¶ Real Estate Scripts
Hello and welcome to the Real Estate Scripts podcast , the show that helps you know what to say when you're talking to buyers and sellers so that you can close more deals and earn more money . I'm Darren Tunstall , a real estate professional coach and number one bestselling author . Let's get into this .
Before we begin today's episode , I want to clarify some important points . I am a licensed real estate agent and my DRE number is 018-53445 . It's crucial to note that this podcast operates independently of my affiliation with Keller Williams Realty and any realtor associations .
My primary goal with this podcast is to provide you , our listeners , with valuable information , insights and practical tools . As a reminder , the purpose of Scripts and Dialogues is to come , learn , practice and be prepared to fail forward . This is where we make mistakes and help each other out , but we're mostly interested in seeing how we can get better .
First we read through the script word for word and then we go back and put it into our own natural tone , style and phrasing . You won't know what to say until you go through the script . So , with that said , many people will say that's not how I sound , and I totally get it .
That's not how you sound , but that is the reason why we practice every day so that the script becomes you and in your own voice . So read it word for word first , then go back and put it into your own natural tone , style and phrasing and I think it'll work out . So this one is called explaining the net sheet to a homeowner .
In this particular one , I have it listed today that we're going to do something different , but I kind of want to go over this particular script because I realized that we talk about this quite a bit but we don't necessarily have an actual script that goes over explaining the net sheet to a homeowner . This is somebody who's interested in selling their house .
In this scenario , you are discussing the net sheet with a homeowner who needs to sell their home , focusing on expenses and the total amount they will receive , without mentioning commission percentages . So just to clarify , they will eventually see the commission percentages in the contract .
But , we're discussing it over the net sheet first , because that's where all the expenses are laid out , including the amount of money that they pay in commissions . The requirements are to be clear and detailed net sheet focused on the bottom line , open communication and reassurance and confidence .
The intention is to explain the net sheet and all associated costs to the seller transparently , ensuring they are comfortable with the total amount they will receive after expenses , including the agent's commissions . So that is what we're going over today . Hey , bridget , how are you ? Let's go ahead and break out for today .
Emily , let's have you talk to Bridget first . And , yeah , let's have you talk to Bridget first . She'll be the home owner who is interested in selling the house and you'll be going over her , over the net sheet with her , and that net sheet is something that I added to the to the chat box , so if you didn't get it , I'll add it again right now .
So whenever you're ready , emily .
Hi Bridget , Thanks for meeting with me today . How are you feeling about the process so far ?
Pretty good . It seems like there's a lot involved .
Yeah , Well , great to hear . I'm glad you're feeling good Today . I want to walk you through something called a net sheet . This document will give us a clear picture of what you can expect to walk away with after selling your home . Sound good .
Yeah , that would be great , Thank you .
Awesome . So the net sheet includes all the expenses you'll incur during the sale . This covers things like title insurance , escrow fees , any repairs or concessions we might need to make . The goal is to ensure there are no surprises down the road .
That makes sense .
Okay , well , let's start by looking at the selling price of your home , Based on the market analysis . We're aiming for $950 . Now here are the estimated expenses as you see down this column . Okay , you'll see here cost for title , insurance , escrow fees and a few other necessary expenses .
Now this amount here is the total that goes to the real estate agent , which is my team and me , and by the time we get to the listing contract you'll see the percentage . But what's most important is how much you get in your bank account after all the expenses are paid . Do you see this at the bottom ?
Yes , I do .
Okay , Awesome . So after subtracting all the costs from selling the price from the selling price , we get to the bottom line and this is the amount you receive in your bank account . How does that amount look to you ?
Wow , I just never knew there were so many fees associated with selling your home . I guess I really only ever thought about commissions .
Nope , there's a few other things , too , that you have to consider , but it's a good thing that you've owned your home for quite some time , because you're walking away with like three times what you paid for it . Okay . So the main thing is that we want you to feel confident and comfortable with every part of the process .
Are there any expenses or parts of this net sheet that you have questions about or that I can clarify for you ?
yeah . So I guess I don't really , you know , are all these expenses necessary or like , can escrow and title be combined , or I don't . I haven't even heard of some of these types of things . So I was just curious if any of these you feel are maybe not necessary .
So I was just curious if any of these you feel are maybe not necessary . Most of them are necessary . There are some of them that we can negotiate , as far as either the seller of the home pays or the buyer of the home pays . Typically , the ones on this one , on this column , are the ones that you would pay for . However , everything's negotiable .
