I recently learned a powerful technique from a top real estate agent:

It involves using specific language to handle objections.

Here's what I mean:

Instead of responding with "yes, but," I want you to rephrase it as "yes, and."

This simple shift can have a profound impact on your client interactions. For example, if a client tells you they want to hire a different agent, instead of saying "yes, but," try saying "yes, and I appreciate your honesty. I'm curious to understand your reasons for making that decision."

The magic of this approach is that it changes the dynamic and encourages open dialogue.

When a client expresses dissatisfaction with a property, rather than responding with "yes, but," respond with "yes, and."

Let's say that they think the house doesn't have a big enough backyard. You can say: "yes, and I understand your concern. On the other hand, there's a lovely park in the neighborhood that might...

How old were you when you moved out of your parents' house? And how old were you when you purchased your first home? New information from the National Association of REALTORS shares the latest data with us on the averages in the US. The average age of someone leaving their parents' house today is... drum roll... 26 years old. And the average age for them to purchase their first home is 34.

So I'm gonna challenge you. Put this out on a social media post and ask that question:

When's the first time you moved outta your parents' house? When did you buy your first house? You're gonna get a ton of responses. Then answer the question yourself like I did recently, and I got a huge response on this, and my answer was, I moved out at 17. I bought my first house at 19.

Then you might dig deeper and say, what's preventing you from taking that next step? If you have some people say, well, I'm not a homeowner yet. Get into that...

Hey guys, as you're preparing for the new year, you should start to think about what you can do differently for 2023 that you have never done before?

A lot of you have a listing presentation. Some of you have a buyer presentation. Some of you have a pre-listing kit and a pre-meeting buyer kit for buyers. And a lot of you don't have those things.

But if you do have those things and you're saying, what's the next thing I could add to my overall mix of marketing materials?

I'm gonna give you an idea right now:

It's called my "success portfolio."

If you were gonna go to an architect, photographer, or even a baker or wedding planner, when you go into those places and you talk to them about doing business, a lot of times they'll bring out their portfolio. And their portfolio is kind of a graphic representation of what they've done. A visual representation of what they've done in the past for other clients.

So the...

Only 16% of buyers believe it's a good time to buy a home today. That's according to a new study from Fannie Mae. So when we hear that number, it's kind of a shocking number and it's a record low. Let's not put any sugar on this. It's not good.

So when we're talking to our clients that may have thought about buying but are on the fence right now, how can we have just an honest conversation about the market today?

Well, I like this idea of a "then versus now" conversation. The "then versus now" conversation is dealing with real world numbers. And so let's assume you have a situation where you say, "Hey listen, I know you're kind of on the fence about buying right now, but I just wanna walk you through something to think about. If you were back in time six months ago when we started talking about buying, and you bought a house back then, let's just run through some numbers. I'm gonna compare that to where we're...

30 years ago, when I entered the real estate business, we used to see a clause, and I used to use this all the time myself, that we would build into offers.

And the clause said something to this effect:

"This offer is subject to the buyer qualifying for a loan and the home qualifying for a loan as noted in the offer terms. And you could say the loan type (conventional, FHA VA, whatever you're gonna do there) at an interest rate not to exceed X."

And that was the key part of that language. And I'm not suggesting you use that language exactly, that's something for you to talk about with your broker. But we would just have an interest rate cap built into our offers.

Now, some people would say, Well Jim, when I have my buyers get qualified, they generally lock themselves in. Not every buyer locks themselves in. A lot of buyers like to try to gamble and float it.

So when we build that language in, it gives the buyer an...

One of my good friends told me about this incredible strategy that she's using with her buyers.

One thing that happens with buyers is when they come in, we tend to walk them through a conversation that has to deal with criteria. We qualify 'em of course, and we start talking about criteria.

And for instance, when we talk about criteria, here's an example of what we might say, "Well, what are you looking for? Are you looking for a three bedroom, two bath? How much square feet, what area of town?" And then ultimately we get to, "and what price range are you in?" And how did you arrive at that price range?"

We always come down to the price range.

Then they got prequalified with the lender, whatever, and then we try to fit round pegs and square holes.

So we look into the market and start telling the client about why they can't afford to be where they want or why they're gonna have to adjust their budget.

That's a hard conversation to have. And...