1. Overcoming
Objections 101
What to Say and How to Say It

2. Thank You!

3. Objections are
Opportunities!

4. When a buyer or seller
gives you an objection, he
is presenting you with an
opportunity to close.

5. Make sure that you hear clearly
what the person is saying. If you
interpret the objection wrong, the
answer you give, no matter how
eloquent, will not be sufficient to
overcome their area of concern.

6. Confirm what their
objection is to ensure you
understand it.

7. Avoid the mistake of trying to answer the
objection before the buyer or seller gets the
objection completely out of his mouth. The
objection is legitimate to that person, no
matter how ridiculous it may sound.
Interrupting can cause the seller or buyer to
become irritated with you. It may not
matter how well you handle the objection if
you interrupt him.

8. Your mental approach to an objection will
determine your success or failure. Most
agents dread hearing an objection, but
most objections result from one of two
situations….

9. One: The seller or buyer has legitimate
concerns regarding the property and/or
your skill set to sell his home.

10. Two: The occurrence of objections is
because your presentation was not good
enough. You did not convey the confidence
that you are the person for the seller to hire
for the sale of his home.

11. The clients’ desire to work with you is a
natural ending to a good presentation. If
the presentation is weak, the objections will
flow like a river.

12. Get good with your presentation AND get
great at overcoming objections and you will
have mastered a great deal of this business!

13. Too many Agents adopt the position of a deer
looking in the headlights when an objection
comes their way. These agents have a negative
mental attitude towards objections. They view
objections as a big wall between them and the
sale. Join the ranks of the highly-skilled and
highly-paid professional Realtors. Change your
mental approach to objections through practice
and you will always look forward to the
opportunity to receive them.

14. Let’s Get Started!

15. If I list and
sell with you
will you cut
your
commission?

16. “I can appreciate the question but as a full
time real estate professional, for the sake of
my business and my family, I need to be
compensated fairly for my time. I know
there are some agents that would say yes to
your request, but consider this…if an agent
is willing to cut his or her commission, how
well do you think they will do when it
comes to negotiating the best possible price
for your home?”

17. Or
“So, this other agent is willing to do the sale
for 1% less than I am. That amounts to
about $2,500, correct. Let me ask you this,
if that agent was so quick to give away
$2,500 of his own money so quickly, how
quick is he going to give away thousands of
your money when it comes to negotiating
with another party on the sale of your
home?”

18. Or
“I know this isn’t going to happen, but let’s say you’re
going to need to have brain surgery done. Now
understand money is important. But you look in the
paper and you see an ad like this: “This week’s
special- brain surgery: 20% off!” Would you call this
doctor and has that done? Probably, not, right. Some
things are too important to discount. I’m assuming
that selling your house and moving to where you
want to move its one of the biggest investments and
financial things you’re managing in your life, right?
Trust me, you don’t want to leave this in the hands of
a discounted service agent.”

19. Why is your
price so
much lower
than that of
other agents
we have
talked to?

20. “I know that it’s confusing when different
agents come in with different pricing
options. In fact, it is not difficult to work
the MLS data to come up with a large range
of numbers.
There are many agents out there that don’t
have a lot of listings, and they will
sometimes tell a seller what they want to
hear simply to get the listing. They will
worry about price reductions down the
road.”

21. “I take my job very seriously. With a 13
month supply of inventory on the market
right now, I make it a point to tell my
clients the truth about the value of their
property. In a difficult market like we are
in, there are many agents happy to get the
listing. I on the other hand only want to
spend my time and energy on listings that
will sell. There are two places you can list
your property. You can list it where it sits or
list it where it sells. Which would you
prefer?”