Okay , let's maybe sit down and go over it a little bit more in detail . Transparency is key and I want to make sure you have a full understanding of what to expect . If you're feeling good about this , we can move forward to the next step , but if you want to sit down and go dive deeper into each one , I'm happy to do that .
Gotcha . I mean , it sounds like these are all necessary , so I guess I don't . Yeah , I guess I don't have any specific questions about it .
Okay , and you know what . You always have a go back . If there's something you don't understand and you want to go back and have it explained , I'm happy to do that . So let's get this home sold and with that amount in your bank account , you'll be able to move to Texas in no time .
So thanks again for your trust and partnership in the process , and we'll keep everything smooth and straightforward from here .
thanks , emily beautiful , love it , love the questions , awesome , and we just lost beauty she's like I'm not doing this .
Yeah , she's like I'm out , so I have a question and I didn't want to interrupt because Emily was crushing it . So like she's going over this to get to the point where she can say , okay , let's sign the contract , and that makes sense , and that makes sense .
But what you're suggesting is that we go over the details of the commission at the point of signing the contract , not right now . Is that correct ?
This is part , in my opinion , this is part of your presentation . So when you're going to a listing appointment , you should be bringing a CMA , you should bring , being in the net sheet , a preliminary title report , all this supporting documentation , right , and ultimately you want to have the conversation about .
Here's what we're looking at your home is valued at $950,000 according to the CMAs that we just reviewed . Number one , number number two these are the costs that are involved , typical costs that are involved . Right , and always get a like a high and a low too for the cma . I mean the net sheet as well .
But these are the typical costs involved , including the agent's commission , and we're not really wanting to talk about percentages right now , because we know that percentages will come up later in the contract when we review that with them . We just want to show them the bottom dollar . It goes back to that one question how much do you want to net ?
Are you concerned about the percentage or are you concerned about how much you want to net ? And I think , even with the given rules today , this is just another way of looking at it and being fully transparent .
Okay , based on what we talked about earlier , yes , it is at 6% , but we've already had the discussion that you were okay with this amount of money in your bank account . Are you still okay with that amount ? And I think the conversation is much easier to have than it is to just say , yeah , my percentage is 6% , right out the gate .
Yeah , because then people are totaling in their head and they're not doing , they're not accurately , I think , thinking of what is actually 6% and what actually you know does that cover . When I think , when they see their numbers bigger than all the other numbers , I think that's , that's the catch , right .
Yeah , that , and to touch on something else you asked about , like it's , we're wanting to show them the numbers and some of the expenses involved , some of which are negotiable , right , and we can have that conversation later on as well . But typically this is what it's about Now .
We don't want to get off too far into the weeds either about every single little expense , but you know what I love the fact that ? Hey , emily just said if you want to go back and have that discussion , emily just said if you want to go back and have that discussion , let's do it . You know I full transparency .
I want you to feel comfortable , I want you to be able to come to me if you have questions about any of these things and , by God , if I don't know , we're going to go and find out .
Well , you know sometimes people rush into stuff and then they're like oh , I should have asked this question .
Right right .
In anything we do so I have one more follow-up question , if you don't mind .
Um , with all the changes happening with the net sheet , are you guys still going to put both uh , you know , like the whatever your full commission is to split , potentially assuming there's a buyer's agent involved , or are you just going to put your fee in net Cause , like I went on a listing appointment last week , he's not ready to list until September .
The change will already be in place and I kind of was like well , I'm not . I wasn't quite sure how much I should talk buyers agents commissions with him , because in California they're removing it off our contract completely .
Yeah , that's a really good question and I have two scripts ready to go right now that I haven't released yet . The challenge is we don't really know what to expect at the moment . So right now , I would say , as of right now , I would say do things as normal , put it on there .
I still think it's a fantastic idea for the seller to pay for the buyer's commission , agreed , and . But if the question comes up , then there are documents that we can use or contracts that we can use to help have that conversation with a buyer if the seller is going to pay , or with the buyer if the seller is not going to pay , and vice versa .
So there are documents ready to go . I'm just not prepped to well , I don't want to say I'm not prepped because the scripts are done . I'm just not ready to release those yet until my broker says it's okay and do that . Um , you know . So right now I would say just continue as normal .
The whole , the whole point of this is transparency and to give people the option as to whether they want to offer that or not . They don't have to , but if we show them the value in having a buyer's agent , then I think they're going to want to .
Agreed .
Yeah , because the whole thing is .
