3 Scripting Principles for Real Estate Agents to Follow

What I want to share today are three key beliefs or principles around scripting and dialogues. 

Because tough questions are going to come up—especially with the August 17th changes that are coming—

• at listing appointments
• on lead generation calls
• during negotiations 

You can expect tough questions to come up in any situation where you’re trying to find homebuyers and sellers and put them together under an agreement of sale.

Knowing these three principles will keep you on the right track as you adapt to the changes. 

#1: Stop adjusting proven scripts & presentations

The first key principle is if you don’t know the scripts and you don’t have them down, stop winging it and adjusting the scripts as you go. 

Also, stop adjusting the field-tested presentations you’re learning from people who have documented results.

I’ll give you an example. I recently went on a listing appointment with an agent on our team. When we came into prep, the first thing that happened with this person was, “Here’s what I do, and here’s how I’m going to do things.” 

And my response was, “How much have you tested this? What are the results backing up the way you do things?” 

Everyone adjusts and ad-libs and wings it instead of just following the script from people who are getting documented results, and then wonder why it’s not working.

So, stop adjusting and start implementing. 

#2: You’re no help to consumers if you’re not doing what works

Principle number two is if you don’t use the scripts, the dialogues, the market facts, or the objection handlers, you can’t help people navigate the market. 

Let me be clear: it doesn’t do you any good to be able to be the best at role-play or to deliver the best presentation in the office if you’re not—

• getting out in the arena
• meeting people
• sharing the information

#3: Scripting is all about uncovering motivation

Principle number three is that scripting, openers, and objection handling are all about uncovering motivation—not convincing people to do something. 

Some agents believe that if they say the right thing, it will change someone’s mind from deciding they’re not ready to buy or sell a home to suddenly wanting to transact. 

That’s not how it works. 

If you look at all the data, life events and personal motivation dominate the reasoning behind people buying and selling real estate. 

So, all these conversation tactics—OFQs (opening, fact, question), scripting, objection handling—it’s all about asking more questions to understand who will be the next to transact and putting yourself in a position to work with them. 

Again—stop adjusting scripts that have documented results. There’s a reason they’ve been passed on just as they are. If you don’t use them, you can’t help people and uncover their motivation.

How to improve upon scripting that works

Now with all that, how do you improve scripts with documented results? 

Well, understanding what’s going on in the market. To start, it helps to know that there are new U.S. home price forecasts for 2025 from a variety of different sources, with the average forecasted national increase in home price being 2.5%. But you also need to take into account trends specific to your local market. 

That’s going to help you—

• understand what inventory and supply trends are in your marketplace
• understand what the average price growth is in your marketplace over the past 12 months
• know what’s happening with showings
• know what the interest rate projections are

In my market, housing supply is up over 27%, showings are down over 13%, and home prices are up 6.7% on average in the metro Philadelphia area. Knowing that is going to help me navigate tough conversations. 

Winning on personality is great. But knowing the market, understanding the scripts with proven results, and actually running the ones that work will be critical. 

So, stop ad-libbing and adjusting. And start using what works to get to the motivation. These principles are going to help you succeed now and after August 17th.