4 Most Common Real Estate Objections and How to Overcome Them
At Smart Inside Sales, we spend a lot of time discussing overcoming real estate objections. This is because objections are both the thing that is keeping you from making the sale while at same time being the thing that gives you a route to close on your calls. And being able to close on your calls, i.e. set the appointment, is the most important part of your job as a real estate agent or ISA.
The problem that a lot of ISAs and real estate agents have is that they are afraid of objections. That fear rises from an uncertainty of what to do when the person you are speaking with puts up some resistance. To make matters worse, straight up script memorization can’t totally do the trick.
This is because, oftentimes, even similar objections will vary from call to call and situation to situation. That means that instead of just memorizing scripts, you have to learn and develop conversation techniques that will help you in situations regardless of which specific objection is thrown at you.
With that being said, it is important to be aware of the most common real estate objections that agents and ISAs face. That way you can practice asking the right questions and going after the correct pieces of information to overcome them and close on your calls.
Four Most Common Real Estate Objections
- “I’m busy right now and can’t talk” – As an agent or ISA, we’ve all faced this objection before. The lead is just trying to get right off the phone as quickly as they answered it. Whether they are blowing you off or actually can’t talk at that time, the most important thing you can do is determine whether they are worth you calling back. That means you want to get the lead to commit to a time you can call them back, but you also want to make sure they are indeed selling or buying a house. Questions like, “Just to make sure I am not wasting your time when I call back, you are still interested in buying/selling your home, correct?” Or a question like, “You are still looking for an agent, correct?”
Just something quick and easy to make sure it is worth your time to follow up with them.
- “Bring me a buyer” – This is another very common real estate seller objection. The lead doesn’t want to hire you, they don’t want to meet with you, and they don’t want to hear your spiel about how connecting sellers with buyers is what you do for a living and can do it for them. They just want to talk if you can bring a buyer with you on day one. This is a tough objection. Tough because you have to educate them a bit on how the process works, as well as understand their current plan, without making them wrong or making them feel dumb.
The key here again is to ask the right questions. Get to the heart of their plan by asking them things like “what is your back up plan if no agent can bring you a buyer on day one before even viewing the property?” Or, “Are you looking to have an agent bring you a buyer before they view your home and have a chance to market it?” You can also level with them. Say something like “It sounds like you have been talking to a lot of agents and telling them all the same thing—has it worked yet?” When they say “no”, now you have a conversation starter and can say “oh, well why do you think that is?”
- “I’m just going to sell it on my own” – Selling homes on their own is a real estate objection that is becoming more and more common nowadays. With the rise of the internet and websites like Zillow, a lot of people think selling their home on their own will be a breeze and they don’t need to “waste” money paying for an agent to do it for them.
A good way to go about overcoming this objection is to really get to the heart of the lead’s motivation. Do that by separating selling it themselves from actually selling their home, and then figuring out which one is more important to them. Since most FSBOs are selling on their own to make more money on the sale, you can also ask them “What is more important to you, selling your home on your own, or making more money on the sale?” When they say “more money”, swoop in and explain to them how you or your team can make them more money than they can hope to make on their own.
- “I want to wait for the market to improve” – Every seller wants to get the best price for their home, so you’re going to hear this objection quite a bit when people see (or think they see) that the market is in a bit of a downturn. The thing is, they don’t really care how the market is currently doing. They don’t care what other houses are going for. They only care that you can get their house sold for the price they really want.
To overcome this objection you have to ask them questions about their process or plan. “You say you want to wait until the market gets better, what do you mean by better/what is your definition of ‘better’?” In other words, learn what “better” means to this lead. You can also ask, “How do you think waiting to list your home will benefit you?” Get to the crux of what they really want and offer the lead a route to get there that doesn’t involve waiting for the market to “improve.”
Conclusion: Real Estate Objections Are Your Route to Close
At the end of the day, the key to overcoming any real estate objection is asking the right questions in order to get at the leads motivation, goal, and plan. Once you understand their process and what they are after, then you can bring yourself into the equation. You’re then able to show the lead how you and your team can help them reach their goal better than the way they are trying to reach it currently.
All that’s left to do after that is set the date and time of the appointment.