How to Get More Real Estate Listings, From First Call to Referral

Sellers rarely shop around: in NAR's 2025 Generational Trends report, 81% of US sellers contacted only one agent before choosing. More listings come from being the agent a seller calls first, proving the choice right in the pre-listing package and the listing presentation, and looking after them so well once they sign that they send you the next seller.

Being the Agent a Seller Calls First

That first call usually comes through someone else. In the same report, 66% of sellers chose an agent someone close to them had referred, or one they had worked with before. Most listings start with the people who already know you and the clients you have already served, long before an owner decides to move.

To be the agent people recommend, know the local market better than anyone else nearby. Sellers want an agent who knows their own neighbourhood: which homes have sold, for how much, how long they sat on the market and what is moving prices on their streets. Being seen locally carries that knowledge to people. Show up at community events, join the local Facebook and Nextdoor groups, and get involved with nearby businesses and organisations, and when people keep seeing your name around town with the answers, you become the natural first choice when it's time to sell.

Give people something to keep. A short local market update with a few charts, a map and the main numbers works at open houses, at local events and in online community groups, as long as your contact details are on it. A sale also makes its neighbours wonder what their own homes are worth, and contacting them then, which is circle prospecting, turns one listing into conversations with the next sellers. The comparative market analysis (CMA), which values one home against similar recent sales, waits for the owner who agrees to meet.

The Pre-Listing Package

Once an owner agrees to a meeting, send a package ahead of it. It shows you have prepared and care about their sale before you walk through the door, and it sets the tone for a relationship built on trust. Personalise it, so the seller sees their own home and street in it instead of a brochure every owner gets.

What goes in follows what sellers want. Asked what they most wanted from their agent, the largest shares of US sellers in NAR's report named help marketing the home (22%), pricing it competitively (20%) and selling it within a set time (18%). Along with who you are, a package can answer each of them:

• Your experience and credentials, and the area you work in.
• Recent success stories: homes you have sold nearby.
• Testimonials from happy past sellers.
• A sample marketing plan for this home: where it will be advertised, your social media reach, and the photography, video, virtual tour and floor plans it will have.
• A CMA of the home against recent sales around it, with how long those homes took to sell.

Make the marketing plan specific. A clear sense of how their home will be presented builds the seller's confidence before you arrive.

The Listing Presentation

Arrive on time, dressed for a client meeting, with time to set up whatever you plan to show. Then leave the standard deck aside. Ask the seller what matters to them, from timing and the price they hope for to what worries them about selling, and build the presentation around their answers, so they can see that you listened and made a plan for their situation.

Next, show your work. Open one of your past listings the way buyers saw it, with its photos, virtual tour, floor plans and any drone footage, so the seller can picture their own home marketed by you and judge whether yours have what a high-quality listing needs.

Price will come up, and the CMA you sent is the ground for it. Talk then about the value you bring: the marketing plan, how you negotiate, the service the seller can expect, and anything else that sets you apart, whether it is your local network, your turnaround time or the technology you use.

After the Signature, the Next Listing Starts

The seller is trusting you with one of the biggest decisions of their life. Be yourself and stay genuine; finding common ground outside real estate makes the relationship comfortable and personal.

Once the home is on the market, keep them informed at every step, which reduces their stress. Things change quickly, and what is routine to you may be new to them. Be patient, clear and responsive when questions come up, and when you don't have an answer yet, tell them you're on it and follow up.

The sellers you serve now are where the next referrals come from. In NAR's report, 87% of sellers said they would definitely or probably recommend their agent, and the typical seller had already recommended theirs twice. Each recommendation can become the next seller's first call, and the cycle starts again.

Proof Before the Meeting, Reports After It

A referred seller will look you up before calling. In the Giraffe360 dashboard, Agent website, where it is enabled for your workspace, lets you choose which completed projects appear under Listings and mark each one as SOLD or ACTIVE, so the site shows the homes you have sold. Its About section holds your name, brokerage, licence number and specialization area, and the Map pins each listing, which puts your local record in front of the seller before you meet.

At the meeting, a past listing's property website gives you the example to open: its photos, floor plan, property details and nearby places on one page. Copy link on the project's Property website card gives you its address for the package or the meeting, and Tour links does the same for its virtual tour, with a QR code you can download for print.

Once the seller's own home is live, Analytics shows how often its virtual tour was opened, as total or unique views over the dates you choose, with breakdowns by device, channel and source. Export report saves what you're looking at as a PDF, so the regular update can include the numbers. Enquiries from buyers who used the contact form on the tour or property website arrive in Leads, ready for you to follow up. When the home sells, marking it SOLD on your agent website adds it to the record the next seller sees.