This is a draft. Please tell us what we got wrong.

We think parts of this are wrong. If you sell houses for a living, tell us which parts. Every moment is numbered, so "number four is wrong" tells us exactly what you mean. The questions at the end are the points we most want checked. If you only have ten minutes, go straight there.

Most tools for listing agents sell one thing at a time. A flyer. A description generator. A pack of social templates. But agents don't work through a list of assets. They work through a sequence of events.

Take an open house on Sunday. One date and one time, and it produces seven things: a post midweek, a story, a reminder on Sunday morning, a sheet printed for the table, a sign on the corner, a follow-up that evening, and feedback for the seller.

So we mapped the events instead. We found twelve.

This follows one listing, from before you win it through to long after it closes — not a year of your business. Two of the twelve sit outside any single listing: staying visible runs all the time, and staying in touch carries on for years after closing. And you would normally have several listings sitting at different moments at once, which is part of why the work feels heavier than any one column below suggests.

One listing, start to finish

Phase 1 · ongoing

Before you have it

Phase 2 · 5–14 days

Signed, not live

Phase 3 · weeks

Live on the market

Phase 4 · years

Closing, and after

Staying visible

always on

The appointment

weeks before

Signing day

day zero

Waiting for photos

days 1–5

Photos arrive

days 4–8

Going live

launch day

Open house

weekends

Seller check-in

weekly

Price change

if needed

Under contract

offer accepted

Closing

completion

Staying in touch

for years

Phase 1 · ongoing

Before you have it

Staying visible
always on
The appointment
weeks before

Phase 2 · 5–14 days

Signed, not live

Signing day
day zero
Waiting for photos
days 1–5
Photos arrive
days 4–8

Phase 3 · weeks

Live on the market

Going live
launch day
Open house
weekends
Seller check-in
weekly
Price change
if needed

Phase 4 · years

Closing, and after

Under contract
offer accepted
Closing
completion
Staying in touch
for years

Produces something publicPrivate — nobody outside sees itRepeats within one listing

We have described every item, because names vary

Agents use different words for the same thing. What one person calls a leave-behind, another calls the seller folder. So each table below says what the item physically is and what it does, not just what we call it. If our description doesn't match the thing you make, that is worth telling us.

Phase one — before you have the listing

You don't have a property yet. This is the work that decides whether you get one.

Phase one · always on, then two or three weeks before the appointment

Moment	What you make	What it is
1. Staying visible	Market update	A post with local numbers — what sold, what it went for. Usually monthly
	Sold-in-your-area post	Uses one recent closing to show there is activity on that street
	Neighbourhood post	About the area rather than any property. Parks, schools, a new restaurant
	Short-form video	30 to 60 seconds for Reels and TikTok. Market numbers or a walk round a neighbourhood spot
	Newsletter	Email to past clients and contacts
2. The listing appointment	Listing presentation	Slides or a printed deck you walk the seller through in the room
	Pre-listing packet	Sent before the meeting so the hour isn't spent on basics
	Marketing plan	One or two pages saying what you will publish and when. The promise you are making
	Leave-behind	Printed pages the seller keeps after you go. Often the only thing in the room when they decide
	Sample video for their house	A short video built from old listing photos of their home, played in the meeting. Shows what you would make
	Follow-up note	Email or handwritten card, same day

Tell us if we have the listing appointment wrong. One agent we interviewed spends two to three days preparing a single listing presentation. That is the largest number anyone gave us for any task in this document.

We think this moment is badly served by the tools on the market, because those tools all assume you already have the listing.

Phase two — signed, but not yet live

This usually takes five to fourteen days. Nobody outside the deal sees any of it.

Phase two · day zero to about day eight

Moment	What you make	What it is
3. Signing day	Nothing published	You collect facts rather than make anything. Everything later is built from them
4. Waiting for photos	Teaser post	A coming-soon image that doesn't show the house properly yet
	Listing description	The MLS text. Can be written before any photo exists
	Seller prep checklist	What to declutter, fix and move before the shoot
	Physical staging	A stager furnishes empty or dated rooms before the shoot. Costs money and usually pushes the shoot date back
	Animated teaser	Slow motion added to the one exterior photo you already have. Some boards require altered media to be labelled
	Shoot-day reminder	Sent to the seller the day before the photographer arrives
5. Photos arrive	Hero selection	Choosing the one photo that leads the MLS, the post, the flyer and the email
	Floor plan	Drawn from the photographer's measurements, usually delivered with the photos
	Virtual staging	Furniture added to empty rooms in software, labelled as staged
	Listing video	The photos assembled into a 20 to 60 second tour with music and captions
	Vertical cut	A 9:16 version of the same tour for Reels, TikTok and stories
	Walkthrough video	Filmed on a phone in one continuous take. An alternative to the assembled tour, not an addition

Signing day settles a lot at once: the address, the price, the launch date, the open house date, and what the seller will let you advertise.

It also sets a deadline. Once you market a listing publicly, MLS Clear Cooperation Policy gives you one business day to enter it in the MLS. Social posts, email blasts and yard signs all count as marketing it publicly.