22. You have so
many listings,
how can you
give our listing
the attention
it deserves?

23. “Three weeks from now I think you’ll be looking
back and thinking that one of the biggest
advantages I bring to the table is my other
inventory. You see, the more signs
I have on the street, the more calls I get from
buyers and most of those buyers don’t buy the
house they call about. In fact, if they are not
interested in the home they are calling on, I look
first within my inventory to find them a different
one. Now can you see the advantage of listing with
an agent that has a strong inventory of other
homes available? Benjamin Franklin had a quote
that said “If you need something done, ask a busy
person.””

24. I want to
find a house
to buy
before I put
mine on the
market.

25. “I agree, finding your new home is important and
the unfortunate thing is that it could take as long
as three months for your home to sell. Then it will
take another two months to get all of the paper
work done and, by that time, any home that you
would have found, would already be sold."

26. OR
“Ok, let’s sign the paperwork tonight on your
home, subject to finding suitable housing, and
then I will make an appointment with you to meet
with a lender to see if you would qualify for two
mortgages at the same time.”

27. OR
“Let’s talk for a minute about your home being
listed. We have talked some about the challenges
of today’s market. How would you feel if an offer
came in on your home right now, and that offer
was subject to the buyer selling his home that is
not yet sold?”

28. OR
“The problem with finding the house you want to buy first is
that you could end up losing a lot of money. Either you’re
going to have to end up paying top dollar for your new home
or you’re going to have to sell this one for less. Let’s say we
go out and look at some houses, and you find a house you
like. You go to the sellers and you want to negotiate them
down . You haven’t sold your house yet, so are the sellers for
the new one going to be at some risk, since you haven’t sold
yours? So what are the sellers going to do? They may sell it to
you under some tough conditions. Do you think they’ll be
flexible on their price? Or do you think they’ll stay firm, since
they’re taking risk?....”

29. “Let’s say you even do negotiate with the seller and work out
a good deal. You’re now under contract to buy that house.
Now, what do you have to do with your house? You have to
sell it quickly! A quick sale means a discounted sale in this
market. The worst part about all of this is that you’re not in
the driver’s seat. You’re not in a good position because you
need the money quickly to pay for the other house. But
here’s the worst part. Whether it’s contingent or not, if you
don’t sell your house in time and you have to drop the whole
thing, you lose all around. Let’s look at the flip side. Right
now we’re in the driver’s seat, meaning you don’t have any
specific commitment to buying a particular house, right? ….”

30. “That’s beautiful, because here’s what we do. We put your
house on the market for the price that we want. We wait
until we find a buyer. When one comes, we sell it – no
pressure, we’re in the driver’s seat. We find a buyer and this
person is willing to give us our price. Now we go and find the
sellers of another house and say, “Look, I want to buy your
home, and I’ve got $105K cash.” Do you think that the sellers
would be willing to listen to you? And they might even do
better on the price. Or maybe you can negotiate and say
when you’d like to close based on your buyer. My point is
that by selling your home first, you’re in the driver’s seat. If
you go out and buy a house first, you’re locked in because
you’ve made a commitment. You’re no longer in the driver’s
seat.”

31. You don’t
seem to sell
a lot of
homes in
our price
range.

32. “That’s true. In fact I sell a lot of homes in lower
price ranges and what I find is that after I sell my
client’s homes, many of them move up to your
price range, therefore, it only makes sense … that
the next logical step for me is to start to sell your
price range as well, considering I already have a
relationship with many of the buyers that will be
interested in your home.”

33. I need to net this amount in order
to move, I have to be at my new job
in 90 days, but I can’t afford to buy
a new home if I take a loss.

34. “I hear you! There are a lot of people in
your position in this market. Has there ever
been a time when you knew you were going
to have to make a sacrifice? Where, you
knew it was going to be tough and in the
end, after analyzing all of your options, you
realized that there was only one thing to
do…just go for it was only one thing to do.
But you found that in the end, it all worked
out. You made it through the tough times
and life went on, maybe even better than
before …”

35. “This time is just like that time. The market
analysis shows that it is unlikely anyone is
going to give you what you need to make
this move …
Is it more important to get out from under
this house, take the new job and work
through the tough times or are you in a
position to keep making mortgage
payments on this house for a couple of
years until property values go back up?”

