I’ve been in this business a long time. I started selling real estate when I was 18, and I’ve seen just about every market you can imagine. And I can tell you, the market we’re in right now feels particularly challenging for a lot of agents. There’s nothing in the headlines inspiring people to take action. In fact, it feels like everything is creating fear, confusion, and doubt. It’s easy to look at all the buyers and sellers sitting on the fence and feel like your hands are tied. But I want to share a different perspective with you today. I believe that these very people, especially the hesitant sellers, represent the single biggest opportunity for you to grow your business right now. Your job, as a true professional, is to help people overcome their fear and hesitation to achieve the goals they already have. You have more power than you think. You just need a plan.
Your Mindset is the Starting Line
Before we talk about scripts or strategies, we have to start with what’s going on in your head. Your mindset around this topic is everything. When you’re talking to these buyers and sellers, do you truly have the confidence to ask for the order? To guide them toward a decision? Many agents I coach tell me they struggle with this. They’re afraid of sounding pushy, of being rejected, or that the client won’t like them if they apply a little pressure. Some agents even start to believe the client’s own story about why it’s a bad time to move.
Here’s an affirmation I’ve used for myself for years, and I want you to borrow it:
“My job as a great salesperson is to help people overcome their fear and their hesitation to achieve their goal.”
Notice the key words there: their goal. We are never talking about manipulating people into doing something they don’t want to do. We’re talking about the clients who have a real, motivating reason to move but are paralyzed by the “what ifs.” Your confidence becomes their confidence. The best way to build that confidence is to stop operating on opinion and start operating on facts. Your opinion on whether they should buy a house or adjust their price doesn’t matter. What matters is the data. When you study your market daily, when you know the inventory levels, the average days on market, and the absorption rate, you can speak from a place of authority. You become a trusted advisor, not just another salesperson.
Why More Conversations Are Non-Negotiable
In a market where fewer people are raising their hands to say, “I’m ready now!”, you have to change your approach. The reality is, you will need to have more conversations to find the people who are truly motivated to act today. I have lots of top producers in my world who track their numbers religiously, and they report back to me that in the current environment, the ratio is about 100 conversations to get one deal.
Now, before you get overwhelmed by that number, I want you to see the power in it. This is a formula. It means your success is not left to chance; it’s a direct result of your effort. You control the number of conversations you have. If you have 100 conversations this week, you can potentially get a deal this week. If you only have a few business-generating conversations a week, which is what I find most agents are doing, it’s going to take a very long time to get a deal. The hesitant sellers and buyers are out there, but you have to talk to more of them to find the ones whose motivation outweighs their fear.
A Simple System to Start Today: The 5-5-5 Plan
So how do you get to 100 conversations? You start with a manageable, consistent system. I call it the 5-5-5 Plan. It’s simple, and I want you to commit to it every single workday.
- 5 Quality Conversations: This means five real, back-and-forth conversations by phone, in person, or on Zoom. These could be with past clients, your sphere of influence, or following up with leads from an open house.
- 5 Outbound Emails: Five personal emails sent to create opportunity. Not a mass newsletter. This is a specific, targeted email to a potential client, a vendor partner, or someone in your sphere.
- 5 Outbound Texts: Five text messages to check in, follow up, or start a conversation.
If you time block one solid, uninterrupted hour for your calls, you can easily have five to seven quality conversations. The emails and texts take just a few more minutes. Master the 5-5-5 plan first. That’s 15 contacts a day, 105 a week. That is more activity than most agents do in a month. Once you master it, you can look for opportunities to have more conversations throughout your day. A chat with someone at the grocery store who asks about the market? That’s a contact. Asking the plumber you’re hiring for a listing if they know anyone who needs help? That’s a contact. You can build on this foundation and move to a 10-10-10 plan or even more. It’s up to you. But you must be intentional about creating conversations to find the willing.
Separating the Hesitant from the Unmotivated
All the conversations in the world won’t help if you don’t know how to identify a truly viable prospect. Not every lead is a good lead, especially right now. Your job is to quickly figure out if you’re talking to someone who is simply unmotivated or one of the truly hesitant sellers who has a deep need to move but is just scared. The key to this is asking great questions. After this, I want you to go through your pipeline and ask yourself if you can answer six critical questions for every single lead.
The Six Questions You Must Be Able to Answer
For any quality lead, you must know the who, what, where, when, why, and how. If you don’t, you don’t know enough to determine if they are motivated.
- Who: Who is involved in this decision? Is it just one person, a couple, a family with input from parents?
