to theirs, and obviously it’s simple to do, to be able to say, okay, is this home like yours?
Is this home better than yours? Or is this home inferior to yours? Right. And if you do that with all this, all, all the different comps, what’s, what I find interesting is that by the end of your analysis with the clients right there, They’ll begin to realize, even if they’re in their mind, they have this perceived idea of what their home is worth.
Let’s say their home, they thought it was worth nine 50. But then after you do this market analysis and you’ve asked them to tell you, okay, well we’ve seen the picture. We’ve seen these pictures of this home that sold. It’s sold for $900,000, and they agree with you that that home is nicer than theirs, and that home sold for 900.
It makes it a lot easier to be able to have a compelling argument against why listening it for $950,000 is not the best idea, especially since that home that sold for $900,000 was on the market for four or five weeks. Right. So doing a CMA is absolutely critical and being able to get the response that you’re looking for.
Okay. Oops. Okay. Sorry. I just, I unfortunately didn’t number these. I should have, but I didn’t. So, Okay. All right. Number two, an agent should always accept the seller’s preferred listing price. True or false?
Come on you guys, about 15 minutes. Gotta get through all these. False, false, false. Why is that? Because they are not the ones that know the analytics and the data as much as we do, and we don’t want them to price their home to sit. We wanna price it so that it can sell. That’s right. Again, a seller’s hiring you to sell their home to represent them.
And their best interest. And sometimes the seller has all of the, the, the motivation to be able to do what’s right. But they, they don’t know all the stuff. They don’t know all the data. They don’t know, they don’t understand the market, especially if you have a very good idea of what the market is. And, and so because of that, if you just accept their list price, it could be correct or it could be way off.
And guess who’s gonna be blamed when the home doesn’t sell at the price that they want it to sell for. That’s right. You are right. You as a listening agent are gonna take the fault for, well, you didn’t price my home correctly, or you didn’t gimme information necessary to be able to make an educated decision.
And because of that, it is super, super important that we educate our clients from the very beginning. I. But for us to be able to do that, we have to build a rapport with them so that they do trust us, right? Because ultimately the sellers think, well, all you wanna do is just list my house and sell it and get a commission and move on.
And, and that’s not true, right? For most agents, it’s not true. We wanna do what’s best for the client because not only does it impact them, it also impacts the neighborhood. It impacts our reputation. So we wanna sell the home for as much as we possibly can, but at the same time, We wanna be logical and, and make sure that we understand the market and the trends, and so be able to then tell ’em exactly what they, they should be listening for so they can sell it properly.
Okay. Very good. Next one. It’s recommended to take professional photos of a listing. True to false. True. Yeah. That’s a given, right? Like, and it’s still remarkable to me that in 2023 you still see on M L S. Listings that pop up, that have photos taken with an iPhone or just like two or three pictures of the property.
I mean, honestly, you guys, even if the property is completely garbage, it’s like freaking nasty inside and only an investor’s gonna buy it. Guess what? Even taking photos of the nastiness of that home is gonna show very easily to all the investors, Hey, this is what you’re getting and it’s gonna show everyone else, oh yeah, I don’t want this property.
Right. You’re not hiding anything. Full disclosure is key in this scenario. And taking professional photos is gonna lie to be able to do that very, very quickly and easily. Okay, next one, man. Okay. Staging a home can help itself faster and for for a higher price. What do you guys think? True. Absolutely. Now do we do it all the time?
We don’t. When the market is shifting and homes stay the market for longer, most, most of the time people start staging properties again, to be able to get, you know, have their home look different than other homes, or look nicer than other properties. But you guys will all know if you live in an area where there’s model homes that model homes sell new construction.
The reason that a home. Or the builder or the, the, the people that are selling those model homes or those homes, the reason they keep one house perfectly staged or multiple homes perfectly staged to showcase those, those floor plans is because they know that when people walk in there, they smell the home, they see the house, they see the perfectly designed or perfectly orchestrated furniture, exactly where it goes with all the artwork.
