Mastering Scripts and Role-Play to Sell More Homes: A HomeLight Elite Agent’s System

In real estate, practice makes production.

If you want to set more appointments, convert more leads, and sell more homes, start by using role-play to practice your real estate scripts. It prepares you for any question and any situation that comes up with leads and clients, and helps you have rational conversations in often emotional situations.

In this week’s episode of The Walkthrough, HomeLight Elite Agent Brendan Bartic reveals his system for mastering scripts and role-play and shares several scripts during the conversation, too.

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If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to get future episodes delivered automatically: Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | YouTube

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Links and Show Notes

• Brendan Bartic – real estate agent profile on HomeLight
• Brendan Bartic Real Estate Coaching – Facebook Page for info/link to do Thursday role-play (12:00 PM Mountain time)
• Brendan Bartic Real Estate Coaching – Facebook group, also for info/link to do Thursday role-play
• BrendanBartic.com – Brendan’s real estate coaching website for free scripts and more
• Join our Facebook community for The Walkthrough listeners
• HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center
• Subscribe and listen to The Walkthrough: Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube

Full Transcript

(SPEAKER: Matt McGee, Host) Allen Iverson is one of the best basketball players to ever play the game, 11-time NBA All-Star, 4-time scoring champ, MVP. He’s in the Hall of Fame. I could go on and on.

He’s also very well-known for an epic rant after his coach criticized him for missing a practice. Just go to YouTube and search Allen Iverson Practice and it’ll come right up. The point of his rant was basically this: I’m the franchise guy. I’m one of the best two or three players in the world, and you’re upset that I missed a practice?

How often do you practice your real estate skills? When I asked in our listener community, agents there guessed that only 5% to 10% of their peers across the country do role-play. Get this, four of the agents who replied are in our HomeLight Elite agent program, and all four said they do role-play.

Today, one of those HomeLight Elite agents shares his scripts and how he masters them via role-play.

Allen Iverson probably didn’t need to practice. This episode is for the rest of us, for all of us who do.

This is “The Walkthrough.”

(INTRO MUSIC)

Hi, everyone. I’m Matt McGee, editor of HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center, and welcome to “The Walkthrough.” On this show, you’ll learn what’s working right now from the best real estate agents and industry experts in the country. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents, and we’re on a journey to find out how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

If you want to get involved in the show, there’s a couple of different ways to do that. You can leave a voicemail, or send me a text. It’s (415) 322-3328. You can send an email to walkthrough [at] homelight.com, or just find me in our Facebook listener community. Just go to Facebook, search HomeLight Walkthrough, and it will come right up.

Before I have an important conversation, whether it’s with my wife, or a friend, or a co-worker, I practice what I’m going to say. Do you do that too? We’re not alone. Lawyers practice their arguments before and during a trial, actors practice their lines, athletes are constantly practicing, even the best in the world like Serena Williams or LeBron James.

Why do so few real estate agents practice their craft?

My guest today runs a 220-agent brokerage. He says he can only get about five to seven of those agents to do role-play on a regular, consistent basis, and that’s even in a situation where they can learn from one of the top agents in the country.

Here’s the cool thing: Today, you can learn from him too.

Brendan Bartic has been in real estate for 20 years. He formed his team, The Bartic Group, about 15 years ago. As his business grew, Brendan eventually bought the brokerage that he now runs. And then about five years ago, Brendan launched his own coaching program. He’s also a HomeLight Elite agent, which makes him one of the top 1% of agents on our platform.

Brendan is a big believer in scripts and role-play. So, on today’s show, you’re going to hear us talk about why role-play is critical to lead conversion and selling more homes, what a perfect role-play session looks and sounds like, and how to memorize scripts so that you’re prepared for any situation and any question that comes up. Brendan also shares a few scripts along the way, so you’ll hear things like how he handles the inspection objection, pricing the home, the commission objection and more.

So, let’s get right into it. As the conversation starts, I have just asked Brendan if he thinks all agents should spend more time practicing scripts and role-play.