- What: What, specifically, are they trying to accomplish? What are the must-haves versus the nice-to-haves?
- Where: Where do they want to go? And just as important, where are they coming from?
- When: By when would they ideally like to be moved into their new home? This question uncovers their timeline and urgency.
- Why: This is the most important one. Why are they thinking of moving at all? What is the core emotional driver? A new baby, a job transfer, divorce, downsizing?
- How: How do they plan to do this financially? Are they pre-approved? Do they need to sell first?
If you’re missing these details, it’s perfectly okay to call them back. Just be honest and professional. You can say something like, “You know, I was thinking about our conversation, and I want to be sure I’m doing the absolute best job to support your plans. May I ask you a few additional questions so I can better understand your goals?” People appreciate a professional who is thorough. These questions give you the clues you need to separate the tire-kickers from the genuinely hesitant sellers and buyers who need your expert guidance.
Once you’ve identified a motivated but hesitant seller or buyer, your role shifts. You are no longer a salesperson; you are a counselor, a problem-solver, and a project manager. A true professional doesn’t just take an order and hope a matching house pops up. You take the bull by the horns and help them find solutions. For most hesitant sellers and buyers right now, the fear comes down to two big things: price and interest rates.
Tackling the Price Conversation with Facts, Not Feelings
Many sellers are emotionally stuck on the prices their neighbors got a year or two ago. They have a fear of “missing the peak.” Your job is to gently guide them to the reality of today’s market using facts. Show them the most current comps, the trend in days on market, and the number of price reductions in their area.
A powerful reframe, especially for a seller who is also buying, is to show them the full picture. You can say, “Jan, you’re right, the market won’t support the absolute highest price you were hoping for on this home. But here’s the great news. You’re buying up, and in that next price point, those sellers are facing the same market. The home you want to buy has also adjusted. So while you may take a little less on your sale, you’ll also pay a little less on your purchase.” Showing them both sides of the transaction can make all the difference. This requires skill and practice, and it is essential for handling price reductions with confidence.
The Interest Rate Hurdle: Turning Panic into a Plan
The other huge hurdle is interest rates. When I started my career, rates hit 18 percent. Can you imagine? And guess what? People still bought and sold homes. We are nowhere near that today, but for buyers who saw rates at 3 percent, today’s rates feel astronomical. Again, your role is to be the voice of reason.
Here’s an exercise I want you to do. Take your average sales price and calculate the monthly principal and interest payment at today’s rate. Then, calculate it at the “dream rate” your buyers are waiting for, maybe 6 percent or 5.75 percent. What is the actual dollar difference per month? Often, it’s not as much as they imagine, especially when you factor in the tax deduction for mortgage interest. You can then lay out the pros and cons. The con is a slightly higher payment. The pros? They get to stop paying rent, start building their own equity, get on with their life in a home they love, and they can always refinance in the future. Work with a great lender partner who can offer creative solutions, like a 2-1 buydown or a free refinance program. When you present a plan instead of just agreeing with their panic, you become an invaluable resource for your clients.
The Secret to Creating Legitimate Urgency
So, how do you finally get hesitant sellers and buyers to move forward? The secret is to create legitimate urgency based on their situation and the current market. And the best way to do that is to keep them in action. A body in motion stays in motion. Don’t let them just sit and watch listing alerts. For a buyer, that means getting them out to see a few properties, even if they say they’re six months out. Once they walk into a home they love, their timeline often accelerates dramatically.
For hesitant sellers, get them into action by meeting with them to review the numbers. Get involved in helping them prepare the house for launch. Start the decluttering process. As you do, you can remind them of a key strategic advantage of moving now. Goldman Sachs estimates there are over 12 million buyers and sellers on the sidelines. When rates do eventually tick down, there will be a flood of new inventory. That means your seller will have far more competition. By listing now, while inventory is still relatively constrained, they stand out. That is legitimate urgency. It’s helping them see that now is a good time for them to take action.
You have the power to guide people through this market. It starts with your own belief, is fueled by consistent action and conversation, and is executed through professional counseling and problem-solving. These hesitant sellers and buyers are not an obstacle; they are your inventory for the next six months. They are waiting for a true professional to show them the way forward.
Before calling, texting, emailing, or marketing to consumers, always follow applicable federal, state, and local laws, including Do Not Call, TCPA, fair housing, advertising, privacy, brokerage, and licensing rules. Consult your broker or compliance professional to confirm what is permitted in your market.
Results vary based on market conditions, experience, effort, skill, follow-up, and other factors. Past results do not guarantee future performance.
