Tie Down Questions & Downswings for Real Estate Agents

Learn how top real estate agents use tie down questions with downswings in voice pitch to be more persuasive and increase sales conversion rates. Tie down questions enable agents to stay in curiosity and promote client engagement by always asking questions throughout conversations. Rather than telling and selling with statements, top agents know that asking a series of questions gets better results. Tie down questions make this a bit easier by allowing agents to tie down statements with short questions after each statement. The following is an example: “We should get your home up for sale this weekend. Don’t you agree?” Here we used “Don’t you agree” as a tie down question to follow a statement. The use of a tie down question is even more effective when each word of the question is stated with a gradual downswing in voice pitch. This turns a question’s typical voice upswing into a more confident command that gives clients a sense of ease and security in an agents ability and competency. Watch as Brian Icenhower demonstrates how agents should use tie down questions with downswings in this video.

Using Tie Down Questions

The key to the effective use of tie down questions is practice. First choose a few comfortable tie down questions from the list provided below. Then make a point of frequently using them with downswings in your daily conversations. Be sure to pay attention to the responses of others to see if you are able to obtain agreement with your statements and keep them engaged. Try using them multiple times in your listing presentations to obtain agreement on the listing price or other important terms. It is also important to vary the tie down questions used to avoid repetition of the same question, which becomes both annoying and distracting.

Examples of Tie Down Questions

Choosing Tie Down Questions

When using the graphic above, remember that you can alternate some of the words used in each tie down question to accommodate specific situations. For example, the question “Wouldn’t you?” might me modified to “Wouldn’t we?”, “Wouldn’t they” or “Wouldn’t it”. Please also feel free to browse through our AGENT SCRIPTS LIBRARY to find more scripts, dialogues and objection handlers that might help with your real estate presentations.