(BEGIN CONVERSATION)

Brendan: Those people that are extremely charismatic and just naturally amazing, what we call, like, the phenomenal, like, the 1 out of 1,000 people, and those people, they never needed to role-play. For whatever reason, they’ve got that special gift, right? They’re just [sound effects].

Then you’ve got everybody else on the other side of that, that are going, “Hey, I need to get better and learn all of this.” So, unless you’re that one magic person that doesn’t need it out of the entire office, the rest of the 99%… Everybody could get better in every scenario if you had batting practice. I’d have a better batting average if I practice more, you know. Think about the golf course. Why is there a driving range? Think about if you just took away the driving range from golf, right? And I’m a terrible golfer. I can…

Matt: Me too.

Brendan: I’ve just played charity events and I can barely hit the ball, right? But there will never be…why would they have a driving range? If you didn’t need to practice to become better, they would just go, “Hey, just hit the course. Hey, you know what? You’ve never golfed before? Here’s a cart, some clubs. You go knock it out. Let us know how it works.” Of course, that wouldn’t work. Guys spend hours and girls spent hours at the driving range just trying to perfect a simple motion.

And that’s all a script and a dialogue is. It’s a simple motion that gets you the outcome that you want, so your ball goes straight instead of going in the pond, right? When you don’t have a script, you’re blip, blip, blip, blip. You’re just dropping in the pond, right? Like, you’re hitting all over the place, and then people get frustrated, and you know what happens next, Matt? They get out of real estate because they think that they’re not talented. Has nothing to do with talent. You just didn’t take the time to learn the skillset.

Matt: There’s some thought going around recently that now is not the time for scripts, that you should have focus on meaningful conversations, you know, listen to your clients. Don’t just recite words from a script. What’s your response to that?

Brendan: Yeah, absolutely. So, all a script is… So, let’s role-play this out, Matt. So, let’s say you’re my client and I care about you deeply. Let’s say you’re my best friend, right? And Matt, we just received the inspection objection on your home, meaning that you have the…you know, a buyer came into your house, had inspection, and they’re requesting 25 different random items, and I call you up and I go, “Matt, oh. Man, yeah, it sucks. The buyers, they want 25 items. Matt, what do you want to do?” Now, that’s without a script, right? So, Matt, what do you want to do? They want 25 things to be repaired, the roof, the gutters, the this, the that. Matt, what do you want to do?

Matt: And I’m going to react to that by saying, “Oh, my gosh, 25. That’s crazy.”

Brendan: That’s crazy. And you know what? They can pound sand. We’re not doing a thing.

Matt: Right.

Brendan: Instead of with a simple script I call up and I say, “Hey, Matt. Hey, good to talk to you again. Hey, Matt. So, real quick, let me just take you through. So, we received the buyer’s inspection objection. Okay, Matt? At this point, we have a couple of options. Number one, you can decide to do absolutely nothing and we won’t move forward to a successful closing. Matt, number two, you can decide to repair the items and we’ll move forward to a successful closing. Matt, option number three, we can do a combination of concessions and repairs and you’ll move forward to a successful closing. Matt, what would you like to do?” And see? That’s just a script. Was that better than the first thing I said to you? I would hope so, right?

So, people get into their heads that I don’t need a script. All a script is is a trained dialogue of options and it’s being… I want to be a consultant and I want to give you options, and I want to calm you down. Real estate is an emotional business, right? You said it right, the best. You were like, “I don’t want to do [inaudible 00:08:14] thing, right? Or, “That seems like a lot of items.” Of course, you’re going to be upset. Somebody just walked into your home and told you that the home that you’ve lived in for 5, 10, 15 years, it sucks, right? Let’s be honest, has all these issues. You don’t think you’re going to have an emotional reaction to that? Of course, you are. The script and dialogue helps me prepare for that conversation to take you from here to back down to here so we can have a logical conversation instead of an emotional conversation.

Matt: Right. I mean, to me, it’s not an either/or. It’s not, I’m going to do scripts, or I’m going to listen to my clients. I think it’s an and/both, isn’t it?