36. Or
“Lets pretend that I give you 100 one-dollar
bills and I say, “Go to the mall and sell each
one for 95 cents.” This is hypothetical,
obviously. For 95 cents, do you think you’d
sell them? How quickly would they sell if
we marked them at 85 cents? How about if
we marked them at $1.20..how fast would
they sell? What I’m saying is by taking a
house that’s worth $200k and trying to get
more for it than its worth, it may take
extremely long time.”

37. If we have to go that low we
will probably just list it
ourselves and offer to pay
3% to any agents that want
to sell it.

38. “I can see your point of view but there is a lot of
legal paperwork/disclosures that a listing agent
would handle once the property is under
agreement. Who will handle that paperwork for
you? As well, do you think many buyer agents will
feel comfortable selling the property knowing that
there is not an agent on the listing side to handle
the paperwork/disclosures etc? In other words,
buyer agents may be subjected to greater risk by
selling a house that is not listed by a real estate
agent. Can you see how that would affect the
salability of your home”

39. We can
always
come down
in price
later.

40. “You’re right, but I’m afraid by that point you’d
have to deeply discount your price. You see, if
we come out of the gate with your home
overpriced many of the buyer agents will
instantly write you off as non-motivated sellers .
Let me explain
what that means from an agent’s perspective.
The higher a price is on a property, the less a
seller needs to sell it … at least that’s what the
agents believe, from their past experience. To
agents, a non-motivated seller means, that even
if you come down in price later, two things will
happen…."

41. “Most agents won’t even realize your home has been
reduced. Now, you might say, can’t we send them a
flyer telling them that it’s been reduced? Yes, we could
send everyone a flyer telling them that the prices has
been
reduced, but agents get 500 flyers a week and there is a
good chance it will go unnoticed. If they see that you
had the home priced real high in the beginning, that
will tell them that you were kind of unrealistic when we
listed the property, meaning that you didn’t believe
that what I was saying was true … all agents interpret
this as trouble when it comes to getting the deal closed.
Do you understand why? If we price it to sell right from
the beginning, our odds of getting agents to show it is
much higher.”

42. We aren’t quite ready yet,
we need to finish a couple
of projects around the
house before we put it on
the market.

43. “Awesome! Why don’t we complete the
paperwork now and while you are doing
your projects I’ll get the flyer done and
paperwork processed so when you are ready
I will be too! We’ll write in to the contract
no showings for two weeks!”

44. Will you cut your
commission? There are
other agents that will do it
for less.

45. “You know, you’re right, there are a lot of
desperate agents out there and I’m a little
concerned for you should you choose one of
them. If an agent is so desperate that they are
willing to broadcast the fact that they don’t think
they have any value as a Realtor, is that the type
of person you want sitting across from the
negotiating table trying to negotiate you a better
price? Is that the type of person you want to
represent you in the most valuable transaction of
your life?”

46. OR
“Commissions aren’t negotiable with agents
that sell homes. They are only negotiable
with realtors who don’t believe in the
services that they offer. You need a strong
service agent that sells homes, right?”

47. OR
“Here’s a list of what I do for you as a
professional, what would you like me to
take out?”

48. There’s a lot to Do!
Prepare pre-listing packet and deliver…………………………………………37 minutes
Prepare comparative market analysis…………………………………….……59 minutes
Study and analyze market data……………………………………………..….30 minutes
Drive by comparable properties……………………………………………… 34 minutes
Prepare personalized market program……………………………………….. .66 minutes
Travel to appointment …………………………………………………………30 minutes
Appointment time…………………………………………………………….. 90 minutes
Complete listing data and contracts………………………………………….. 32 minutes
Input listing in multiple listing database………………………..…………….. 25 minutes
Input and launch marketing plan … …………………………………………..94 minutes
Install sign, lockbox, take photos, measure property……………………….... 52 minutes
Create marketing ads and home brochure…….……………………………… 90 minutes
Design and prepare "Just Listed" postcards…………………………………... 22 minutes
Prepare visual tour and post to all major sites ………..…………………….... 61 minutes
Prepare and create internet ad………………………………………………… 20 minutes
Prepare mailing labels and process "Just Listed" postcards………….………. 85 minutes
Contact top agents with new listing information……………………………... 90 minutes

