Why In-Person or Virtual Face-to-Face & Screen Share Listing Appointments Are Best

Adam, during a dual live and recorded listing appointment with out-of-town sellers whom he helped purchase the property and then sell the property while they were in California. The picture includes Adam's dual Samsung Galaxy Ultra phone camera setup for 1 live and 1 recorded feed from separate devices.

Here are the top reasons why in-person or virtual face-to-face meetings are much better than alternatives for sellers for an initial consultation:

1. More Educational with Screen Share Integration by Adam

The top reason why sellers should want a face-to-face &/or virtual screen share discussion with a prospective listing agent is to get more information faster. Information like market status and seasonal trends are a lot easier to understand visually.

There are certain subjects that are much more difficult for sellers to grasp in the absence of visuals. With visuals present, sellers are able to learn more content faster. In addition to comparable sales and market data in our 1st or 2nd listing appointment, I often go into a wide variety of other topics in my initial consultations with sellers, like MLS Data local to Central & Eastern VA.

Here is an example of how I used screen share to record an educational video on market projections and history in December 2021, with me frequently shifting to screen share to help educate buyers and sellers in live Zoom sessions with them:

2. Faster Understanding

Rather than your agent needing to spend a lot of extra time explaining certain things, integrating visuals into the discussion can accomplish a lot, giving you a better understanding of something that the agent is talking about in less time, such as graphs of market data that would be hard to explain over the phone and where any explanation wouldn't be as good as a visual inherently, especially when a visual is combined with an explanation.

The seller will also be able to help the agent understand on property features substantially better & faster if they are present in person, ideally, or via video if they're very far away.

3. Alleviating Agent Concerns of Seller Scams (Especially with Land of Out-of-Town Owners) When No Prior Face-to-Face Has Occurred & When Other Risk Factors are Present

Have you ever seen the movie "Catfish"? It's about someone who engages in an online relationship with someone and records the experience on video in documentary style. Interestingly, the "catfish" in the film used my personal photos to create a profile of their "brother". Here's a photo from the film:

Adam is circled in red above

Here's the original photo with my parents and me:

Larger original photo of me in high school

"Catfish" don't just do dating scams. There are a wide variety of "catfish" targeting real estate agents & brokers.

While typically not applicable when an agent knows someone personally or when they've met in person, many agents frequently get targeted by catfish sellers. These are people who pose as a seller in an attempt to defraud the agent. It is such a major problem that some weeks I get contacted by more catfish buyers/sellers than legitimate buyers and sellers. With land sales, as of 11.6.25, more seller land scammerss have engaged me in the past year than legitimate sellers of land. None of the catfish have ever defrauded me of anything but time, but time is a precious commodity, and in the real estate business, you typically don't get paid by the hour as an agent, so time really is money that the catfish are taking from agents even if their fraudulent attempts are unsuccessful.

Multiple sources, such as the Virginia Association of Realtors, advise face-to-face discussions with buyers and sellers to avoid getting scammed.

If an agent suspects that a buyer or seller is a catfish, it's not uncommon for them to de-prioritize that buyer or seller vs those buyers and sellers that they know are legitimate, despite the fact that catfish buyers and sellers often supposedly have high budgets & are supposedly cash buyers. By doing a face-to-face, the agent has much less reason to believe that you are a catfish since most catfish buyers and sellers will never do face-to-face discussions, including virtual discussions. Face-to-face discussions are too risky for most catfish to get caught. I've only had a few scenarios where those who were highly likely seeking to commit fraud against me (i.e. by trying to loop me into investment schemes) who were posing as buyers actually showed their face on video. In one case, the image was dark & grainy. In another case, the image was fine, but it was very brief, the video didn't seem to match the picture exactly (both Asian women, but they seemed different), and they may have had a sophisticated operation with many people where one person was the "face" on video of the operation that needed to be spread out between many people chatting with targets for fraud.