Compels people to fall in love with the property. And emotionally that’s how people make decisions is by emotional decisions. And so a staging house allows people to be able to feel like the house is a home and therefore cause them to be able to buy the property. And it stands true for homes that are resell like we we, that, that we sell as well.
Okay, next property or next question. The best time to list property is during the summer. What do you guys think? False Cause you’re, it, it’s always when it’s the right time for, it’s always the right time. It has to be the right time for the seller. Okay. Who, how, who else, who thinks that’s true? I mean, it is busier during the summer.
So what, what about if you live in Arizona or you live in Vegas, spring and it’s 135 degrees outside during the summer, so it’s not the best time. I said false anyways. Matt, is he still here? Can’t tell if they’re still here or not. No, no. I’m here Is what’s your best time of the market to, what’s the best season to sell for you guys in, in Vegas?
There’s no competition. No, but what season is best? Is there a season that you guys have that sells more homes than others? Yeah, I would say if you don’t have a pool listed in April, if you do have a pool listed in late May. And get a $10,000 bump just cuz of the weather. That’s right. Yeah. So every area is gonna differ.
Right. And obviously, depending on the, the, the house is also gonna dictate what type of property is gonna be purchased here in Southern Utah. In the, the, you know, January, February, March months. Guess what? Families don’t move during that time cause they’ve got kids in school. But guess who moves during that time?
The snowbirds, the people that are buying second homes. So during that December, January, February, you know, March months where it’s freezing cold in other parts of the country, people will come here and buy property because it’s, you know, better, better weather. But then, but then during the summer, even though it’s hot, that’s when families buy more.
And so the home in which, or the house is gonna sell predicated upon the condition of the home, the, the dynamics of who the buyer is gonna be for that house. And so seasonality takes a factor into play, but it’s not the end all be all. Yeah. Next question. Is it mandatory to disclose all known defects of the property when, when it’s listing it, when you’re listing it?
True, a hundred percent right? Like you absolutely have to disclose unknown defects, right? If you don’t know if something had happened, the seller doesn’t know if something happened, they don’t know. They’re not obligated to know. The judge will say it’s within reason, right? Was was, is it reasonable that the seller should have known about that known defect?
Or is it unreasonable? And so that’s how they’re gonna dictate If the, the seller knew about it or did not know about it, if there’s a blaring hole in the ceiling, the seller can’t say, well, I didn’t know there’s a hole in the ceiling. Right? It’s, it’s obvious. But if there’s something in the attic that, or you know, between the walls and it was like leaking and they had no idea because there’s no evidence of a leak and the walls were leaking behind it, you know, I’ve sold the house that way before where my clients bought the home as a buyer.
The sellers had no idea that there was a leak behind the wall cuz there’s no evidence of it. My clients bought the property and they, they gutted the kitchen. When they gutted the kitchen, they saw black mold all down the, in the kitchen, everywhere. They got pissed off at me. They got pissed off at everybody.
They tried to sue, guess what the sellers are like, dude, we didn’t know. And so like, it’s all known defects. That’s how it matters. That’s, that’s how, that’s how that’s determined. Okay, next one. An exclusive right to sell listing means only the listing broker can sell the property. True or false? True.
Lisa says true. What’s the right answer?
True. Oh, well, the listing broker. The listing agent, but TA says false. Who said false? Ta tire said false. Why do you say false tire?
You’re the, or as the listing agent, you have the, I mean like only you can list it, but someone else can still bring in the buyer. Yeah. So the answer to this question actually is true. The listing. Exclusive right to sell means that the listing agents the only listing broker that can sell the property.
Now, the listing broker can then put the home on the multiple listing service and offer a, a, a co-op or offer a to share in the commissions earned. But the exclusive right to sell means that that listing broker is the only person that has the right to theoretically sell the property. Now in our world, that’s, you know, all listings for the most part are inputted in the m l s and are shared with everybody, so that if you as a buyer’s agent bring the, the, you know, the, the buyer to the table that, that, that, that brokerage will share in the commission with you, whatever is shared, whatever’s disclosed on m l s, but they’re, they’re not, they’re not obligated to, right?