49. And…
Pick up Sellers' disclosure and take out brochures………………………….... 24 minutes
Research mortgage information ……………………………………………....17 minutes
Prepare and set up co-op instruction and log ……………..…………………...18 minutes
Place and proof weekly online ads …..…………………..…………………...135 minutes
Prepare biweekly Homes Magazine ad ………………………………………..57 minutes
Prepare monthly Homes & Land Magazine………………………………….. 25 minutes
Proof ad and process corrections…………………………………………….... 20 minutes
Prepare and deliver showing basket…………………………………………... 53 minutes
Marketing/staging walking homes tour ….……………………………………25 minutes
Reprint and restock flyers……………………………………………….……. 44 minutes
Check signs and property weekly ………………………….………………….80 minutes
Order and review preliminary title work……………….…………………….. 45 minutes
If problems- research and correct…………….………………………………. 25 minutes
Research land variances on acreage lot size…………… …………………… 60 minutes
Feedback from showing (averages 5 attempts per showing)……………….. 518 minutes
Prepare and log feedback responses…………………………………………. 37 minutes
Update social networking sites weekly with property info………...…...……. 31 minutes
Prepare Sellers' weekly report………………….…………………………….. 88 minutes
Call Sellers weekly with update……………………………………………… 60 minutes

50. And…
Additional consulting calls with Seller…………………….…………………. 30 minutes
Reverse prospect for buyers weekly in MLS ………………………………… 61 minutes
Set up co-ops for showing home……………….…………………………….. 30 minutes
Launch marketing plan for an open house……………………………………. 32 minutes
Hold open house ………………………………………….………………….180 minutes
Follow up with open house guests (prepare and mail cards)….……………… 75 minutes
Set up Realtors' luncheon ………………………….………………………….34 minutes
Design Realtors ' luncheon flyer ……..………………………………………...52 minute
Host luncheon ………………………………………………………………...180 minutes
Prepare comparative market analysis for 30-day research ……………..…….124 minutes
If needed, re-appraise property condition ……….…………………………….47 minutes
Get bids for repair work as needed ………………….………………………..182 minutes
Review bids, present to Seller………………………..……………………….. 60 minutes
Meet workers as needed …………………………….………………………..180 minutes
Remake and reissue flyers……………………….…………………………… 83 minutes
Tour competitive properties and compare pricing …………………………… 50 minutes
Review offers :………………………………….……………………………. 60 minutes

51. And…
Prepare Seller's net sheet. ……………………………………………………..26 minutes
Present offers .…………………………………..……………………………..60 minutes
Negotiate contract ……………………………………………………………..90 minutes
Review and create negotiation strategy………………………………………. 33 minutes
Discuss home inspection issues with all parties ……………………………… 42 minutes
Follow up on mortgage and inspection contingencies ……...……………….. 31 minutes
Finalize offer………………………………………………………………….. 63 minutes
Complete contract review and collect signed contracts…...….………………. 60 minutes
Verify closing time and date with all parties …………………………………. 20 minutes
Verify smoke and carbon certificates are collected ………………………….. 10 minutes
Total minutes worked on an average (non-distressed) listing
=
4,200 minutes
How much does your attorney, doctor, mechanic, or plumber charge
per hour? My marketing fee stays the same no matter how much time,
effort, or marketing dollars I put into reaching our goal of SOLD. Can
you see how this fixed rate compensation program works to your
benefit?

