How to win listing appointments, and where video fits

Every seller who books a listing appointment is asking the same question: what will you do to sell my home? Since the 2024 NAR settlement practice changes, NAR's own consumer guidance tells sellers to ask it out loud, and to ask what your fee pays for. This guide covers what NAR research says sellers want, what to bring to a listing presentation, talking about cost, following up, and using past listing videos as proof of work. We make listing videos and say where our interest comes up.

What changed at the listing appointment since 2024

Among the NAR practice changes that took effect on August 17, 2024: offers of compensation to buyer brokers were removed from MLSs, and MLS participants working with buyers must have a written agreement before touring a home. NAR's consumer page on the settlement states that agent compensation continues to be fully negotiable, and tells consumers to ask agents about their services, compensation and written agreements.

NAR then published a guide for sellers, Ten Questions to Ask a Seller's Agent. Question six is "How will you market my home?", and the guide says agents should walk sellers through the pros and cons of each marketing option. Question ten asks for references. Expect sellers to arrive with both.

Under NAR's Multiple Listing Options for Sellers policy, effective March 2025, MLSs had to offer a delayed marketing option by September 30, 2025. With it, the seller directs the listing broker to hold back IDX and syndication for a period the local MLS allows. It requires a signed seller certification, and it makes where and when the home is marketed part of the conversation. How it applies depends on your MLS, so follow your MLS and broker and point sellers to NAR's official pages.

What sellers say they want from a listing agent

NAR's 2026 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report covers transactions from July 2024 to June 2025, the same period as the 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, which found that 91% of sellers used an agent. The Generational Trends report's seller chapter is the clearest picture we found of how sellers choose.

Win the listing before you walk in

If four in five sellers contact only one agent, the appointment is often a confirmation of a decision already forming. The work that matters happens earlier:

• Send a short pre-appointment package. Your bio, two or three recent comparable sales, and a link to a past listing video, with that seller's permission.
• Ask questions in advance. Timeline, reasons for moving, what worried them about past sales, who else is involved in the decision.
• Keep your referral sources warm. With 66% of sellers coming through referrals or past clients, your sphere sees your marketing long before a seller calls you.

What to include in your listing presentation

A listing presentation should answer NAR's ten questions before the seller asks them. Keep it specific to this home:

Use video as visible proof of marketing effort

Most of what you do for a listing is invisible to the seller. Marketing is the part they can see, and video makes it concrete. Instead of saying "I market every home aggressively", play a past listing video and say: "Every home I list gets a video like this one, ready for launch day. Here is where it went." Our real estate video marketing ideas list eleven places it can go.

Keep the claims honest. Say what the video is for: it gives buyers another way to see the home, helps the listing stand out on your website and social channels, and fills the virtual tour field on MLSs that take one. Do not tell a seller it will sell the home faster or for more. You have no evidence for that, and NAR members are bound by Article 12 of the Code of Ethics, which requires a true picture in advertising and marketing. NAR's 2026 Generational Trends report does show buyer interest: 29% of buyers who searched online rated videos very useful, against 81% for photos, so present video as an addition to good photography, not a replacement.

Talk about the marketing plan and its cost plainly

Sellers now expect to discuss what you charge. That conversation is easier when the plan is itemized. Some practical habits:

• Say who pays for what. If you pay for photography and video, say so, and know what a listing video costs. If any marketing is billed to the seller, list it and its cost before anything is ordered.
• Link each item to a seller goal. Pricing, timeframe and reaching buyers are the top three things sellers want, so show which line of the plan serves which goal.
• Put it in writing on your broker's forms. Use the listing agreement and disclosures your brokerage requires; your broker sets the policy. This guide is not legal advice; for the rules, point sellers to NAR's settlement facts page.
• Do not oversell. "Help your listing stand out" is defensible. "Guaranteed more offers" is not.

Follow up after the listing appointment

Send a written recap within a day: the price reasoning you discussed, the marketing plan with dates, your fee terms as your broker requires, and the past listing video link again so the seller can share it with anyone else in the decision. If the seller lists with someone else, ask politely what made the difference.

Use past listing videos as social proof, with permission

A past listing video, a short note from that seller and the sale result together make strong proof of work. Use them carefully:

• Ask the seller first. It was their home. Get written permission to keep showing the video after the sale, and respect a no.
• Check the photo rights. A listing video built from photos depends on the photographer's license. Permission to use photos in a listing does not always cover later promotional use, so confirm it with your photographer and broker.
• Claim only what you did. NAR's Standard of Practice 12-7 says only the listing or cooperating broker may claim to have "sold" a property, and Standard 12-10 bars misleading images.
• Keep testimonials genuine. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, in effect since October 21, 2024, prohibits fake testimonials and incentives conditioned on reviews expressing a particular sentiment.
• Follow your MLS and brokerage advertising rules, including any requirement to show your firm's name, as Standard of Practice 12-5 requires of NAR members.

With most sellers finding their agent through referrals and past clients, the work they have already seen matters. If you want a video on your next listing, one you can show at the presentations that follow, get in touch.