Brendan: Absolutely. It’s I care enough about my clients to be able to learn a way to present information that’s going to help them have the best, most exceptional experience possible. My goal… Our motto here at The Bartic Group at Keller Williams is for our clients to have the most exceptional real estate experience on earth. If you walked in… I think about this all the time, right? If you walked into a really nice restaurant and the hostess was there, and you walked in and you came in and she doesn’t acknowledge you, she doesn’t look at you and she goes up, “Yeah. Pick any seat.” Do you feel like that $50 steak should be worth $50?

Matt: Right. Right.

Brendan: No. She’s going to be like, “Welcome,” and she’s going to probably use your first name or last name. But she has a script. She didn’t come up with it herself or himself, you know, if it’s a guy or girl. They had a script that makes you feel like a million bucks. Makes you feel important. And that’s all we’re trying to do. I just want to give exceptional experiences. And I try to teach that to agents, and I go, “There’s a rhythm, there’s matching and mimicking, there’s neuro-linguistics.” People want to work with people. There’s using people’s names. You know, talk about a script. One of the first things we teach in script practice is use their name, right? You know, it sounds basic, but people don’t because it’s just not common to them, but if you don’t have a…if you don’t know how to place the name without sounding weird.

And so, all of this is just a rhythm of structure, of…a cadence, right? It’s [sound effect], and it just makes people relax. It diffuses them. And in real estate, I get paid a lot of money to diffuse bombs, right? I always think and it’s like it’s ticking, it’s ticking, and I could come in and I’d be like, “Oh, yeah. You know what? The offer? Yeah. Your house is listed at $500,000. Hey, they came in at $450,000. That sucks, right? Yeah. I can’t believe they gave you a low-ball offer. So, Matt, what do you want to do?” You know, and I know I’m being exaggerated, but a lot of times people will call you up and be like, “Hey, yeah, they came in at $450,000. Ouch.” That’s not a script. There’s a script that says, “Hey, you know, here’s how the offer came in…” you know, so on and so forth. So, it’s helping you get from a start to a finish with the least amount of punches in the face as possible.

Matt: Let’s talk about role-play. In your business and in your coaching, are you systematic about how the role-play happens? Like, is there a right way and a wrong way to do this?

Brendan: Absolutely, Matt. Yeah. I mean, beyond systematic. So, a couple of things with our role-play. First of all, we role-play twice a day. So, 7:45, or excuse me, 7:30 to 7:45 in the morning, every morning. At 7:45, we’re on the phone hitting Expired, For Sale by Owners, Just Listed, Just Sold, any deal list, and we have our check downs. Then after we have our whole session, we come back together. In COVID, we’ve been doing it via Zoom. When it wasn’t COVID, we would come back into the office because everybody was here, and we would do live role-play from 12:00 to 12:30 every day. So, we could say, ‘Here’s what happened to me,” right? It’s like you went into the battle and you’re like [pretend sound of a battle], and you’re like, “What happened?” I’m like, “Here’s what happened.” Well, what worked, what didn’t, okay? What do we need to work on? And we would work on that.

Matt: You heard Brendan say that he takes a systematic approach to doing daily role-play twice a day, same times each day. You might be wondering, how do they keep it fresh for everyone involved?

Well, it turns out that each day has a different theme. On Mondays, they do More Appointments Monday, where the role-play and scripts are all about setting appointments. Then it’s Technical Tuesdays, where they’ll do role-play around contractual issues or even homeownership issues, things like how do you respond if your buyer says, “There’s a small crack in the wall over here, should I be concerned?” Next comes Why Me Wednesday. That’s all about scripts and role-play that deal with why a buyer or seller should choose you. Then it’s Thursday Throwdown, where agents compete to see who handles objections better. Brendan’s team does this one live on Facebook every week, and in fact, you’re all invited to tune in and watch. You can even participate if you want to. So, I’ll give out details of that at the end of the conversation. And then the week ends with Freestyle Friday, where the role-play doesn’t involve scripts. It’s all about trying to memorize new things.