The exclusive right means that they technically are the only ones. Now in California you have open listings. I think all states. Theoretically could have an open listing. Most other countries have open listings, but in the United States, typically all listings are exclusive and those listings are, are shared, but they’re, they don’t have to be.
So that’s kinda a percussion. Okay. Next, online listing descriptions do not significantly impact the sale of the property. True or false?
True. I heard both True and false. Whoever said true. Tell me why. Whoever said false, tell me why. Because the, the online description can give a hideously wrong listing price or because they use it for marketing strategy. So it doesn’t mean that, that it’s gonna be the exact description. And not only that, as agents, we can’t use the information so, That’s described in the m l s as the end, all that be all information, we still have to cross reference everything.
So Lisa, are you saying false or true to this? I’m saying false. The online descriptions do not significantly impact the sale of the property. Oh, true. It’s true. It’s true that the descriptions do not significantly impact. So you’re saying true. Okay. Who? Who says false?
The description is not
okay. Does, did anybody say to this, can you hear me? Yes. False. You say false. Why is that? I think, I mean, it is, pictures and price are the most important thing, but the description, I mean, all those things working together, staging the home, the description, accurate information on the mls, good pictures. I mean, it is all important.
Is it significant? That’s subjective, but it absolutely matters. It’s important. Yeah. So the, the, the correct answer is false. Yeah, I’m just trying to solve the problem, right? I don’t, you guys, the, the online description does significantly impact the sales price or can significantly impact the sales price.
The reason is, is because, I don’t know if you guys have ever seen this before where you have a listing and the description says, you know, great property. Or has no description at all compared to, has a, a full on like, I dunno if you guys have read like a, like a novelish type of listing description and, and what I think was amazing about you know, our resources with like chat, g Chat G p T, is that we can have them write an amazing description of her property now, right?
There’s no excuse to why not, why we can’t have a, a beautifully described property. In written form. There’s also people that don’t just look at the pictures, right? They read the description. They’re looking for certain key things in there. And so it’s absolutely important that we make sure that when we are putting in and putting the listing on the MLS, that we do a great job.
And if we do a basic job, then get that basic job and put on the chat G P T and have them create an amazing description of the property because that will impact, I dunno who that is, mark Daily. I’m sorry. I don’t know what her system, I didn’t say in the system. Did it say like I talked to her or, yeah, she had a call cause she had the application.
What was her name? Ashley Salazar. All right. I don’t know who’s talking, but if you guys are talking, whoever said Ashley Salazar, if you could mute yourself, that’d be great. I don’t know who it is. Yeah, I think they did. All right, let’s move on. Listing agents are responsible for arranging and attending the the home inspection.
False. Off. That’s right. It’s not a responsibility. Right. Whose responsibility is that buyer’s agent there. That’s right. It’s buyer’s agent. They’re the ones that are responsible to be able to set those up and attend those inspections. Should the seller be there? No. No, no. The the seller should never be there.
Why is that? Because they’re gonna talk too much and blow. Yeah. And they’ll be made known to the material facts. They’re gonna talk too much and they’re gonna shoot themselves in the foot. That’s right. A lot of times when a listing or when a seller’s there, they end up causing more. They either overpromise on, on repairs because they want to be like, they, they wanna sound like the good person.
And they have pride in their home. And so that puts ’em in a really bad situation cuz then allows you to be able to not negotiate on their behalf when I
what? Yeah. I’m gonna go ahead and mute you. I heard okay. The best. It’s best to set the initial listing price high as you can always negotiate later. False. That’s right. Rochelle, why is that? Because that might not always work out in, in the favor of the seller. You need to price it at the best, you know, possible price.
According to how the market’s behaving, you may not, you know, basically you may not have that opportunity to reduce it. And if you reduce it, then you’re always lagging behind. Right. You’re chasing the ball down, right? Absolutely. Okay. The multiple listing service is accessible to all members of the public.
I think that’s true. It’s false. False. We pay, we pay thousands and thousands of dollars for that. It’s not available all the public. It’s false. We can share it with them, but it’s false. That’s correct. The answer’s false. Now, the data. We share it with the Zillow and, and or sites like it, syndicated sites, and then it’s shared with everybody or own YPO or, or real geeks or whatever website you have, shares it with them or can share it with them.