Well , I don't want to again , I don't want to go too far into it , but the whole thing is is if you , as a listing agent , are going to list a home and the seller does not want to pay and a buyer comes along and says , hey , I want to buy that house , now you have put yourself in a position of asking yourself the question what is my fiduciary
responsibility ? And there's a fine line there and it's like there's a lot of questions that need to be answered . So you know right now , and you know , with everybody scrambling , rewriting all the contracts , changing the laws , there's so much in the air right now that I think we should just stop .
Thank you know , see what's going on , and then we can decide how we're going to move forward . Ask a lot of questions of your broker , attorney , team leader , all that . You guys know the drill for that .
¶ Understanding Real Estate Net Proceeds
Okay , with what you heard , I know you're driving , and this was an attachment . Do you think you could recreate that conversation off the top of your head ?
It won't be as pretty as Emily . I can promise you that .
Well .
I will stumble through it , no problem .
You'll be fine . You'll be fine , but you get the point . It's through the net sheet that we're having this discussion before we get to the actual listing contract . So when you're ready , bridget , go for it .
Wonderful . Well , emily , again , thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today . And now that we've gone over the marketing and the value of your home , what I would like to go over is my estimated seller proceeds , or our net sheet , which essentially goes over all of the costs associated with selling your home . Does that sound good ?
Yeah , that sounds wonderful . So if you look here , here is a copy of the net sheet .
This is based on the assumption of us selling your home at $1 million and based on the loan amount that you currently owe from the document you showed me from your lender , and based on proceeds and based on estimates of what we think will need to be done to your property .
This also includes escrow and title fees and all the standard fees here in California , in Southern California , that a seller typically pays for on occasion . Sometimes a buyer may try to entice you to accept their offer and pay for it , but a vast majority of the time these are fees paid for by a seller .
Do you have any questions about any of these fees specifically ?
Not really .
OK , wonderful . Well , let's go ahead and go over the contract together so we can get your home sold and get you moved out to Florida .
OK .
All right . Well , that was simple .
Yeah , I think Emily was being kind to me because I was driving .
Well , you know what ? I would love to do it again , but this time mention this is what the bottom dollar is and ask them how will that amount look in your bank account ? But this time I want to do it slightly different . Emily's calling you . You've sent her this net sheet .
You're driving down the road and you're having a conversation over the phone about this net sheet . So she's got some expenses . Can we try that angle a little bit just to make it a more of a real life scenario , because it is Sure Thanks , emily for calling .
Did you have any specific questions ? Sure Thanks , Emily for calling . Did you have any specific questions ?
Yeah , what the heck is this thing you sent me ? I don't understand it . You said that you could sell my house for a million dollars , but I'm only walking away with you know eight . Something I don't understand .
So this I'm glad you asked . This was based on the information that you provided as far as how much you owe on your loan and the closing costs associated with selling a home .
So that includes , I thought , the buyer pays for closing costs . I don't get it .
So the buyer pays for their closing costs and the seller has their own closing costs . So when you bought the home you probably had lender fees . You had to pay appraisal fees , inspection fees on top of the escrow and title fees . As a seller , you're not responsible for most of those items , just your portion of the escrow and title fees .
You don't have to pay the lender fees , the appraisal fees , inspection fees , that's all on the buyer . Okay , Does that make sense ?
Kind of I don't know . This doesn't seem like it adds up . If you're selling my house , my house is pretty much paid off , so I'm not understanding . These fees add up to quite a lot .
So to sell your home , you know I mean percentage wise , it's usually around . You know the fees add up to about 7% , 7.5% typically to sell your home . So there's a lot of people associated with selling your home between escrow and title , between escrow and title , the banks , of course , the buyer's broker uh , myself , uh , transaction coordinators .
Um transaction coordinators , I thought you were . You're the one who coordinates everything .
That's well , I have a transaction I have a transaction coordinator that I pay to double check and make sure all the pay that you pay , so why am I paying ? You're not paying the transaction coordinator .
Oh , I thought that you said that , so I thought you said I had to pay them Okay .
I was just saying . There's a lot of people involved in the transaction and that's why there's so many fees associated with that .
Okay , got it . Yeah , well , maybe we should sit down and go over this when you have time , because I need a little more clarification . This , this isn't adding up to me yeah , that's fine .
Um , I'll be back in front of my computer in about 20 minutes , if you wanted to know I think , we need to meet in person sure would you like to meet this afternoon ? Yeah , can you come by the house ?
Absolutely , how about three o'clock ? That works perfectly . Thank you .
Wonderful . Is there any other questions besides the net sheet that you have , that I want to make ?
sure I'm prepared we can go over when we meet . No , I'm going to write down all my questions to make sure I don't forget anything when you get here .
Wonderful . I look forward to seeing you at three . Thanks , emily , thank you .
