Louie Di Benedetto has been in real estate for eight years, long enough to have seen the frenzy of the COVID market and the correction that followed. He says the shift has been a positive one for agents who are serious about their craft, because it has raised the bar on what it takes to get a property sold.

In the last 18 months, Di Benedetto has sold 100 per cent of his listings, 30 per cent faster than market average. He attributes that to a process that starts well before a property hits the MLS.

Staging is non-negotiable. Every listing is staged for the full term it is on the market, and his team goes room by room with the stager to determine the best presentation for each space. For condos, the status certificate is obtained ahead of time and made available immediately. The goal, he says, is to remove every barrier that could slow a deal down.

Pricing for where the market is going

Pricing is where Di Benedetto says agents lose the most money for their clients in a declining market. He prices for where the market is going, not where it has been. If a property is worth $660,000 today but the market is trending downward, he lists it at $649,000 to stay below the psychological threshold. Pricing ahead of the decline, he says, generates more activity than chasing the market after the fact.

On marketing, Di Benedetto runs targeted social media ads for every listing and says the results are significantly better when the ad is built with specific filters rather than a generic promotion. He has found that a simple format works best: one strong photo, the price, the number of bedrooms, and the location. Less, he says, is more.

He also says there is less competition on listing ads right now than at any point in his career, because fewer agents are investing in paid promotion during a slower market. For agents willing to spend, the return on investment is higher than it has been in years.

Using inspections to remove friction

The most distinctive part of Di Benedetto’s process is how he uses pre-list inspections. He does a home inspection on every freehold listing and has recently started doing them on condo townhouses as well, after noticing that buyers in the current market are requesting inspections on those properties more frequently.

He switched to Carson Dunlop specifically because buyer agents were dismissing inspection reports from lesser-known firms. “I was running into the issue where the buyer’s agent would say, I don’t know who this inspector is, so we’re bringing in our own inspection,” he says. “That completely defeats the purpose. Once I transitioned to Carson Dunlop, I send the report to the buyer’s agent and they treat it as legitimate. You don’t have to worry.”

On the buyer side, Di Benedetto says using Carson Dunlop also removes a perceived conflict of interest. Because the company assigns inspectors from a team rather than sending the same individual every time, there is no suggestion of a cozy relationship between agent and inspector.

“Until you build trust and rapport with a client, there could be a perceived conflict,” he says. “Carson Dunlop eliminates that.”

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