These three scripts will help you navigate a difficult housing market.

 

If you didn’t know, we had a major shift in the market in the second half of 2022, and we continue to see an increase in inventory and a decrease in demand. The good news is interest rates are stabilizing and coming down a little bit, but that does still provide us with opportunities to practice how to address seller objections around price:

 

1. If you already had professional photography, video tours, pre-listing social media blast, etc. but still aren’t getting any activity after two weeks. When this happens, it’s time to have a price correction. Discuss your price correction as a marketing price and strategy correction with your client. Try not to use terms like “overpriced”. Be thoughtful in how you approach the conversation. Here’s an example of what to say: “Dear seller, we’ve done two weeks. We have fulfilled our promise to you. These are the points that we promised to advertise and the actions that we took. This pricing strategy has not yielded the results that we would hope to get your home sold. We do believe it’s time to make an adjustment in that price.”

 

 

 

“You need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.“

 

 

2. If your client says, “If we reduce the price of our house, will you reduce your commission?” This one is tricky because it can seem like you’re being criticized. However, most clients who ask this just don’t understand where our commissions come from. Here’s how coach Donna Fleetwood recommends you respond:

 

“Yes, of course. If you drop the price of your house, my commission will come down. But it is not because I’m changing my commission rate or my professional fee rate. It’s because you will pay a lesser amount at the lower price point.”

 

By saying it this way, you position your commission as a professional fee. Your commission is what you live on and it pays for everything in your business, so you need to get very skilled at expressing and defending that value.

 

3. If your client says, “I don’t want to reduce the price of my home.” This response is blunt, to the point, and probably comes from a place of frustration. When this happens, you need to be gentle, ask really deep questions, and don’t argue back. Let them really talk about what caused them to put the home on sale and on the market then probe them a little about what happens if it doesn’t sell.

 

If you master these three scripts, you’ll be prepared for the worst-case scenario when working with your clients. But don’t just stop there. I recommend you research more scripts so you can be confident when dealing with clients. As always, if you have any related questions, don’t hesitate to call or email me with any questions.