Every agent knows the January scramble: buyers and sellers who’ve gone quiet for months suddenly flood back in right after the holidays.
Tom Toole says the same window opens in late summer, and most agents miss it completely.
Right now, a lot of buyers and sellers are coasting, telling themselves they’ll deal with the house once school starts and life settles back into a routine. That’s exactly why the agents who reach out now build a pipeline that’s ready to move the second everyone else wakes up.
The problem is what most agents say when they do reach out. Lisa Chinatti calls it “checking the box”: scrolling through the CRM until a name pops up, then firing off some version of “just checking in” or “just touching base.”
During a recent BAMx Roleplay Mastermind session, Tom and Lisa broke down what to say instead.
Here are five specific scripts to use right now with your own database, split between buyers and sellers, built to spark a real conversation rather than a form-letter follow-up.
And if you want to practice conversations like these before using them with clients, BAMx members meet every week for a live Roleplay Mastermind with real-time feedback. Sign up here to join and get full access to all the scripts immediately.
1. The “Plan Now” Opener
Use this one on a lead you haven’t fully qualified yet, whether they’re leaning toward buying or selling. It works because it opens a conversation instead of asking for a commitment.
Rather than asking if someone is ready to transact, this script compliments them for thinking ahead of the fall rush, then invites a question back.
Here’s the script:
“Hey, [Name], it’s [Your Name] with [Brokerage]. As we head into the second half of the summer, we are seeing the most savvy buyers or sellers start to plan now to make a move before the end of the year.
“Out of curiosity, do you have any questions about the market?”
2. The Neighbor-Just-Sold Opener
This one’s built for sellers. It skips the direct “are you ready to sell” and leans on an actual, recent sale nearby to prompt a reaction.
Tom’s version ends with a direct question about the seller’s own timeline, not a pitch:
“Hey, [Name], it’s [Your Name] with [Brokerage]. Not sure if you saw your neighbor’s home just went under contract in two days, and they were asking $XXX.
“Curious how would that recent piece of sales activity impact your plans over the next 12 or 24 months?”
3. The “I Saw Three Homes” Opener
This one replaces a script Tom says drives him nuts: “Hey, you see anything you want to go take a look at?”
He calls that line an order taker’s opener, one that puts all the work on the buyer.
This version leads with something the agent actually found and did, then asks directly for a tour instead of waiting on the buyer to bring it up:
“Hey, [Name]. I’m not sure if this is going to be for you and [Spouse/Partner’s Name], but I saw three homes that came up, I know they’re in that neighborhood that you liked, it’s close to the lake, and not sure if you’d be open-minded to taking a look at them.
“Worst case, you don’t like them and we spend an hour, hour and a half together. Were you interested in setting up a tour?”
4. The Price-Is-Rising Opener
Use this one on sellers when there’s no single neighborhood comp to point to, particularly further up the funnel where you don’t know their exact motivation yet.
It leans on a market-wide stat as the reason for the call:
“Hey, it’s [Your Name] with [Brokerage]. Not sure if you saw home prices are up five to six percent this year. How would that impact your plans?”
5. The Inventory-Is-Growing Opener
This one’s for buyers, and it turns rising inventory into good news: more inventory simply means more homes to choose from.
The exact stat to use depends on the market. Tom’s own market has both rising prices and rising inventory right now. In Sunbelt markets, he pointed to showings increasing as the number to use with sellers, and inventory rising as the one for buyers, since the underlying conditions there are different.
“Hey [Name], it’s [Your Name] with [Brokerage]. Inventory in our market is up [X]% heading into fall. For buyers, that’s actually good news. More homes to choose from means less pressure, better decisions.
“If the right one popped up in the next 60 days, would you want to know about it?”
Pick Two and Get on the Phone
Tom’s advice on all five scripts: work two per prospect at a time, and skip running through the whole list at once. Time-block a weekly pass through the top-prospect list instead of leaning on an automated property drip to do the work for you.
One more note on delivery. Lisa flagged a habit that undercuts a lot of these scripts: dropping in real estate jargon a consumer has no reason to know.
“Does your buyer or seller know what that really means, and do they know what it means to them?”
Terms like “inventory,” “days on market,” and “market is shifting” mean something to another agent. Tom’s fix is to translate the stat into an outcome the consumer can actually picture.
“When there’s less listings out there, that’s better for sellers because buyers have less options. That’s a much simpler way to explain it.”
There’s still time before Labor Day to work through a list with two of these scripts and a plain-language stat behind each one. Make these calls now, and you’re more likely to have business lined up the moment everyone else decides it’s time to move.
Don’t Just Save the Scripts. Use Them
These five openers can get the conversation started. What happens after the buyer hesitates or the seller throws out an objection is where practice pays off. That’s why BAMx uses a three-step sales system:
- Get immediate access to all BAMx scripts and frameworks, updated every week.
- Join live Roleplay Masterminds sessions with Byron Lazine, Tom Toole and Lisa Chinatti every week. Practice the conversations live, work through objections, and get real-time feedback before the next client call.
- Use the on-demand BAMx AI Script Advisor between sessions to prepare for a conversation, personalize a script, or navigate an objection whenever you get stuck.
You get the language, the live practice, and the support to keep improving between sessions, all built around turning more conversations into closings.
Join BAMx and start building the confidence to handle every sales conversation.