So, daily role-play and different themes each day, but that’s not all. A great system for scripts and role-play has to be really detailed. It even matters how and where you sit when you’re doing role-play.

Brendan: Now, in script practice, when we’re trying to become really good at scripting, we follow a few different codes of ethics, if you will. Number one, if we’re doing it in person, we always role-play back-to-back. So, I’ll sit back-to-back with an agent or the people that are role-playing in a room. Now, with COVID, we have to be six feet apart, so we’re six feet apart back-to-back, and one is the seller, one is the agent. One is the buyer, one is the agent. So, the person that’s acting as the seller, their home just expired, the person that’s facing away from them six feet apart. The reason we do it back-to-back is because you can’t see their facial expressions. You can’t see their hands. Ninety percent of our lives are spent on the phone as real estate agents. So, you have to hear, you have to listen, you have to be sharp. So, you want to be back-to-back because it makes you very acute, right? If I see your face, then I can go, “Man, Matt thinks I’m boring as all snot right now.” I can tell you. I’m just kidding, right? Or, you know, if I’m like this and I’m creating excitement with my hands, you’re going to get drawn into that excitement. If me and you were back-to-back, you can’t do that over the phone, right? You can only hear me. And that’s one of the things we train.

We have people study books on how to be a great presenter, how to set the stage, all of these things to create excitement and passion, and…it’s a performance. I tell everybody, “When you go to hit the phones, you’re putting on your little Shakespeare hat and you’re sitting there and Shakespeare in the Park and you’re on stage.” It’s not who you actually are, right? You’re doing a performance that…because again, Matt, you just spent six months with an agent listing your home. And we deal with this, especially with HomeLight a lot, right? People go to HomeLight so much after another agent was terrible and didn’t sell their home, right? An expired listing. So, they go, “Never want to make that a mistake, again. Let me go to HomeLight, find an amazing agent,” right? “Someone that’s the best in the industry,” and we get to receive that client, thanks to the amazing technology of HomeLight and all that they do.

But we get on — if I’m going on with that client and was like, “Hey. Yeah. So, your house didn’t sell last time. That sucks. Well, sorry to hear that. So, my stats are great. You want to list with me? If I said that… And what people don’t realize, Matt, they already kind of have…most top agents already have a script that they use anyway. They just don’t realize that it’s a script, right? They’ve been doing it for so long. They’re scripted. It’s just that it’s not written in a book. It’s not readily available, but they’ve been doing it the same way. The reason I have a script is so I can teach it to my agents and I can scale. If I ever want to grow a real business, I can’t just go off of my personal charisma the rest of my life. I have to take my McDonald’s secret sauce, put it…my lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and secret sauce, put it into a book and then hand it to people and make it as easy to understand as possible so they can sell some burgers, right? So they can make a perfect burger.

Number two rule, we always end in success. So, what that means is me and you are role-playing, Matt, right now, and we’re role-playing. We would never end the role-play and you being a jerk and say no… You know what? After every objection I get you go, “I’m never going to list with you.” No, you would always end with, “You know what? Actually, yes, Brendan. Come on over. Let’s see if you might be the right fit for me” because we’re training our mind to end in success, right? If we trained our role-plays to end in failure, then you’re going to go into every situation going, “But this probably isn’t going to work,” right? “It may or may not work.” So, that’s a big thing. We always want to end in success. And then the last thing, part number three, if we don’t get the script right or the objection handler right, we have to write it down five times, okay? So, let’s say me and you are practicing and I… It’s like penance.

Matt: Right. Yeah. It sounds like…

Brendan: Because if you write it out five times, what’s going to happen? You’re going to memorize it.

Matt: I’m glad you mentioned that because I was going to ask you, are there memorization tips that you share with your team?