But they can’t just go in the MLS and look at the data, right? It, it’s, it’s our proprietary information that we share from broker to broker. So the answer is false. Okay? Sellers should be present during the property showings to answer potential buyer’s questions. False. False, false. That’s right. False.
The reason is, is because if they’re there, then they’re gonna again say something or not say something that’s gonna impact the sale of the property. A lot of times sellers feel like they are the best equipped and showcase the, the, the benefits and features of their home. But guess what? You guys, a lot of sellers will say, oh, look at my beautifully mahogany fireplace that I have, and they talk about how amazing this mahogany fireplace is, and the buyer’s thinking what?
That’s it. Very first thing I’m gonna freaking rip out of this house. Right? And so in that scenario, the seller thinks they’re, they’re pointing a really beautiful feature of their home. The buyer says, hell no. And so there’s disconnect there between them. And obviously the seller wants the highest price possible.
The, the buyer wants to pay as low as possible. So there’s a massive initial conflict of interest. And so you have this really awkward tension between those two groups there. And especially if it’s the seller. Then you’ve got the buyer and the buyer’s agent there, and you’re not there. That puts us in a very bad situation for everybody.
So it’s always best to tell the seller, I understand that you would like to show ’em property, and you think you’re, you’re gonna be the best at showcasing your home, but please allow the buyer’s agent to do their job and to represent your home and try to get your home sold for you. Okay? So never good idea to do that.
Okay? As a listing agent, you should always have a pre-listing packet ready for potential clients. True or false? True. True. Why is that? Why, why would it be important to have that number of reasons. But I think there’s only, sometimes you don’t have enough time to unpack everything in employment. So at least to have some resources on the team and the service you provide and something to go back and reference.
It’s just a, a very professional way to approach the client. A hundred percent. A lot of you guys have been trained, or should be trained to be able to get a pre-listing packet ready to go. And, and like I am bewildered by how many agents will go to a listing appointment without a listing contract in their hand.
It blows my mind. They say, oh, well, I’ll send it later. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll send it via DocuSign. You guys, if you’re there and you’re competing against other people, like you need to have everything ready to go. Your both your pre-listing. Packet that has your marketing campaign, everything you’re gonna do to get their home sold and the listing agreement ready to go so they can sign it because I have missed down opportunities because I wasn’t prepared.
You always wanna be prepared for that because you don’t know. At a moment’s notice, a listing opportunity pops up and you can get ready to go. I, I always, I always create, carry a pre-listing packet and a blank listing agreement with me in my contract or in my bag at all times when I’m sharing property or just when I’m out working.
And if you represent a lot of buyers, you should always have a buyer broke or a buyer contractor ready to go, a purchase agreement ready to go as well. Now, again, I know you can do it online. It’d be prettier to do online, but if you’re at right at the moment, it’s sometimes you just need it. So it’s always be better to be prepared than not.
Okay? The best way to determine the list price is, is by how much the sellers own the property or on the mortgage. False. True or false? False, right. This is kinda more important when you are doing listings. When it was short sales, right? When you, when you were short selling a property, sometimes you would sell it based on what the mortgage was.
But in, in normal situations, you do never, you never do this right? You never list the home predicated upon how much the buyer owes on it or the seller owes on it. Now, sometimes you might say, well, gosh, you know, these guys owe $800,000 on the property. The home is worth eight 40. So you have to list it at that price, because once you factor in commissions and, and costs of, of selling the property, like that’s how you determine it.
But for the most part, it, it’s irrelevant what a homeowner owes on their mortgage, on their property. All that matters is what the buyer demand is and what the home is gonna sell for, right? It’s just basic, simple. It is irrelevant to what, what, what they bring to the table or what they owe on the property.
Excuse log. Okay. Pre-listing home inspection is not necessary, true or false. Who knows what a pre-listing home inspection is. That is true. That is not necessary. Okay. I wanna hear from the, the, some, someone else here, tell me why that is, why it is or is not necessary, and what is a pre home or pre-listing home inspection?
