How to Blow It With The Perfect FSBO Text Script
Summary
What do you do when a FSBO is way off the mark with what he would take for his property?
The FSBO is off on price because nobody has helped them understand what the right price is.
And if you decide to not talk to them because they’re unrealistic about price, when the time comes that they’re ready to move…you’ll miss the chance to be the agent that helps them.
It doesn’t matter how unrealistic they are about the price. What matters is their MOTIVATION.
Use the initial FSBO text message script to get them on the phone, so you can follow up with the FSBO script and identify their motivation.
…because that’s the one moving part when it comes to winning with FSBOs.
Get your of the Agent Power Pack https://mastery.yesmasters.com/powerpack that includes the 2020 edition of the FSBO Script and the FSBO Text Message Script.
Also, don’t forget to join the YesMasters Facebook Real Estate Success Community if you want to learn how to get more YES without the B.S.
Full Transcript
This is why most real estate agents suck when it comes to converting For Sale By Owners, listing their property, and selling it for top dollar.
Hi, there. My name is Kevin Ward, the founder of YesMasters Real Estate Success Training, and today I’m going to talk specifically about how to use the new For Sale by Owner approach and For Sale by Owner script to help you as a real estate agent without any BS to be able to help a For Sale by Owner make the decision to meet with you, hire you, and let you get the property sold in a way that helps you get them a better result.
In other words, it’s a win-win, it’s a win for you and it’s a win for the For Sale by Owner. A lot of people think incorrectly that for a For Sale by Owner to hire an agent means the For Sale by Owner is going to lose money. Not so when the real estate agent is a master.
That’s what we do at YesMasters Real Estate Success Training is we train real estate agents how to master helping sellers get a better result. That’s not the point of this video, but it’s just … I want to give you this understanding up front that helping For Sale by Owners sell their house as a real estate agent is something that is not only good for you, because you get paid when you do it, but it’s good for them because you can help them get a better result almost every single time, including netting them as much or more money in their pocket than they can do by doing it themselves.
Having said all of that, I want to talk specifically about a conversation that one of my YesMasters was having with a For Sale by Owner by text. We started training this year on how to use text messaging with For Sale by Owners to get appointments. You can click on the link in this video, you can click on the link down below, to get your free download of the YesMasters Agent Power Pack, which includes all of my best core prospecting scripts, including For Sale by Owners and Expireds and the 2020 edition of How to Use Text Messaging to get them to engage with you in a conversation.
That is the framework where this conversation came from and this is a post in our YesMasters Real Estate Success Community Facebook group, which you can also join and we’ll put a link in the description of this video down below so that you can join that Facebook group if you’re a real estate agent and want to learn how to get more yes without the BS.
Here is the question, and then I’ll share with you the actual text message conversation. This is one of my good friends, Jonathan Hawkins. He has been a YesMaster for a long time. J Hawk, I love you bro but I’m going to throw you under the bus on this one because you know better than to ask this question. J Hawk says, “Okay, this For Sale by Owner is way off the mark with what he or she would take for this property. Should I still shoot for an appointment and help them see the light, or are they way too unrealistic about the price? What would you do, Kevin Ward?” Thank you for asking Jonathan, I’m the right guy to ask in this case because I’m the one that trained you on these scripts.
The Perfect FSBO Text Message Script
Here we go. Here’s the actual text message. We’ll put this up on the screen for you so you guys can see it. This is from the agent, this is from Jonathan. He says, “Hi, this is Jonathan with Euphoria Realty. Would you take $333,500 for your house after all expenses?” In other words, you’re going to net $335,000. The seller replies, “Thanks for the offer, but no we won’t.” This is all script.
The next question is, “What’s the lowest amount you would take?” When you go and get the Agent Power Pack and you download the scripts, you’ll see that this is the conversation. You text them and say, “Hey, would you take this amount?” What you’ve done is, you’ve done a quick CMA, figured out the property will sell for about $360,000. We subtract out the traditional typical closing cost in your market, including commissions and everything, and then that would be the amount of money conservatively that they’re going to net when they sell it.
And then we ask them, “Would you take this amount of money after all expenses?” And he says, “Thanks for the offer, but no we won’t.” “So what’s the lowest amount you would take?” The answer? “429K, $429,000.” By my calculations, we’re about a hundred thousand off. This guy’s about twenty-five percent or more, 30%, overpriced in what he would take as a net. What we don’t know is he may not have understood the question. He may have thought, “Would you take a sales price of $333,500?” It doesn’t matter. Here’s what’s funny to me is, this is in a Facebook group of real estate agents. Some of them are YesMasters, in other words they’ve been trained by me, and some of them are newbies that have no idea what they’re talking about, so you get all kinds of answers.
Again, this is not to be critical of anyone, it’s just that you need to learn what you are doing if you want to win with For Sale by Owners. If somebody says, “I wouldn’t even want to take an appointment with these guys.” And another one says, “It’s a pass.” They’re not motivated, they’re playing the Make Me Move game from the old Zillow Make Me Move thing. Another answer is, “Stay in touch with one call a week. Send comps. Set up a Zoom but don’t waste your time unless they’re at all motivated.” No, don’t do that. Another one, “Toss that fish back in the water and let it swim away. Not all catches are good.” Okay. Another one just says, “Buyers are liars and sellers are too. Get an appointment and find out their motivation for selling.”
