The listing appointment checklist: what to bring and ask

A listing appointment is two meetings at once. The seller is deciding whether to hire you, and you are collecting what you need to launch the listing well. Agents who treat it only as a pitch leave with a signature and a list of things to chase by email for a week. This checklist covers both halves: what to prepare, what to bring, what to ask, and what to settle before you walk out the door.

Before the appointment

• •Pull the property’s history: past sales and listings, the lot, the zoning, the assessment and the property tax.
• •Pick your comparable sales and know why each one is in the set. Expect the seller to ask about the one down the street you left out.
• •Drive the street and look at the house from the curb the way a buyer will.
• •Check what’s active nearby. The seller’s real competition is what a buyer can see this weekend.
• •Run a draft net sheet at a likely price so you can talk about proceeds, not only price.
• •Ask the seller to have their mortgage details, recent utility bills and any renovation paperwork handy.

What to bring

• •Your pricing analysis, printed or on a tablet, with the comparables’ photos.
• •The draft net sheet.
• •Your marketing plan with dates: photos, pre-list prep, launch day, open houses and the offer date if you plan to hold offers.
• •The RECO Information Guide and your brokerage’s acknowledgement form.
• •The listing agreement and data form your board uses, pre-filled where you can.
• •Your brokerage’s FINTRAC identification forms.
• •A tape measure and a notebook, or your phone set up for notes and photos.

The RECO Information Guide comes first

Under TRESA, agents give the RECO Information Guide to a person before providing them services, and RECO asks registrants to use best efforts to get an acknowledgement that it was provided. Do this at the start of the appointment, before you talk strategy. RECO has a sharing tool if you prefer to send it ahead by email. Your brokerage will have its own process for keeping the acknowledgement on file.

Questions to ask the seller

Ask these early, before you present a price. The answers change what you recommend.

• •Why are you selling, and where are you going?
• •What timing works, and is there a date you have to be out by?
• •Are you buying another home, and does that purchase depend on this sale?
• •Who else is on title, and will they all sign?
• •What have you done to the house, and when? Were permits pulled?
• •Has anything happened you would want to know about as a buyer: water in the basement, a claim, a dispute with a neighbour?
• •Is anything rented, such as a water heater, furnace or alarm?
• •What stays and what goes? Walk the rooms and note fixtures they plan to take.
• •Are there tenants, and what are the terms of the tenancy?
• •How do you want showings handled: notice, pets, times that don’t work?
• •How would you like me to keep you updated, and how often?

Walk the property with a purpose

The tour is where you gather the details that make the listing complete. Measure or confirm the rooms, note the flooring, the heating and cooling, the age of the roof and windows, the electrical service and anything the seller mentions in passing. Photograph what you’ll forget. Flag the pre-list work that will change a buyer’s first impression and what it costs, so the seller can decide while you’re there.

Presenting the price

Show the comparables first and the number last. Walk through why each comparable is higher or lower than this house, then give a range and a recommended list price with your reasoning. Pair it with the net sheet so the seller sees what each price means for them. If they want to list above your recommendation, agree on what will happen and when if the showings and feedback say the price is high. Write that down; you’ll both want it in three weeks.

The listing agreement

RECO’s guidance for consumers explains what a seller should see in a representation agreement, and it’s a good script for walking through yours:

• •It is in writing, and the seller gets a copy.
• •The expiry date appears prominently on the first page.
• •The services the seller will receive are set out clearly.
• •It states what the seller will pay the brokerage, or how that is calculated, and the compensation offered to buyer brokerages.
• •It lists the circumstances in which it can be ended.
• •Any holdover clause, and its length. RECO notes there is no minimum or set time for a holdover period, so explain yours.

Explain each of these in plain words. A seller who understands the agreement at signing is far less likely to dispute it later.

Identification

FINTRAC requires real estate brokerages and agents to verify the identity of their clients and keep a record. Your brokerage sets the forms and the accepted methods, so follow its process and check with your broker of record if a situation doesn’t fit, such as a seller signing from out of the country or a corporation on title. Doing it at the appointment saves a chase later.

Before you leave

• •Signed agreement and data form, with a copy for the seller.
• •The Information Guide acknowledgement.
• •Identification done for everyone on title.
• •Photo day, launch date and first open house on the calendar.
• •The seller’s to-do list for pre-list prep, in writing.
• •Who to contact for showings, and how.

Keeping it in one place

Listing Launchpad’s pitch is a private web letter for one seller with your price range, comparables and a net proceeds slider they can drag, on Pro and Studio and in the trial. On every plan, a secure FINTRAC intake link lets the seller enter their details and photograph their ID, and the listing’s checklists start from a Pre-Listing stage so nothing from the appointment is left in your notebook.