Then you wait. You have a signed listing, a launch date you have already mentioned to people, and no photographs.

This next part is our guess, not something we found

We think agents often plan it this way on purpose: sign first so the seller is committed, then let them declutter. If that is right, you have to post something during those days and have almost nothing to post. That is question one.

Phase three — live on the market

This is the public part of the job. It is also the only phase that repeats.

Phase three · launch day, then every week it stays listed

Moment	What you make	What it is
6. Going live	Just-listed post	Square or 4:5 image for Instagram and Facebook
	Caption	The text under the post. Usually where the open house gets announced
	Story version	Vertical 9:16 crop of the same thing, for stories
	Unbranded version	The same image without your logo or headshot, because MLS photo rules ban both
	Public remarks	The MLS description. Character limit varies by board
	Video post	The listing video published to your feed on launch day
	Sphere email	Sent to past clients and contacts. Longer than a caption, different ask
7. The open house	Announcement post	Published three to five days ahead
	Story version	Vertical, same details
	Video invite	A 10 to 20 second vertical clip with the date and time on screen
	Day-of reminder	Posted Sunday morning. Date and time have to be readable without sound
	Printed sheet	Letter size, sits on the table. Price, address, facts, often a QR code
	Directional signs	Arrow, the words OPEN HOUSE, the address. Read from a moving car
	Follow-up post	Posted that evening or the next morning
	Seller feedback	Private note on who came and what they said
8. The weekly seller check-in	Activity summary	Views, saves and showings for the week
	Feedback summary	What buyers said, grouped rather than listed one by one
	Progress against the plan	What you published, set against the marketing plan you promised at the appointment
9. Adjusting the price	Price improvement post	New lead photo, so the feed doesn't read it as a repeat
	Updated remarks	The MLS text, revised
	Refreshed video	The tour recut with a different opening shot, so the feed doesn't read it as a repost
	Email to near-miss buyers	People who viewed or asked but didn't offer

Two things stand out.

The open house repeats. Every other moment happens once per listing. If it really runs three to six times, it takes more of your time than anything else in this document. It is also the only moment that needs printed material.

We could not find the weekly check-in discussed anywhere. Not in agent forums, not in search data. Either it is too routine for anyone to write about, or hardly anyone does it. That is question four.

One smaller thing we noticed: agents usually announce the open house inside the just-listed caption, rather than as a separate post.

Phase four — closing, and afterwards

This is where one closing leads to the next listing.

Phase four · completion, then for as long as you keep in touch

Moment	What you make	What it is
10. Under contract	Under-contract post	Often names the days on market, because that number is the proof
	Note to the seller	Private. What happens between now and closing
11. Closing	Just-sold post	The social version, usually with the final photo set
	Neighbourhood postcards	Printed and mailed to the surrounding streets
	Review request	Asked once, at the point the seller is happiest
	Just-sold video	Usually the listing tour recut with a sold end card
	Closing-day photo	With the sellers, and only if they want it
12. Staying in touch	Closing note	Sent the same week
	Home anniversary	A card or post a year to the day after they moved in
	Annual value check-in	What their house is worth now. Often starts the next listing
	Referral ask	Asked directly, once, rather than hinted at repeatedly

Closing is the only point where we found agents still spending money on print. Searches for just-sold postcards are rising, while searches for most other listing-marketing terms are falling.

Questions for you

We are confident about the shape of this map. The points below are where we want a practitioner's read before we publish it. They run in the order they happen, so you can answer as you go. One line each is plenty.

#	What we believe	What we'd like you to confirm
1	Two to three days on a listing presentation is normal	That number came from one agent and we have built a lot on it
2	You sign before the house is ready on purpose, so the seller is committed	If that's wrong, the wait for photos stops being a real problem
3	You hire a photographer and wait a few days for the images to come back	Or do you shoot your own? If you do, does the wait disappear entirely?
4	The wait for photos is the most uncomfortable part of a listing	Or is it just a quiet week? Do you post anything at all during it?
5	Staging is mostly virtual now, added to the photos afterwards	Do you bring in a physical stager, use virtual staging, or neither? Does a stager move your shoot date?
6	Coming Soon is worth treating as its own step	Some boards ban showings during it. Do you use it, avoid it, or never think about it?
7	Video is worth making for most listings, not just the expensive ones	Do you make video every time, only above a certain price, or not at all?
8	One listing gets three to six open houses	If it's one or two, the open house matters far less than we think
9	You send the seller an update every week it's on the market	Do you write one, phone instead, or not do it at all?
10	You still print postcards, open house sheets and signs	Which of those do you actually still print?
11	Twelve moments covers a listing	What happens regularly that we have not named? This is the one we most want answered

Where this came from

Agent discussion on r/realtors, MLS rulebooks and board policy documents, industry reporting from Inman News, survey data from NAR Research & Statistics and Real Estate in a Digital Age, and interviews with four practising agents.

What happens to your answer

This is not a pitch and there is nothing to sign up for. Send us corrections and we will use them. We will also send you what we learned from the other agents, including the points where they disagreed with you. When we publish this properly, it will say what changed and why.