Brendan: Absolutely. So, we go through memorize, internalize, to monetize, right? And I wish I could tattoo that on people’s forearms: memorize, internalize, to monetize. So, yeah. So, any way that you want to memorize scripts….here’s the easiest number one way. Do it all the time, practice, practice, practice, practice. If you could see even in here in our training room, we have scripts up all over the wall everywhere. It’s got to be osmosis, right? And in your workstation, you have all your scripts and your dialogues up. So, that’s the one thing. You have to be completely surrounded by it. Number two, on any session we’re doing… So, let’s say I’m on a lead gen session this morning for two hours, right, from 7:30 to 9:30. I’m lighting up the phones and I get stumped with certain things, okay? I’m going to then take those things that I got stumped with, look at the script that I should have used, and if I can’t recite that script, write it down. Write it down five times.

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Matt: A quick note before we get back to the conversation. Brendan talked about sitting back-to-back to make role-play better, that helps you become a better listener. But what if you can’t do in-person role-play right now? What if you have to use something like Zoom? Well, Brendan says just turn off your cameras so you can’t see one another and that’ll create the same benefits as sitting back-to-back. All right. Let’s get back to the conversation. We’ll pick it up with Brendan answering these questions: Does it matter who you do role-play with? Should you worry about finding the right partner?

Brendan: So, that’s where it gets into the funny jokes, let the jokes proceed themselves, role-play partners, right? So, if I was role-playing five days a week, I would want five different role-play partners. So, you have to reach out… There’s Facebook groups all about role-play partners. There’s community for everything. I’m sure even here in the HomeLight community, people after this will reach out to me. And this happens all the time, they’ll reach out to me and say, “Hey, Brendan, I’m really looking for a role-play partner. I would love to match up with somebody from your organization,” or what have you.

So, imagine every morning from 7:45 to…or excuse me, 7:30 to 7:45, depending on time zones, you had somebody that was completely different than you five days a week. So, you’re going to get, you know, Susie, who’s 57 years old, you’re going to get Jonathan who just got his license and he’s 24. You’re going to get the girl from New York who’s like, “Hey, oh, hey,” and then you’re going to get, you know, the guy from Alabama who’s like, “Hey, Brendan. How are you doing buddy?” Right? And you’re going to learn how each one of those…because, you know, think about it. Every state, we’re a melting pot, especially here in Colorado. I mean, everybody… There’s very few natives here. So, everybody comes here from somewhere else, so you have to adapt to that personality style and cultural style.

Matt: By having a variety of role-play partners, it helps you better prepare for the fact that you’re going to deal with a variety of leads and clients.

Brendan: Absolutely. When I would be practicing my listing presentation years, and years, and years ago, I’d have my girlfriend act like a 70-year-old Korean woman. I would have her act like a 22-year-old country bumpkin. I would have her act like a new…you know. I would have all these different scenarios, and it was kind of fun, right? And it sounds weird. We were role-playing but we were role-playing the listing presentation because I needed to try to go through that because I didn’t want to get caught off-guard when I walked into any appointment. I wanted to go there like this, right? If they’re, you know, sitting close and putting their elbows on the table, I’m putting my elbows on the table. If they’re leaning back and crossing their arms, I’m leaning back and crossing my arms. So, that’s the whole science of this is, it becomes fun when you care enough about it. If you have this stipulation in your mind that calling people and role-play and all of this is work, then you’re going to hate it. I always looked at it as, I’m getting a degree in psychology.

Matt: I know our listeners are probably anxious to hear some actual scripts that you guys practice. But one more question before we get to the scripts. When you are talking to leads and clients, and you’re going through all this stuff that you’ve memorized, how do you do it so that you don’t sound like a robot? Is that something that can be taught?

Brendan: Absolutely. And so, here’s the analogy I give for that. So, if I’m learning to become a professional basketball player, the first thing that most players do is learn how to shoot free throws, right? You got to…they just sit there at the line and shoot free throw, free throw, free throw, free throw. It’s the most common thing. Then once you get that mastered, you can start doing layups and doing different things. Then when you get really good, you start doing dunks and, oh, and 360s and all this stuff, okay? That’s the same thing. You got to get… The reason that the script is so powerful is it’s that free throw. You’re building that muscle memory in your mind, then you add your flair, your style to it later.