52. We want to have an
exclusion in the listing
contract in case our friend
or neighbor wants to buy it.

53. “I agree that it’s important to be thorough when
we are filling out this contract and let me ask you
this … Why haven’t you already sold the home to
your company, friend or neighbor? (No one has
made an offer) Your personal marketing hasn’t
worked and that’s why you’re hiring me … is that
right? If my marketing works well enough to
convince your friend or neighbor to buy it … isn’t
that what you are paying me for in the first place?
Aren’t you hiring me to let the public know your
home is for sale and convince people that they
should buy it? Why would I cut my commission if
my marketing works?”

54. The last agent never showed
our home himself and neither
did anyone else from his office.

55. “Did they promise you that they would be showing
your home non-stop? Well then, I can appreciate
what you’re telling me. I for one will not promise
that I will be showing your home. I am going to
market your property to the top 25 agents in the
area that sell 80% of the real estate. Did you want
me marketing your property to the real estate
agents that don’t sell real estate or should I just
spend time marketing to the ones that do?”

56. We want to try selling it
ourselves.

57. “I totally understand the thought of trying to get
a home sold yourself . Part of what I do as a
professional is spending time contacting other
agents and potential buyers…as many as fifty or
more a day. I ask them if they would like to buy
your home or if they know someone who would
like to buy your home, or if they would like to
sell their home. This is what I consider active
marketing. How skilled are you at phone
solicitation? Have you ever done it before? Open
houses, newspaper ads, and flyers are great, but
those typically don’t get the home sold.”

58. Should we wait until the
market improves before we
sell?

59. “Since you are looking to move into a larger
home, the easy answer to your question is no.
Let me show you an easy example. Let’s say
your home 5 years ago was worth $300,000 and
with values down 15% you are seeing a
decrease of about $45,000 in equity. Now, let’s
say the house you were looking to buy was
worth $400,000 5 years ago. With values down
about 15% you’d be saving $60,000 in your
search. You don’t want to the market to
change yet! You’re saving $15,000!”

60. “Since you are looking to move into a smaller
home (or even a rental), the easy answer to
your question is no. First, we don’t know how
much longer it will take for the market to
change. As well, you have to factor in carrying
costs. Right now you are paying $2000 per
month. The next home will cost around $1200
a month. That means every month that goes
by you are throwing $800 out the window”

61. We’d like to meet two more
agents before we decide on
who we will choose.

62. “That sounds reasonable. How will you be
comparing agents? What differences will you
be looking for? Will you be comparing them
based on events they can control (year of
experience, marketing plan, etc) or events
they can’t control, like marketing time and
market value?”

63. I don’t want to do those
repairs before I sell, let the
buyers do it themselves.

64. “When you were shopping for your home, were
you looking to buy a home that needed repairs
or did you want something move in ready?
Many buyers, if given the choice …which in
this market they have lots of choices, will lean
toward a move in ready home. Also, did you
know that buyers will over-estimate the cost of
the repair by 2-3 times, then reflect that
amount in their offer to you.”

65. Or
Have you ever heard the expression “it’s all in the
presentation?” Mr. Seller, let’s say that you want a steak. At a
fine restaurant, they might charge somewhere around $35.00
for a standard cut of a meat. If we go to a local, fast food
steakhouse chain we’re going to pay about $9.95. Same steak.
What’s the difference? The atmosphere, the décor, the
building, the location, the service, the presentation. So, as an
analogy, if we want to take our $9.95 steak and get $35 for it,
we’re going to have to make some adjustments in the
presentation of the home. Either you’ve got to invest several
thousand dollars to fix the house up to get that price or just
leave it the way it is and go with the price I’m suggesting.

66. I want open houses every
single weekend until it
sells.

67. “Why do you want one every weekend? How
would you feel if we did one every day? You see
at some point there is a diminishing return on
exposure that an open house can bring.”

