A listing presentation is not a brochure reading. It is a pricing conversation with a process attached. The owner decides in the first 20 minutes whether you sound like the person who will close the deal. Win it with better questions than the other broker, a number that survives a lender, and an out-loud ask.

This lesson builds on The Pre-Appointment Packet, Researching the Property and the Owner, and The Underwrite, the BOV, and the Net Sheet. Run the Listing Appointment Prep Checklist before every meeting.

Discovery: ask by owner type

Owner type	Ask first	Listen for
Private investor	Why now? What happens to the proceeds? What is the loan balance and prepayment cost? Has your CPA run the tax on a sale?	A price target with no basis, a debt problem, a tax-driven date
Estate or trust	Who signs? Does a court or beneficiary approve? Is there a distribution or tax deadline?	Authority gaps, a hard date, missing leases
Owner-user	Will you stay as a tenant after closing? At what rent? Where are you moving, and when?	A sale-leaseback need, partner or lender interests
Developer or land seller	What is the basis and carry cost? What entitlements exist or are pending? Will you give an option or contingency period?	Carry pressure, entitlement risk, willingness to phase
Institutional	Who approves the sale? What is the disposition format? Is the price tied to an internal mark?	Committee timing, required templates, a mark above market
1031 seller	Is the replacement property identified? Is your qualified intermediary engaged?	Day-45 and day-180 exposure, firm-date demands
Out-of-state owner	Who is on the ground for access and tenants? How will documents be signed remotely?	Manager dependence, tenant friction, slow signatures

Then ask every owner:

Lender, maturity, and payoff or defeasance cost
Leases and options, including any tenant purchase option or right of first refusal
Deferred maintenance, roof and HVAC age
Environmental history and title or survey issues
The money question: what price and timing would make you say yes?

Write the answer down. You hand it back at the ask.

Meeting structure, attendees, and leave-behinds

Plan 60 minutes. Everyone who can sign or veto attends: all record owners, the managing member, the trustee. Bring a second MaxLife Commercial team member to run the screen and take notes. The seller's CPA or attorney may join by phone. Tenants never attend.

Minutes	Segment	Booklet page
0-10	Discovery and the money question	Page 8 questions
10-20	Who we are, how we price	Pages 2-3
20-35	Pricing story: BOV insert and NOI bridge	Insert after page 3
35-45	Marketing plan and buyer qualification	Pages 4-5
45-55	Timeline and diligence	Pages 6-7
55-60	Net sheet, the ask, next date	Net sheet, page 8

Leave behind the PDF, BOV insert, net sheet, and a one-page data request.

The MaxLife Commercial booklet, page by page

The deck is nine pages per agent: two agent-specific, seven shared. Do not read it. Use each page to answer one owner question.

Cover. "Selling Your Commercial Property," from you. Set the agenda.
Your note. Ryan's is a broker note, Lori's an advisor note. Tell your story in two sentences.
Who we are and how we price. Local expertise, investor-first approach, and the three valuation approaches the page lays out. Open the BOV insert here.
The marketing plan. Eight parts: offering memorandum (OM); CoStar, Crexi, and LoopNet syndication; photography and drone; direct buyer canvass; broker blasts; signage; call for offers; weekly written activity report. Stress the weekly report.
Buyer qualification. Buyers are qualified before financials are released, and each capital structure (all cash, 1031, conventional, SBA 504, syndication) changes the closing calendar.
Timeline and diligence. Week by week, plus diligence items you manage: Phase I environmental site assessment (ESA), ALTA survey, title, estoppels, subordination, non-disturbance and attornment agreements (SNDAs), zoning, appraisal, property condition.
The deal timeline. The dual-track page: the seller and the buyer on one clock. See the timeline section below.
What we need from you. The data set for the final BOV and the engagement summary terms. This page is the natural bridge to the ask.
Contact. Your direct line, email, and service area.

Flip-book or PDF. Each agent has a flip-book: /listing-presentation/ryan-solberg or /listing-presentation/lori-schulz. The PDF downloads from inside it, and the hub at /listing-presentation offers the same PDFs with no form. Use the flip-book on a tablet and in texts, and the printed PDF at the table and as the email attachment.

Share links. Agent pages are noindex and the link preview shows the agent's phone number. Send the agent link, not the hub.

What to add. The deck is the firm's pitch. Three inserts make it this owner's:

Cover sheet: owner, property address, date, your name
BOV and underwrite insert: one page, three NOI columns, the range, the assumptions
Net sheet: from the Seller Net Sheet Calculator, placed before page 8

Every BOV page carries this footer:

Broker opinion of value prepared by MaxLife Commercial. This is not an appraisal. Projections are estimates based on stated assumptions, are not guaranteed, and actual results may differ.