So, people used to…I remember this Mike Ferry script all the time, and it’s a classic Mike Ferry script. And at the end, it says, “If I can get you what you want, Matt, in the time you want, won’t that be great?” And I was like, “I’m never going to say that. It sounds so weird to me.” It’s not who I am.” I remember trying to read it and I was like [blech sound]. I was like, “That’s not who I am,” and to credit them, sold so many houses using that exact line. But later on, I modified it after I got really good at that part, and I tweaked it to what I felt comfortable with. And I tried different things out, and they worked, they didn’t work. So exactly to your point, yes, you need to memorize, internalize, then you monetize. People usually skip the memorize part because they’re like, “It doesn’t sound like me.” Then you can’t internalize it and never gets monetized.

Matt: So, you take your script and this is what the script is, but you can add your personality, tweak it to, you know, your style or your language.

Brendan: After time, right? In the beginning, I always just say, again, “Tattoo my wrists, shut up, and follow the script.” You know, you’re not…I have new agents coming all the time like, “Oh, [random sounds].” I’m like, “And you’ve sold how many houses?” None. And I’m like, “Then maybe you should follow the script,” right? And it’s hard because you have ego, and then you see people paraphrase it. I’ll have people…it’s the funniest thing. They’ll sit here and go to read a script. They’ll actually start reading it, and I go…and they’re paraphrasing it. I’m like, “I just asked you to read it.” And mentally you can’t because you want to add your own flavor to it, right? It’s almost like inherent in you because you think you’re smarter than the system, right?

The thing in real estate is all…so many agents come in and we have this triangle that we call it the real estate triangle, right? And when you come in into the triangle, at the bottom of the triangle, you have systems and models, okay? Then you have routine the next level, right? And at the very little top of that triangle, you have creativity, okay? Now, most agents come in, they flip that triangle upside down and they try to start with creativity. What happens? It falls over. So, that’s the whole thing. Bring your creativity later. Right now, you need to get very systemized and have a model for success.

Matt: And listeners can’t see what’s been going on, but a couple of times during our conversation, Brendan has held up this binder that says Scripts on the front, and Brendan, it looks like it’s really, really thick.

Brendan: Yeah.

Matt: So, you’ve got a lot of scripts. Let’s do a few seller scripts, right? Do you have a couple that you can share with listeners? Things that you and your team work on?

Brendan: Yeah. Let’s go through one of my favorite, which is pricing, right? Pricing, the biggest thing where you can make or break your real estate career. So, let’s do it again, Matt. You’re my seller, and Matt, I come over to your beautiful home, and let’s just make easy numbers, and I know that your home should be listed at $500,000 so it sells, and you want $550,000. So, we’ll play with that scenario. So, Matt, thanks for having me over…you know. Well, we’re past this, but Matt, so based upon all the comparables that I’ve gone over with you today, Matt, what would you like to list the home at so it will sell in the next 30 days?

Matt: Well, I need to get $550,000 out of it.

Brendan: Okay, Matt. Excellent. Excellent, $550,000. So, Matt, taking a look at that $550,000 number, here’s my concern. We know that based on all the comparables, the current market value for the property is $500,000. So, what we do know is that for every 10%, Matt, that we list over market value, we lose 30% of the interested buyer pool. Now, Matt, you do want to receive offers and maybe even possibly multiple offers instead of no offers at all. Correct?

Matt: Correct. But I think my house is nicer than those, Brendan.

Brendan: And Matt. I completely understand. So, Matt, let me ask you, when we’re looking at the comparables, we know all the homes in the neighborhood that were very similar sold for $500,000 on average. Some even a little bit less than that. Matt, I want to help you. How do I get to that $550,000 number? And whenever I role-play, any time you’re talking about price, you always whisper, right? Because it’s a sensitive subject, and this is…I’m telling you, this is a nuance, right? So, Matt, I want to help you get to $550,000. All the comps are at $500,000, how do I get there? How can I help you?

Matt: Can we list at $550,000 and come down later if it doesn’t sell?

