Real Estate Listing Presentation Template

Walk the house first and note what drives its value: living area, bedrooms, lot size, age, condition and features such as a pool. Then pull closed sales, not asking prices.

If the buyer borrows, the lender usually orders an appraisal that tests your price against sales like these, so choose them the same way. For the mortgages Fannie Mae buys, appraisers need at least three closed comparable sales, generally from the last 12 months¹. Fannie Mae prefers the same neighborhood and a similar site, room count, finished area, style and condition, and treats current listings as supporting data only.

Adjust each comparable toward the subject house: if it has 110 more square feet, subtract what buyers pay for 110 square feet. Use one set of rates for every comparable and print them at the top, so the seller argues with a rate, not with your conclusion.

Fannie Mae says adjustments must reflect the market's reaction to each difference, not a rule of thumb², and it sets no fixed limit on their size. Paired sales give you the rates: two similar sales that differ in one feature show what that feature is worth.

Then test each comparable. Add up its adjustments as if all were positive and divide by its sale price: that is its gross adjustment. Heavy adjusting makes a comparable weak evidence, however sensible its adjusted value looks. The template drops anything above 15%; that is a house rule, not a standard, so set your own.

Expect the seller to know the highest sale nearby. Raise it yourself, early, and show whether it belongs in the grid. Then give a range rather than one number, with the arithmetic behind each end.

Date every step from the list date, so the seller sees what happens, who does it and when you will review the results together. Promise actions and dates, not a number of showings.

• Seven days before: book the photographer and send staging notes
• Two days before: write the copy and gather the disclosures
• The day before: enter the listing and check it on every portal
• Day 1: first open house, held to collect objections
• Day 3: chase feedback from every showing
• Day 10: review the objections with the seller
• Day 14: decide on price if price objections lead

Write the copy about the house, never about who should live in it. In the US, HUD's fair housing rules make it unlawful to publish an ad that indicates a preference based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin³. That covers photos and where you choose to advertise, not just words.

For most homes built before 1978, federal law requires a lead paint pamphlet, any known lead information and a 10-day inspection window for the buyer⁴ before the contract is signed. The EPA also says the agent must tell the seller about these duties.

Show the seller what happens after they accept an offer. Work out every deadline from a sample acceptance date and label each with its clock, because one sale can run on three.

Two of the clocks are in the contract. In Texas's standard resale contract, only the earnest money and option fee deadlines roll forward off a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday⁵. The buyer's notice ending the contract during the option period gets no extension and is due by 5:00 p.m. on the stated date.

If the buyer borrows, the third clock is federal. Under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's rules, the buyer must receive the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before closing⁶. A mailed copy counts as received three business days after mailing. Saturdays count as business days here: in the bureau's own example, a disclosure mailed on a Thursday counts as received the following Monday.

Then work backward from closing through the disclosure, underwriting and appraisal, using the lender's quoted turn times, to find the last day to order the appraisal. In the template's sample, that is day 1, while the buyer's option period runs to day 10. A buyer who waits for it to end before ordering cannot close on time.

Promise one update a week while the house is on the market, and one at every milestone under contract. Treat it as a weekly status report for one client in three parts: what happened, what happens next and when, and what the seller must decide. If nothing needs a decision, say so.

Report showing feedback by objection, not just the number of showings, and put the list price beside your range every week. The template's rule of thumb: once price objections pass half of all objections, the price is the problem, not the marketing.

Close with your fee, the listing term, cancellation and any holdover period in plain numbers. The National Association of Realtors, the agents' trade group, tells sellers that offering to pay a buyer's agent is optional and needs their written approval of the amount⁷. It adds that such offers cannot be listed on the MLS.

Bring two or three reviews from recent sellers; a testimonial request email makes them easy to ask for. Once the seller signs, a client onboarding process gathers the paperwork on day one. The template at the top of this page holds the grid, the deadline tracker and the update format. Edit with AI has River fill them in from your comparables and contract dates.