68. I’d like to write an offer that
is $50,000 below asking.
Let’s see how much we can
squeeze out of them.

69. “Making a low offer seems tempting but let me
ask this, if you make an offer and lose the
home to someone who makes a higher one,
what will you do with the money you saved? I
just want you to consider this…what’s more
important to you owning this home or saving
money?
From my experience I can tell you that I often
times see sellers take less then asking, but
that’s when they are coming down to market
value. When a home is priced AT market
value, those homes typically sell AT market
value, and sometimes even more.”

70. “Another item to think about is your
relationship with the owner. If you came in $5
below asking the seller would be foolish to
counter. If you come in way too low your
suggesting you WANT them to counter. Also
by going too low you may offend the owner
and lose an opportunity to negotiate the best
agreement.”

71. I think we will wait to buy…
we want to jump in when
prices are rock bottom.

72. “Believe me, we all want to jump in when the
market bottoms. The question is, how will we
know when we’ve hit the bottom? The answer
is, when the market goes back up. We will
never know when the market IS at the bottom,
just when it WAS at the bottom. So… the
question is this, is there a benefit to buying a
home before the market bottoms rather than
after? Yes….”

73. “1. Lower rates
2. More inventory to choose from.
3. You can take your time. In a sellers market
there are typically bidding wars and you have
less time to make decisions
4. Buying now means you can enjoy your new
home sooner.”

74. We had a bad experience with
our agent so we are going to
sell on our own.

75. “Let’s take a scenario like this. I’m going to purposely
blow it out of proportion a little. You were flying to
Chicago and you flew a particular airline. You were a
few hours late. Your bags were a day late. The flight
attendants went to a bad training program, “Arrogant
101,” and you ran out of peanuts. Now, you need to go to
California. Would you walk or would you still fly?
You’d probably fly. Why? Because you know the plane
is better than walking. You get their quicker and you
won’t pass out from muscle cramping and dehydration
along the way. Just because you had a bad experience,
you aren’t going to rule out flying all together. You may
never work with that airline again, but you still see the
value of flying. What I’m saying is, don’t discount real
estate just because you had a bad experience with that
one. Just don’t use that one again.”

76. We want to hire you, but we
must list at a higher price.

77. “So Mr. Seller, let’s pretend you were going fishing and the
fish were down here. Where would you want to place the
bait? Down here…right? Let’s say that we place the bait up
here. Are we going to get nibbles? Doubtful, right?
Yeah. We may get one fish to stray from the pack. But the
odds of catching the fish are not in our favor. Here’s the
reason I’m using this analogy. I’m recommending that we put
the house on the market for $150k because based on
comparables, that’s where the fish are. If we price it though
at what you’re suggesting at $160k I’m not saying that the
house won’t sell, but it’s not probable. So the choice is
yours.”

78. Or
“If your house is worth $150,000 and we were to list it
$130,000 what do you think would happen? Right…we’d
probably have buyers knocking down the doors to get in. If
we list at $150k we’re going to get an average number of
buyers to get the house sold in the time frame that I showed
you, because that’s fair market. So if we go above fair
market, we’re going to have fewer potential buyers because
of competition from other homes- it just weeds out more and
more buyers. If we listed it for $200k, we’d have maybe one, if
any, right? So the higher you go, the fewer buyers. The fewer
buyers, the longer it takes. Well, my concern is that when a
house stays on the market for too long, it gets stale. For
example, let’s use bread. You know, when bread stays on the
shelf at a supermarket for too long, what happens?....”

79. “It gets stale right? When a house is on the market for a
while, in a sense it becomes stale. The agents don’t show it as
much, they start to lose interest. It becomes back-burner
stuff because it’s stale. When is the best time to sell? As soon
as you put it on the market. You want to package the house
in its best light- the price its appearance, everything. If we
already know, Mr. Seller that in 30 days we’re going to come
down to the price that the CMA is now saying we’re better off
starting out that way because a house is never hotter than
when it first comes on the market.”

80. Overcoming
Objections 101
What to Say and How to Say It

81. Thank You!

82. Thank You!