Brendan: Oh, Matt. You know what? Excellent question. And Matt, here’s what we know, that the most attention and activity you’re ever going to have on your home is in the first week to 10 days. After that…right? So, the first week to 10 days. After that 10-day mark, we become stale potatoes. No one cares about us. They think that there’s probably something wrong with the house. So, what happens is, after we get past that mark, if we have to go back and do a price improvement to the property, what happens is we’ll never get back to the excitement level that we had during that first 7 to 10 days. So, then what we’re going to be attracting are bottom feeders, investors, people that are going to try to make you a low-ball offer. Now, Matt, you don’t want a low-ball offer, do you?

Matt: I don’t want a low-ball offer. No.

Brendan: Of course, you don’t. I don’t want you to have a low-ball offer. That’s why it’s imperative that we list at or below market value to get you every dollar out of this property.

Matt: I’m trying to think of what the next objection would be, Brendan.

Brendan: Oh, and even if you said, you go, “Well, but…” Here’s some other ones, “But Brendan, they don’t have the same view as me, right? I have this gorgeous golf course view.” Matt, I completely understand, and you’re right. Oh, you had one. Go ahead. You go.

Matt: What about if they come back with…you know, economically, I need to get this number out of it, you know, to break-even, or I need X amount of equity out of my house. How do you counter that argument?

Brendan: Absolutely. So then, Matt, we would just dissect what the need is for. So, Matt, I completely understand that you need to walk away with X amount. Can we talk a little bit about why you need that money? Then you would say, “Otherwise, we can’t buy the house in Rhode Island. We can’t buy the house wherever.” Okay. So, I completely understand. So, Matt, let me ask this. If we, unfortunately, weren’t able to get the money you needed because it’s not what the market is willing to pay for the property right now, if it was less than that, would you be able to possibly, and let’s just say possibly, adjust the price of what you needed to purchase in Rhode Island?

Now, we could take it another step further. “Brendan, we can’t afford to pay your commission,” right? Like, “We’re super tight on the numbers. Everything you said is amazing, Brendan. You sound like you could do all of these things.” All right. So, I completely can appreciate that you feel that you cannot afford to pay what it’s going to cost me to get you the highest price possible.

Then I go into options. So, option number one, you can stay here and not sell and wait, and not get the highest price possible. Now, option number two, and this is what a lot of my clients do, they can speak to a family member and take a short-term loan and borrow some money to make sure that you can sell this house and move to get on to the next property. And then number three, and this is the option that doesn’t probably work for you is, just stay here for a long period of time and decide not to sell. What would you like to do?

Or I could have gone to a rental. You could decide to keep this property as a rental and rent this property, rent at your new area until you decide. But here’s the problem with that, Matt. You rent this out, people are going to damage the property. They’re going to bang it all up. People are going to be having parties in here, smoking cigarettes, doing all kind of stuff. You don’t want people smoking in your house. Do you, Matt? Of course, you don’t. That’s why you’re not going to want to rent it out. So, it’s all… You see what I’m saying? It’s all consultive logical thoughts to diffuse the bomb.

Matt: As Brendan and I wrapped up our conversation, he told me about a recent role-play session where he brought in his preferred lender. They went over some financial questions and scripts and stuff like that. As he was telling me this, Brendan brought up two script-related concepts that I want to make sure you hear about, the tie-down and trigger words.

Brendan: That’s why we practice. The best people know… We practice these scenarios so you can be prepared all the time, or even if you don’t know the answer, you would have known to go, “Look, Brendan, that’s an excellent question. And any time it comes to financing, I have an amazing lender. Her name is Annie Lemon, who I have all of my clients work with. Let me do this. Let me have her give you a call so she can take you through all your financing options. I’ll have her give you a call today at 4:00, or does tomorrow at 1:00 work better for you?”

So, even if I don’t know the answer, at least I had a script and answered, Now, and if you pick that script apart, here’s the beautiful nuance about that script, Matt. At the end there, what you didn’t even notice me do is I didn’t ask, “Is it okay if I have my lender give you a call, Matt?” I didn’t say that. I didn’t go, “Matt, why don’t I give you my lender’s phone number and you give her a call?”