Sophia? Janelle, Alan, Tony. Matt, Melanie. Anyone here you wanna unmute yourself? That should be be doing a pre-listing home inspection. Uhhuh, what is that? When you do a home inspection before the home is listed. Yeah, that’s right. Is it, do I say, I’d say that is not required false because once you know all of those things, you might have to disclose them upfront as opposed to like opening escrow and then having them do their own home inspection.
Or sometimes on a rare case, they might not even ask for a home inspection. Both fair points. Yeah, it’s not necessary. Sometimes it’s. The buyer or the seller in, in getting their home ready for sale wants to be able to know what thinks potentially they’re gonna be asked for, to repair. And obviously all homes in this, in the United States are sold as is, right?
But still home or, you know, home require or re requests for repairs. Or always a part of a deal in one way or shape or form. And so if the property, if the seller’s just completely oblivious and doesn’t know and wants to know a final or, or a pre-listing, home inspection can be done, and it could, you know, it could help the seller know what improvements to, to do or to do, or what to be aware of.
Doesn’t mean they have to do it, but at least to know what, what, what they can be looking at potentially in as far as a, a request or a repair. A cost that they have to incur at that point, at that point in time. Okay. Nazar about that? Yeah. So if, if a seller decides to do a pre-listing home inspection, are they required to share that inspection?
There would be there because it’d be a known fax. So that to disclose that information to the seller or to the buyer? Absolutely. That’d be a reason not to do it. But at the same time, if it’s evidence or blatant that those things are there, a judge will say, we should have known that anyway. Right? You should have reasonably known that that was a defect in your property and therefore should have taken care of it.
You can’t play ignorance, right? Just like if you’re driving down the freeway and you get pulled over by the cop, the cop says, Hey, do you know why I pulled you over? And you’re like, I don’t know. You’re like, well, you’re going 75, it’s 40 here. You can’t claim ignorance, right? You’re gonna pay the speeding ticket.
Okay. Last one. The listing agent has the final say in accepting an offer,
true or false? False. False. False. That false. That’s right. Whose responsibility is it Who gets to make the seller? The seller? Seller, right. It’s absolutely the seller’s responsibility to be able to accept it and offer not yours, not the buyer, not anybody else. And so it’s super, super important that you are well aware of that, that you are an agent.
To the transaction. You’re not the principle of a transaction, right? The principle are the either the buyers or the sellers. They’re the ones that call the shots, not the agents involved in the transaction. Okay. Hopefully you guys found a little bit of value in that. Who got everything right? Did anybody get all of it right?
I just have, I just. I’m conflicted on the whole description thing because yes, the description is very important. So that means you did not get everything right, so I, I didn’t, no, I didn’t, but I, why I answered it incorrectly. Uhhuh, and, and I love how Sophia claims she got it all right. But she wouldn’t unmute herself and talk.
That’s, that’s, I did, I did get em right. Oh, nice. Descrip the description sometimes trick congratulates and it’s not right. You guys, I want you to know that there’s like a million different things that we can learn and study about, and these are just some basic questions, right? It wasn’t like super hard and complicated.
But I think it’s important for us as agents to be able to know and study. Like I know that we’re, we’re asked to do like CE courses along the way to be able to, you know, re renew our licenses every two to four years. But it’s also important to be able to stay up with the, the trends and what’s happening and really just get a refresher.
On, on, you know, what is good, what is not good. I get, like, as the broker, I get questions all the time where I get agents that call me and can complain about agents and, and their either lack of knowledge or whatever it is. And so I think it’s important that all of us on a regular basis check and, and just kind of take a pulse of what the market is, or not the mar market, but like what really is important and how we can.
As agents, improve our knowledge of this industry and improve our knowledge of what to say and what is right, what is wrong, so that we can educate our clients and, and also feel confident when we’re speaking to, to, to other people. Does that make sense? Okay. All right, you guys. Hopefully you found this useful.
If you have any questions, you know, to reach me. Otherwise, you guys have an amazing weekend and we’ll talk next Thursday. Bye.