The pricing story: your NOI against the buyer's NOI

Every owner walks in with a number. Show the chain it travels (your underwrite, the buyer's re-underwrite, the lender's sizing, then the retrade) before a buyer does.

Use the labels exactly as Lesson 4 defines them: in-place NOI, normalized NOI, pro forma NOI, and the financeable price, meaning the price a lender will support at its target debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) and debt yield. Headline normalized NOI and show in-place NOI beside it so the owner sees the bridge. Pro forma NOI stays secondary.

Pre-empt the buyer's normalizations by walking the bridge yourself: vacancy and credit loss, a management fee even when self-managed, reserves, current insurance quotes, one-time items, CAM true-ups, and rollover costs.

Property taxes matter too. The buyer's year-two bill can land well above the seller's capped bill, so show the reassessed line, as Lesson 3 explains. Also strip any sales-tax-on-rent line, since Florida repealed that tax for rental periods starting October 1, 2025. Confirm legal and tax points with your broker of record, a Florida attorney, and the seller's CPA.

A worked example (illustrative numbers, not market data)

A 4,500 SF single-tenant quick-service restaurant (QSR) pad in Sanford, in Seminole County. Corporate guaranty, 12 years remaining, 10% bump at year 5, landlord keeps roof and structure.

In-place NOI: base rent $200,000 ($44.44 per SF), recoveries offset expenses
Buyer adjustments: reserve $0.15 × 4,500 SF = $675, plus $2,000 of non-recoverable cost (real files also carry the other normalizations, such as a management fee and re-quoted insurance)
Normalized NOI: $200,000 - $675 - $2,000 = $197,325
Pro forma (labeled secondary): base rent after the year-5 bump is $220,000

Cap rate	Value on in-place NOI ($200,000)	Value on normalized NOI ($197,325)
6.25%	$3,200,000	$3,157,200
6.50%	$3,076,923	$3,035,769
6.75%	$2,962,963	$2,923,333

The $2,675 of NOI a buyer removes costs the owner about $41,000 ($2,675 ÷ 0.065). The cap rate moves value roughly $115,000 per 25 bps, so it is the bigger risk. If the OM shows $200,000 and a buyer prices at 6.75% on $197,325, the gap to the owner's 6.25% expectation is $3,200,000 - $2,923,333 = $276,667, about 8.6%. Defend the cap rate with closed local comps of similar term and credit from NNN cap rate comps. Asking-rate surveys are context, not comps.

Financeable price. Run the Lesson 4 back-solve on normalized NOI, with the assumptions stated: 6.75% interest, 25-year amortization (a mortgage constant of about 8.29%), 1.25x DSCR, a 10% debt yield floor, and 65% LTV. These are assumptions, not quotes. Confirm terms with two or three local lenders.

Loan by DSCR: ($197,325 ÷ 1.25) ÷ 0.0829 = $157,860 ÷ 0.0829, about $1,904,000
Loan by debt yield: $197,325 ÷ 0.10 = $1,973,250
Loan by LTV: 65% of $3,035,769, also $1,973,250
DSCR binds. Equity needed is about $1.13M. Year-1 cash flow is $197,325 - $157,860 = $39,465, about 3.5% on equity

A 6.5% cap over an 8.29% constant is negative leverage, so price leans on cash and 1031 buyers. Present the financeable price as a range with the rate stated. In this example, show a BOV range of about $3.0M-$3.2M and a suggested list price of $3.15M, each tied to the lease term, credit, and escalations.

Other assets. Multi-tenant retail: a rollover schedule. Industrial and flex: price per SF plus clear height, docks, power. Medical office: build-out and tenant credit. Land: closed price per acre or buildable unit, plus the residual method.

Choose the process

Priced listing: best for single-tenant NNN with clear comps. Publish an asking price and the offer rules.
Call for offers: best for multi-tenant, value-add, unusual, or land assets, where price discovery matters. Allow a 3-6 week marketing window, then a deadline.
Best-and-final: a second round after a call for offers, when two or three offers are close. Never a first move, or buyers stop bidding early.

Publish the rules: confidentiality agreement (CA) first, offer contents (price, deposit, diligence, closing date, financing), and dates.

The dual-track timeline and setting expectations

Page 7 puts the seller's broker and the buyer on one clock. Day 1 is the signed listing agreement.