Matt: Right.

Brendan: No, I didn’t do that. I just put what we call a tie-down on it. So, Matt, what I’m going to do is have my lender, Annie Lemon, give you a call. She can give you a call today at 4:00 or does tomorrow at 1:00 work better for you.

Matt: So, it’s not an option. It’s a, when do you want the call? It’s not an option, do you want the call?

Brendan: Here’s the trigger words that… I always talk about if you… You know those dog collars that zap you if you want to cross the fence…

Matt: Yes.

Brendan: …right? That have those invisible colors? Here’s things that you want to have as your invisible collar:

I think … I recommend … Is it okay? … Would you mind?

All of these things. Now, we were trained as a child to be polite, you know, “Mom, may I go outside?” No, right? Or yes, right? We’re not doing that. In role-play, in script practice, we’re assuming the outcome we want. So, instead of mom, may I go outside? Mom, I’m going to go ahead and go outside. Is it better if I go today at 2:00 or tomorrow at 4:00? Think how crazy that sounds, right? Like, it’s so funny to me, but it’s so…right? And your mom is going to be like, “I guess tomorrow at 4:00,” like, “Whatever, you little schemer. You nailed me,” right? You’re like, “You got me. You can’t go now.” But that’s it, right? It’s just taking something that’s simple, but that little change in phrase could lead to 10 appointments a month versus 5 appointments a month.

(Speaker: Matt McGee, Host) Ten appointments per month instead of five? I mean, I think we’d all be happy with that, right?

I mentioned during the conversation that Brendan does role-play every Thursday on Facebook, and everyone is invited to watch or even participate if you want to. You can find that by going to Facebook and do a search for Brendan Bartic Real Estate Coaching. There’s a page that you can like and a group that you can join, and you’ll find links to the weekly role-play in both of those. If you’d like more information about Brendan’s coaching program, go to brendanbartic.com. It’s B-R-E-N-D-A-N-B-A-R-T-I-C.com. And I will link to all of this from today’s show notes to make it easier to find.

All right. Let’s do our takeaways segment. Here’s what stood out to me from today’s conversation.

Takeaway number one, be systematic about how you do role-play. Brendan had several tips for what a successful role-play looks like. Number one, sit back-to-back so you can’t see each other. If you’re on Zoom, turn off your cameras. Number two, if you don’t get the script right, write it down five times. Number three, have a different partner as often as you can. Because look, the people that you’re going to be talking to, your leads and your clients, they’re going to be different and come from a bunch of different backgrounds. So, try to have a different partner when you’re doing role-play. And then number four, always end in success.

Takeaway number two, scripts don’t turn you into a robot. That’s not what this is about, but they will make you better prepared to answer questions and handle objections. They help you give your clients a better experience.

Takeaway number three, memorize, internalize, to monetize. Perfect your scripts first, memorize and internalize them, so that you can monetize them. Then it’s okay to get creative and add some personality.

Takeaway number four, Brendan says just about everyone in real estate can benefit from scripts and role-play. Unless you’re that one agent, you know, who’s naturally gifted and amazingly talented, like the Allen Iverson of real estate, scripts and role-play will help you get more appointments, convert more leads, and sell more homes.

Questions or feedback about today’s episode? You can leave me a voicemail or send a text to (415) 322-3328. You can send an email to walkthrough [at] homelight.com, or find me in our Facebook listener community. Just go to Facebook, do a search for HomeLight Walkthrough, and it’ll come right up. And by the way, today’s guest, Brendan Bartic is part of that listener community as well, so if you have questions for him or want to connect with him, that’s a great place to do it.

That’s all for this week. Hey, thanks to Brendan Bartic for joining me, and thank you for listening. My name is Matt McGee, and you’ve been listening to “The Walkthrough.” At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. We’re on a journey to find out how great agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

Go out and safely sell some homes, everyone. I’ll talk to you again next week. Bye-bye.

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