REALTOR Script: "I Need to Find a Home to Buy Before Listing"

Try this REALTOR Script for Sellers claiming that they need to find a home before listing. Especially in hot real estate markets when homes sell rapidly creating very low housing inventory, many home sellers are unwilling to list their home on the market for sale until they have located a home to purchase first. As most real estate agents are aware, waiting to list until finding a home to buy can create a number of potential disadvantages and difficulties for clients. It is important to help clients overcome this fear of being unable to locate another home and help them put the horse back in front of the cart. The key is to set the proper expectations by using a tested REALTOR script with clients early in relationships so that they understand the consequences and disadvantages of all of their options. Before trying out our realtor script for sellers below, watch as Brian Icenhower explains our objection handlers and script for sellers wanting to buy before listing in this video.

REALTOR Script for Sellers – “We Need to Find a Home Before we List”

If home sellers are reluctant to list their property on the market for sale until they find a home to buy, use our REALTOR Script below to help alleviate their concerns.”

1. “It’s important to understand that we are in a fast moving real estate market where homes sell quickly, often with multiple offers competing to purchase them. Have you heard about this in the news media or around town yet?”

2. “Assuming that you don’t want to have two mortgages at once, for you to buy a new home you would have to first sell your current home. Correct?”

3. “The reason people generally don’t try to find another home before listing their homes for sale is that any offer they make to purchase another home will have to be contingent on the sale of their current home. In a market when listings are selling fast with multiple offers, no knowledgeable agent would advise a seller to ever accept a contingent offer. Otherwise they would have to worry about your house selling too. Does that make sense?”

4. “What worries me is that you will find the house you love, and then we will lose the house to a competing offer from another buyer because our offer was contingent upon the sale of your current home. There is an increased likelihood of this happening when homes that you like are priced well too. A contingent buyer is effectively limited to less desirable homes that are priced above market. Do you see how this could be a concern?”

5. “Well the good news is that homes are currently selling in large numbers, and the majority of those buyers and sellers are people that have a home to sell before they can buy. Do you want to know how they are doing it?”

6. “When listing your home for sale it takes some time to get the home ready for sale and listed publicly online, then agents and buyers will need to view it, and ultimately we will start to receive and negotiate offers. Since it isn’t until we accept any offers on the sale of your home that we are forced to make any decisions, you actually have a long period of time to search for and find a home. Far longer than it takes the average buyer to find a home to purchase. Plus, having your home on the market will make us more purposeful and efficient in your search going forward. The vast majority of my clients surprise themselves and find a home with plenty of time to spare. Can you see that a little clearer now?”

7. “Even if we aren’t able to find you a new home before you receive offers on your current house, we still have plenty of options to extend our time in our negotiations over these offers by: (1) Negotiating a longer closing period; (2) Negotiating a lease-back from buyers after closing; or (3) Rejecting the offers altogether. Remember that this is a seller’s market, so you hold the most cards in negotiations. And it is pretty rare to not be able to negotiate a longer closing period in this real estate market. And I can’t remember hearing of anyone having to reject offers because they couldn’t find a home to buy. Does this sound good to you?”