This is a better answer. I don’t really like to think buyers are liars and sellers are too. That may be true but I’m not going to start with that presupposition. Anyway, another person answered, “Waste of time. Move on.” Anyway, it goes on and on and there’s a couple of really good answers here. Scott Marlowe from Phoenix, Arizona, one of my longtime YesMasters, had a really good answer.
Here’s the Problem…
But here’s the deal, here’s the problem. You allowed your reaction, your emotional reaction to their price to make you go like, “I don’t know if this is a good seller or not.” We’ll all agree they’re probably way ridiculously off on price. I’m not going to say probably, they are ridiculously off on price. That could be one of two reasons. Number one, they don’t understand your question and number two, nobody’s helped them understand what the right price is, so they don’t have a clue.
The question is, are they too unrealistic about the price for me to even shoot for an appointment?
Here’s the answer
I don’t care how unrealistic they are on the price. I don’t know what I need to know to find out whether or not I want an appointment with this For Sale by Owner. What do I not know that matters? Here’s what I don’t know that matters, I don’t know their motivation. Are they selling or not? Is this really a seller or is this just some, like somebody said, a Make Me Move, just like, “Well, if somebody will give me my price I’ll move, but I’m not really that motivated.” I don’t know. This is the real problem, is whenever we make a decision about, “Well I don’t want to talk to this person because they’re too unrealistic on price,” in three months they may have to move, they’re out of here. If that’s the case, they’re selling and if they’re selling they need a great agent and they need somebody that can tell them the truth on the price in a way that they get it and they understand it.
What is the answer to this conversation? I’m going to throw up the text message again here. “What’s the lowest amount you would take?” “$429,000.” Okay, what’s the next thing? Well, once you’ve downloaded the Agent Power Pack you’ll have the new For Sale by Owner script and you’ll see what’s the next thing to say. I happen to have here the script in front of me and it says that your response to them when they give you their price is, “Great. When would be a good time for me to give you a call?” Or, “Got it. When would be a good time for me to give you a call?”
If the guy said, “333,500, would you take that?” And he says, “Thanks for the offer, but no we won’t.” And he says, “What’s the lowest amount you would take?” And the guy came back and he said, “345,000.” “Okay, well 345,000 we’re only $10,000 off, we’re just two or three percent off. We’re really close.” Then say, “Great, when would be a good time for me to give you a call?” Here he’s nearly $100,000 off, what do I put? “Got it. When would be a good time for me to give you a call?” Why would I want to talk to a guy that’s this much overpriced? Because I don’t know what his motivation is.
The Key to Winning with FSBOs
Okay, here’s the point. There is one moving part when it comes to winning with For Sale by Owners or any seller in the market, any homeowner who wants to sell, there’s one moving part, and here’s the moving part. A motivated seller, do I have a motivated seller or not? The answer on this one is, I don’t know yet. How am I going to know? I’m not going to know until I engage with them in a conversation. The key of a text message script, what makes the text message script work is, I’ve got to get them on the phone. If I can get them on the phone, now I have a conversation and this is a permission-based conversation on the phone because when I text back and say, “Great, when would be a good time for me to give you a call?” And they go like, “I’m available now.” Or, “How about in 30 minutes?” Or whatever.
If I can get them on the phone, and I’m going to get them on the phone, then I’m going to follow up with the script and just say, “Hey, I’m the guy that was texting you and all that. You said you wanted to net no less than 429,000, is that correct? Got it.” And then I’m going to go right into the script, and if I don’t know their name yet, “By the way, again my name is Kevin. What’s your name?” “Bill.” “Hey, Bill. When you sell this house, where are you going next?” And then they tell you and you go, “Yeah, great. How soon do you want to be there?” And they say, “I’d like to be there by the end of the year.” “Awesome. What’s taking you to San Diego?” Or wherever it is they want to go. What I’m identifying now is what really matters, and that is motivation.
If I know their motivation, then I know whether either I’ve got somebody here that is so unrealistic and they’re not motivated, no need to talk, no need to meet, great. “Well listen, right now 429,000, based on what the market’s telling us is not going to be something that I can help you with. Right now I just wish you the best of luck. If anything changes, let me know.” But if they’re moving I’d say, “Great. 429,000 is probably a little optimistic. When would be a good time for us to get together and look at what the actual comps are and see what we can do to get you the most money in your pocket and to make this move happen.”
Use the For Sale by Owner script that we give you in the Agent Power Pack. Again, the link is in the description below. What are you seeing here? What has been your experience? What questions do you have as you see this and as you hear about this? If you have questions, post them down below. If this video has been helpful for you give it a thumbs up. I want to give my shout out and compliments to Jonathan Hawkins, my friend. Bro, even though I threw you under the bus on this one, I want to applaud you and acknowledge you for getting these conversations going because this, my friend, is how you win. It’s how all of you win when you’re talking to sellers. You’re putting yourself in a place where you can help them and you can help yourself.