Stage	Seller and broker	Buyer
Before day 1	Underwrite, confirm authority, deliver the BOV	Not yet active
Launch	Photo, drone, signage, CA, OM	Sees the listing, signs the CA, requests the OM
Marketing	Canvass, tours, weekly report	Tours, underwrites, sizes debt
Offers	Compare LOIs side by side, call for offers if warranted	Submits price, deposit, diligence, closing dates
Contract	Purchase and sale agreement, deposit wired	Orders lender reports, lines up financing
Diligence	Deliver documents, estoppels, SNDAs	Phase I, survey, title, zoning; deposit goes hard
Closing	Payoff, deed, funding	Lender conditions cleared, funding, recording

Tell the owner the deck's range: roughly 90 to 150 days from listing agreement to recording. Buyer funding and diligence items not priced in before launch move it most. Tell the seller what you need: data-request answers within a day, tenant notices honored, the deposit date calendared. Never promise a date.

The ask and the follow-up cadence

Close on the money question. "You told me you need $3.0M net of the payoff by spring. Here is the plan, range, and timeline. Can we sign and start the marketing package this week?" Then stop talking. If they need time, leave with a decision date. Cover fee, term, and tail in The Commercial Listing Agreement and Addenda.

Same day: thank-you and a summary of what you heard
48 hours: BOV insert and net sheet, agreement ready
Weekly: one new comp or data point
Monthly: short update
After a loss: a brief note, quarterly market touches, and a note before their listing expires

Objections and responses

Objection	Response
Wait for rates	We cannot time rates. We control price, process, and buyer pool. Cash and 1031 buyers do not need debt. Compare a price today with your later scenario, including carry.
My tenant wants to buy it	That is one buyer, and a floor, not a ceiling. Check for a purchase option or right of first refusal. Approach the tenant first in a set window.
Another broker said more	Ask for the cap rate and comps behind it. A high opinion is not a sale price. Show your logic. Never match an unsupported number.
Keep it quiet from tenants	Understood. Use a CA, no signage, and no owner or tenant names before signing. Tenant contact follows the lease and the seller's consent.
Sell off-market	A limited round tests a smaller pool. Agree on a defined window and a fallback date to go wide.
Your fee is too high	Fees are negotiable, not set by law. Trade structure, such as a step-down scale or defined services, for term. Do not discount before the value lands.
Too short a term	Short terms squeeze the process. Agree on a term with milestones and an early-exit mechanic.
1031 later	The 45-day identification and 180-day clocks start at closing, so the exchange must be arranged before it. Bring in the intermediary now. Use the 1031 Timeline Calculator.
The last broker failed	Ask what happened, then show what changes: pricing, diligence package, buyer pool.
I will list it on Crexi myself	A public listing is one channel, not a process. Show qualification, the CA, offer management, and closing support. Ask who handles the first LOI.

Two scripts to rehearse.

"Another broker said more. That may be right. Can you tell me the cap rate and the comps behind it? I will show you mine and how I got there. My job is the price a qualified buyer actually closes at, not the highest number to win the listing."

"Your tenant wants to buy it. Good, that is a real buyer. Let me check the lease for a purchase option or a right of first refusal. Then we give the tenant a defined window and run the market alongside it."

Ethics: what you never say

No guarantees. Never guarantee price, timing, or a buyer. A BOV is an opinion, not an appraisal, and never uses appraisal language.
No NOI misrepresentation. Reconcile every NOI to the leases and the T-12. Fraud, misrepresentation, and concealment are disciplinary grounds under F.S. 475.25(1)(b).
Confidentiality. Keep owner and tenant names out of everything until the CA is signed. No tenant contact without the seller's consent.
Disclose what you find. A tenant option, environmental flag, or lien goes in the BOV.

Rehearse, then follow up in 24 hours

Rehearse out loud, twice, timed. Have a colleague play the owner and throw your three least favorite objections.

Within 24 hours send one email:

Thanks and the three things you heard
Flip-book link and PDF, BOV insert, net sheet
The data request: rent roll, T-12, leases, loan statement
The decision date you agreed on

Key takeaways

Ask the money question, then hand the answer back at the ask
Match discovery to the owner type
Walk the booklet to answer questions, not to read pages
Show in-place, normalized, and pro forma NOI, with the buyer's adjustments already made
Present financeable price as a range with the rate stated
Use a priced listing for clear NNN comps and a call for offers when price discovery matters
Never guarantee price or timing, and follow up within 24 hours

Next: Lesson 6 covers the listing agreement and addenda you put in front of the seller after the ask.

Running the Commercial Listing Presentation