As a new agent, and armed with this same listing approach, I began to take listings.  My initial goal was to take one listing a week.  And because I really discovered the approach I’m about to teach you as a seller and not as an agent, I planned from the very beginning to take all my listings at a premium.  Our market average was below 6% so I decided I’d list at 8% or more.

I still remember taking my first listing (and it was at 8% by the way).  Maybe you still remember your first listing.  I can tell you, I was so excited.  I came back to the office and I’ll admit I was beaming, and my chest was probably out an inch or two.  I was probably more than a little proud of myself.  Several of my colleagues who knew I’d been on a listing appointment asked me how it went.

I was happy to tell them that I had indeed listed the home, and that I’d done it at 8% my first time out.  Of course their immediate reaction was that I’d had “beginner’s luck”.  But after several more listings my first month, all at 8% that beginner’s luck assessment became one of, “You’re ripping your clients off by charging them 8%.”  It was futile to try and explain otherwise.

Even as I travel speaking and teaching this presentation today, I am generally confronted — before anyone even hears the approach — with the same thing.  I’m told again and again that charging more than the market average is unethical and immoral.

Perhaps you’re reading this for the first time and you are having a similar thought.  If you are, I understand.  Really, I do.  But before you pass judgment on me and on my approach, I would ask you to simply reserve your judgment until you’ve finished learning the entire presentation.  Fair enough?

If, after you’ve finished reading the entire approach, you still feel the same way, I will have no hard feelings if you decide to not use it for ethical reasons.  I must tell you, however, that of the over 100,000 agents who have taken this training in one form or another, not a single one has finished it and decided it was in any way unethical.

Let’s talk about ethics and high commissions.

So before we dive into the actual presentation, it’s important that we first touch on the ethics.  You may very well be one of the thousands of agents who are asking themselves, “How can I better serve my clients while charging them more?”

Simply by having that thought, you’ve confirmed that you’re an ethical REALTOR® who’s trying to put your clients’ interests first.   That’s a good thing.  Having said it, though, I need to underscore the fallacy in such a line of thinking.

The question we’ve asked seems to imply that you cannot earn good money by doing the right thing.  But the truth is that it is possible to serve your clients, your fellow REALTORS®, and yourself; and with this presentation it’s also easy!  Let me explain.

We’ll begin by discussing agency –- specifically, seller agency.   As a listing agent, your client is the seller.  Because you’re the seller’s agent you have a fiduciary obligation to represent him or her to the best of your ability.  What does that mean?  In short, it means putting your client’s needs first.  So what does it mean, practically speaking?

As a rule, you should be trying to net your client the most money in the least amount of time, since that’s the objective of most sellers.  And when I mention “money,” I specifically mean net dollars.  Ultimately it doesn’t matter how large or small the commission is: what counts is the total your client takes away from the closing table.

So let me ask you a question:  If you knew about a strategy that would net your client more money while selling his home in only about half the usual time, wouldn’t it be in his interest to use it?  Of course it would!  Well, that’s what this listing presentation will do for you.

As compared with traditional listings of homes in the same market, my approach has traditionally netted my clients significantly more money while selling their homes in only 55% of the average DOM (number of days on the market).

More money in half the time! Think of it! Your clients will love you.  The other agents in the market will love you.  And, you’ll be paid better in the process!  More importantly, you’ll begin to get a reputation for being the agent with the high-paying listings.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.   Let’s take this one step at a time.

On the flip side, if you knew that selling a house by the traditional method would double your client’s waiting time and, in the process, net him less money, would that be good for him?  Of course not!  Not even if you saved him some money in commissions!  Your job as a listing agent is to represent the seller and to place his needs first, and that’s what we’re going to do.

So, if I can demonstrate to you that using this approach will work in better accomplishing your clients objectives, wouldn’t you agree that it’s ethical?  In fact, if after you know about an approach — this approach — that historically sells houses in half the time and nets the client much more in the process, wouldn’t it be unethical not to mention it to your client?

I’ll allow you to be the judge of that.  In the next chapter we are going to cover the last of the preliminaries before we get into the nuts and bolts of the listing presentation.  We’ll discuss how you can become the market authority and how knowing your market will win you the listing in spite of your competition.

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Matt Jones is the founder and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com, nationally syndicated columnist, broker, and best selling author of LCM: The Secret to Success in the New Age of Real Estate, The Ultimate Listing Presentation, Traffic: How to Sell Fast and Net More, Becoming a Mega-Producer, The Science of Online Marketing, 10 Steps to Real Estate Success, 20 Questions: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Real Estate but Were Afraid to Ask, The Virtual Office Model, Max-Bang!, and The NEW Ultimate Listing Presentation. Jones' North Carolina-based company has been profiled by major media outlets as an innovator and a pioneer in the industry, and CNN's Pulse on America claimed FavoriteAgent.com is "changing the way real estate is being done in America." This article is syndicated in the following locations: iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher Radio, BlogMattBlog.com, RealBlogging.com, NewsGeni.us, TheCommissionCheck.com, RevampedAgent.com, and now Amazon Kindle.