Real Estate Scripts for Buyers: How to Show Fewer Homes

The utilization of effective real estate scripts for buyers to show fewer homes while conveying their value is the key to an agent’s ability to service more clients and protect personal time for family and other interests. Time management is often the most pressing issue that agents representing buyers face in their practice. Since buyers agents are often forced to work nights and weekends to accommodate client work schedules, the use of tested real estate scripts for buyers is vital to preserve a balanced life. The scripts and dialogues illustrated in the following video and provided below are designed to make buyers specialists more efficient while providing better customer service to their clients.

Real Estate Scripts for Buyers: Convey Value

Don’t assume that a client who enlists the services of an agent to locate and purchases property understands the full value provided by the agency relationship. Without this complete understanding, a potential buyer is more likely to disregard the agent’s advice and counseling or even purchase with another agent or directly from a builder over time. Without the use of real estate scripts that highlight the benefits of working with an agent, buyers are more likely to have a longer learning curve by endlessly viewing homes and making low offers that cause them to miss out on the home or interest rate they want. In the example below, buyer’s specialist Scott Parman creatively uses real estate video to communicate his value to prospective buyers.

Real Estate Scripts for Buyers: How to Show Fewer Homes

Top producing agent Ron Henderson knows the importance of utilizing effective real estate scripts for buyers to more effectively manage the home buying process:

“Buyers frequently want to see too many homes that don’t fit their criteria with the hope that their dream home magically jumps out at them. So without properly establishing their needs and the process up front, they end up missing out on the ideal home by trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

– Ron Henderson

Let’s face it, some clients just want to look at a lot of houses and eventually lose sight of purchasing a home. In order to avoid this dilemma, Ron and his team use the following scripts and dialogues to keep their clients in a “buying mindset” throughout the home search:

1. INITIAL BUYERS CONSULTATION IN THE OFFICE:

Agent: “Mr. & Mrs. Buyer, our typical home buyer in today’s market will only need to see 3 to 5 homes in person. This is because the internet gives us a wealth of information on each home, including high resolution photos.”

Client: “Wow, we just assumed we would need to look at 10 to 20 homes before making our decision.”

Agent: “Before the internet, that used to be the way people shopped for homes, but today it’s simply not necessary because you can see them online from the comfort of your home. Now, having said this, you will be looking at a lot of homes online. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to pull up the MLS right now and we’re going to punch in all your home buying criteria: price, school districts, number of bedrooms & bathrooms, and etc. Then I’m going to email this list of homes to you. How does that sound?”

Client: “That would be great.”

Agent: “Now here’s the point where I give you a little homework. I want you to go home tonight and start looking through this list of homes together. I want you to only choose the very best homes and ignore all the others. Your goal here is to only choose the top 10 very best homes that are available. I don’t think you want me to show you a bunch of homes you don’t like do you?”

Client: “Oh no. We don’t want to waste time on those.”

Agent: “Great, then we are all in agreement that you only want to see the very best homes that fit your needs. Next I want you to map out the top 5 homes and then, this weekend or some evening, I want you to drive by them and see the neighborhoods and what the homes look like from the street. You strike me as two very intelligent people and I think you could probably drive by a home and tell me right away if this looks like a neighborhood where you’d want to live. Does that sound like something you could do?”

Client: “Sure. Actually that sounds like fun because we can take our time and drive around the entire area too.”

Agent: “Excellent. I know you’ll both enjoy this part of the process. While you’re driving around looking at these homes and communities, don’t be afraid to knock some of them off your list. It’s quite common for my clients to drive out to see a home that they both liked online, but then in person the home doesn’t look as nice, they don’t like the neighborhood, it backs up to a highway, or for whatever reason they don’t need to leave the home on their list. Again, I only want to show you the very best homes that fit your criteria. So even if your list is less than 5 homes, that’s OK. As I said earlier, our typical home buyer in today’s market will only need to see 3 to 5 homes in person.”

2. AS YOU ARRIVE AT THE FIRST HOUSE TO SHOW:

Agent: “Mr. & Mrs. Buyer, I’m glad you had a good time driving around to look at these homes it’s awesome that you were able to narrow your list down to only 5 homes for us to see today. Are we in agreement that these 5 homes are still the very best homes that fit your criteria?”

Client: “Oh yes, for sure. You were right about driving around to look at them. We actually had 8 homes on our list, but didn’t like 3 of them, and after driving by to see them we knocked them off our list.”

Agent: “Fantastic! Now as we go into this home, I need you to speak out loud and let me know what you’re thinking. Feel free to talk openly about what you like and don’t like. It’s important for me to hear what you’re thinking in order to help you through this process of eliminating the homes from your list. OK?”

Client: “Sure. OK.”

3. AS YOU ARE LEAVING THE FIRST HOUSE:

Agent: “Mr. & Mrs. Buyer, before we leave this house, tell me what you like and didn’t like about this home. (Even if you know what they liked and didn’t like, it’s critical that you ask this question and make them say it out loud. They need to verbalize it and hear themselves say it).

Client: “We didn’t like the back yard, but loved the kitchen, the room sizes, and the hardwood floors are awesome!”

Agent: “I know this is only the first one you’ve seen, but do you see yourselves living here?”

Client: “We think this one might be alright.”

Agent: “Then should we keep this home on your short list?”

Client: “Maybe, I guess for now that’s OK.”

Agent: “Great! For now it stays on the list. Let’s go to the next home.”

4. AS YOU ARE LEAVING THE SECOND HOUSE:

Agent: “Mr. & Mrs. Buyer, again as with the first home, tell me what you liked and didn’t like about this house.” (It doesn’t matter what they say, but make sure they verbalize it to you and themselves). “So then, tell me which home you like better, this home or the first home we viewed?”

Client: “Oh definitely the first one.”

Agent: “So then if you had to choose a home right now, the first one would be the one and home #2 is definitely off your short list, correct?”

Client: “Yes. We don’t like this home at all.”

Agent: “Great! then just focus on the first home for now and I want you both to forget about this second home. We’re not coming back to this one again.”

5. AS YOU ARE LEAVING THE THIRD HOUSE:

Agent: “Mr. & Mrs. Buyer, again as with the previous homes, tell me what you liked and didn’t like about this home.”

Client: ” We liked . . . . and didn’t like . . . .”

Agent: “So if you had to choose a home right now, would you choose the first home or this home #3?”

Client: “Actually, this home #3 is awesome and we both like it a little better than the first home.”

Agent: “Great! Then I want you to both forget about homes #1 and #2 and stay focused on this home #3 as your best choice moving forward.”

6. SHOWING THE REMAINING HOMES

Follow this pattern for every home you show. As you leave each house, ask them what they liked and didn’t like, then encourage them to make a decision about keeping #3 as their favorite or replacing it with the home that they just viewed. Also keep reminding them that these are the very best homes available and the while they’re out looking there are likely other buyers coming to the same conclusion and may even be ready to write an offer on the same home they like. It’s also permissive for them to eventually select a back-up home. In fact, it may be beneficial that they have a second choice in case their favorite home doesn’t work out. Either way, they are narrowing their list down to the very best one or two homes for them.

After showing the last house, there should be a very clear decision as to which one is their favorite and which is their back-up. You may need to show them these homes again back-to-back to assure them that they’ve made the right decision. However, many times they are ready to go back to the office and write an offer right away.