All right , love that . You know this is a week for seller objections and this is the one that I incorporated into it . This is off the site . This is not the same exact one that we're practicing on the site .
I just thought it was a very much needed script to have , based around the net sheet , but that was great because she pushed back and I think you did well at answering it , and she wants you to come by and that's okay because that's what we do , right .
How'd you feel about it , bridget ? Yeah , I probably . Personally , I like to do a lot of my meetings on Zoom , so I probably would have pushed a little bit harder to do it on zoom . Um , just cause I like to be efficient and most of my meetings are on zoom these days . But um , for the sake of the exercise , I was like sure let's meet .
I'm totally available . I have plenty of free time this afternoon .
Oh yeah , absolutely , we're all day Well well , a lot of times we go through a script and we've done the whole presentation , did all the marketing , sold the house and everybody was happy all in 20 minutes . So it's a regular . You know , sell this house episode on TV . No , you did , you did fantastic and I and I totally get it for being .
Time is of the essence . You did a great job and Zoom is good too , except I think sometimes you know , what about our ? What about our older clientele ? Sometimes you know , 75 , 80 years old , they might need a little more in-person type stuff . You know , here and there . Um , not that they can't use zoom , I just don't want to .
I'm just saying people who are not very as familiar with zoom might need some in-person type appointments here and there and that's kind of what I was going for .
Yeah , being older , my house has paid off .
Been there a while yeah , and sometimes they don't do docusign either , so you've got to do it in person yep exactly so .
That's , and that's another reason why , getting familiar with contracts , to be able to do a wet signature versus the digital signature , you really need to know where to point . Um , not everything has a highlight or a sign here . Little yellow sticky tag , it's digital , all right . And Emily , I mean Debbie and Wendy , how'd you do ?
We did good . We both went through it the first time and then I kind of just went on my own tangent on the last one . So I was taking it from the aspect that Wendy was concerned about all the money for commissions and I want to show her you know well the house you bought in Florida .
You wanted to pay cash and have a little extra and this is your net sheet , and this is your net sheet and this is what you'll end up with and that made her happy .
There you go . Yeah , describe to a third grader or a fourth grader mentality . Really , I'm serious .
Well that's what they always say is to the lowest common denominator . So it's just really knowing your audience . Some people just want knowing your audience , some people just want to sign here and some people want their hands held through every line of every contract .
So yeah , I'm curious , how does everybody feel about having this conversation from a net proceeds perspective versus just coming straight out the gate ?
I charge six to seven percent it depends on the audience , I think I think so too .
I was just going to say that I think debbie hit it on the head there . Depends on who you're talking to . I think it's always a good idea to be prepared for either , you know , maybe you start out one way and then they want more detail . So then you bring out the net sheet and say , okay , here's the breakdown .
Yeah , yeah , okay , that's good . I was just kind of curious . But at the end of the day , I think we can all agree that transparency is key . You know transparency , transparency , that transparency is key . You know transparency , transparency , transparency Everything is negotiable .
We're just showing them different ways of thinking about how the expenses in the transaction are paid , and using a net sheet is a great way to put all these expenses , including your commission , and I loved that Bridget went back and listed everybody . You know appraisal , inspector , title fees , escrow fees , my commissions are paid as well .
You know there's other people involved in the transaction , like transaction coordinators , which is what I pay . You know combining that with a script as well later on with , like you know , geez , commission , your commission is high . Well , I mean , I , you know there's , there's only I only keep 3% and 1% goes to taxes .
The other percent goes to my broker and I get to keep a percent as well , which I have to pay taxes on too . So there's a whole . There's a whole different way .
I mean , with all the scripts and all the ones that we practice , and you can combine these and have intelligent conversations , but you got to be here , you got to do that every single day right To get this , so , but I think you all did a fantastic job . Anything else to add before we go ? All right , lead generation's next , and good job everyone .
Bye .
Bye .
Great topic . Thanks , Darren .
Thank you . Talk to you soon , all right , one bye , bye , great topic . Thanks , darren . Thank you , talk to you soon , all right , so that's the script . I hope that you found it useful . Just head over to realestatescriptspracticecom for more resources and downloads . This content is for educational purposes only and does not make any guarantees .
We suggest you seek the help and or advice of your broker coach , mentor , office manager , attorney and or financial advisor . Brought to you by Darren Tunstall , a licensed real estate agent , dre number 01853445 . This content operates independently of Darren's affiliation with Keller Williams Realty and any realtor associations .
The intention is to provide you with valuable information , insights and practical tools . Please note that all results may vary and participants are responsible for their own actions .