If you're a legitimate seller but prefer not to do a face-to-face discussion, there are still some options to demonstrate that you're not a catfish seller and get things going with your sale. The best way to do it would be to still join a Zoom session for initial consultation (since Zoom is still much better than a call for legitimate sellers effectively creating a search and learning from an agent) and just not show your face while establishing ethos through a variety of the following means:

1. Email me from a university, organization, or business account that matches with your name (most catfish use free accounts, i.e. Gmail accounts, as it costs them nothing to create a new account)

2. Reach out to me via social media from a well-established social media account with relatively public settings that have plenty of tagged pictures with other people on the same social media account who themselves have plenty of tagged pictures with others. I.e. https://m.facebook.com/adambgarrett/

3. Your phone number that I should be able to call you at should match with your name on places like "Forewarn" that I use to look up your information based on your phone number.

4. Share a typical website (i.e. not free, at least 5 years old, substantive website, with a high trust rating by sites that rate websites for trust), with your contact info that I engage with you on, i.e. both of the following showing my phone number and email

https://www.abgre.com/contact

https://www.garrettrealtypartners.com/team/adam-garrett

5. Share with Adam a better business bureau listing or a well-established social media listing of your business (i.e. if you are an established investor).

4. Better Understanding of the Agent

Face-to-face discussion is an inherently more effective platform, especially when screen share can be included, than a phone call, email exchange, or text exchange. Part of your time speaking with a potential listing agent should be assessing the competency, honesty, and knowledge of the real estate agent in order to better determine whether or not they will be a good fit for you. Without a face-to-face, you won't know as much about a prospective agent and they won't know as much about you.

5. Fewer Problems with Tenants That Can Self-Sabotage a Seller

I've done at least a few listing appointments where a seller had me go to the property without them on video the whole time or where a seller was within an hour drive but didn't bother to be there in person. The problem with that is that if you have an agent that is "exceptionally honest" in the words of one former client who left a review who didn't know me prior to seeking me out to help him buy (see number 6 of my values), who also has an unusually high standard of keeping clients' interest first (see number 4 of my values), you have a conflict of interest. I know that if I am not honest with the seller about the needs of the real estate to get it ready for listing internally & ready externally (which can even impact land), the seller's net profits will likely be reduced. I would rather lose the opportunity to sell a property (and always have in this circumstance when the seller was related to the tenant) than relinquish those 2 core values.

That is especially true if the tenant and landlord have a friendship or are related. On one occasion, the tenant stopped the showing midway without seller permission because I wouldn't lie and state that the colors they chose to paint the walls (pink) would best be changed prior to listing & because I didn't agree that the things that they thought should be done were a good idea (redoing some bathrooms that were in good shape already where it would be a net loss to the seller to make changes).

On another occasion, the tenant got very angry with me during the showing, allowed me to finish, and then I never heard back from the seller regarding me going over the value and the things to do to the house in my 2-meeting approach that I do with sellers, where only the 1st meeting occurred. He never responded to me again after I left the house.

6. Most Important Meetings for Face-to-Face in Person or Live Video w/ Screenshare

Here are the top meetings where it's best to be face-to-face with a prospective listing agent (including your agent on screen share at times to help educate you):

1. Initial seller consultations

2. Showing to the seller of their own listing when not listed yet

3. Post repair/improvement updates on the property

Beyond those 3, many other issues can be done without face-to-face video. Even showings can sometimes be done with recorded video instead, but it's still ideal to have both live and recorded video with showings, especially if you are in a situation where getting a property on the market quickly is important. Other times when you may want to do face-to-face video & include agent screenshare or something in person are:

1. Offer elements after receiving one or more than one

2. Going through other paperwork
   

7. Positive Impact of Dual Recording and Live Feed From Separate Devices for Remote Listing Appointments

Having a dual live recording on Zoom that is recorded and a recorded video on a separate device accomplishes at least a few things:

1. It helps a seller remember the agent's feedback about how to prepare the property's interior and the property's exterior.

2. It can help a seller arrange repair work remotely by giving the seller the opportunity to point specifically to the repairs involved via screenshots or video.

3. If tenant(s) are involved, it can be evidence used against the tenant(s) if any repairs are completed that are the responsibility of the tenant.

4. It helps alleviate agent concerns of catfish sellers since sellers are less likely to be willing to be recorded on video.