The Scripts and Objection Handlers We Actually Use for FSBOs and Expireds

For sale by owner listings and expired listings are two of the best sources of business an agent can work, and also two of the most avoided. I hear the groan constantly: "Mike, every time I call, they say the same thing. Everybody's calling me. Stop." Look, that reaction isn't about FSBOs and expireds being a bad source. It's about the opening line and the approach. We covered a full session of these scripts on Tuesday training, and you can listen to the whole thing on our podcast, Free Beer and Real Estate.

Two Different Mindsets: FSBOs vs Expireds

In my experience, for sale by owners are noticeably more receptive than expired listings. Most FSBO sellers already understand that agents represent a pool of buyers, so there's a natural opening there. Expireds are a different animal. They just came off a bad experience, in most cases a real bad one. Their house didn't sell, and often they had an agent who promised them the world and didn't deliver.

The mistake a lot of agents make with expireds is leading with the obvious: "I noticed your home didn't sell." That's like noticing someone has a paper cut and pouring lemon juice on it. You have to read the room before you open your mouth, and FSBOs and expireds need two different rooms read.

Open With a Pattern Interrupt, Not a Pitch

Whether it's a FSBO or an expired, I like starting the call with what a lot of coaches call a pattern interrupt, something that breaks the script they're expecting to hear. A few that work well: "I'm not trying to get your listing today," or "I know you weren't expecting my call." My teammate Mike Pillow and I both like an even bolder version, where you actually give the person the option to hang up. Something like, "This isn't a sales call, just wondering if you'd give me two minutes, or would you rather hang up now?"

There's real psychology behind that. When you hand someone the power to end the call, they usually don't take it. They say, "Okay, go ahead." And whenever you have a name, use it as a statement, not a question. "Hi, Scott" lands better than "Is this Scott?" It sounds like you already know them rather than like you're confirming a cold call list.

Test Scripts Like You'd Test Anything Else

Not every agent needs to use the same opening. I've heard about a guy from Hawaii who took the total opposite approach and went straight for the appointment on the first line: "I'm calling about your home for sale at 123 Main Street. I'd like to come take a look. How's tonight at 5 or tomorrow at 10?" Bold, but apparently it worked well for him.

My advice is simple. Pick a script you feel comfortable with, master it, and track your results. If you're getting appointments, keep using it. If you're not, change it. The script that works isn't a universal answer, it's the one that fits your voice and gets results for you specifically.

My own go-to is a helpful approach: "How's it going, are you getting buyers through? If I were to bring a buyer, would you be interested in speaking with me?"

When "Do You Have a Buyer" Comes Up

This is one of the toughest objections you'll hear, and it's tempting to just say yes even when you don't have a specific buyer lined up. Don't. That's directly against the code of ethics. Instead, I use something like, "I work with a lot of buyers in this area, and I'd like to preview your home to see which of my buyers it might be a good fit for." That's honest, and it still gets you in the door.

While you're at it, ask if they're willing to cooperate with agents at all. Some FSBO sellers are dead set against paying any agent, and it's better to know that early than to spend your time trying to convert someone who's categorically against the idea.

Not Every Question Is an Objection

One thing I see agents get wrong constantly: they hear a question and immediately treat it like an objection. "How much do I have to pay you if you bring a buyer?" isn't necessarily resistance, it's usually just a real question. Take a breath before you respond.

My answer isn't a number. It's something closer to, "We can discuss that. The good news is I have an agreement with my buyers, and we'll work out the commission once we've agreed on a price." Most sellers care less about what you get paid and more about their net proceeds, so steering the conversation toward net rather than commission percentage tends to keep things moving.

Use the Open House to Your Advantage

If a seller is resistant to a private showing, ask if they have an open house scheduled. It's a natural, low pressure way to get in the door. I like timing my visit for right before the open house starts, or even better, near the end of it, so I can walk through and then have questions ready just as they're wrapping up. Asking about the open house is also a natural lead into a bigger conversation about how the home is actually being marketed.

The Marketing Reality Check

This is one of my favorite conversations to have with a FSBO or an expired seller. Ask how they're marketing the property. If the answer is just Zillow, that's an opening. Zillow is good, but it's a fraction of where buyers are actually looking. A question I ask now that I didn't used to: is your home showing up in AI searches? Buyers are increasingly typing detailed prompts into AI tools, things like finding a three bedroom ranch within fifteen minutes of a specific hospital or employer, and a listing that isn't set up for that kind of visibility is getting missed.

Pricing has its own version of this conversation now too. More sellers are telling us, "I plugged my address into ChatGPT and it gave me a price, I don't need an agent." I treat that the same way I'd treat a Zillow estimate. Those automated valuations can be off by close to twenty percent in either direction, and I ask directly: has ChatGPT ever actually been inside your home? Uploading photos is better than nothing, but it's still just one data point. Asking how they arrived at their price is usually a great way to open up a real conversation about value.

Smoke Screens vs Real Objections

My friend Greg Harelson, a Century 21 broker out of Myrtle Beach, talks about the difference between smoke screens and real objections, and it's changed how I handle both FSBOs and expireds. When someone says, "We're not selling right now," in my experience that's a smoke screen about 99 times out of 100. They're just trying to get off the phone, which is fair, you did call them cold.

Instead of arguing with it, ask a qualifying question. "If your home had sold, where would you have gone? What was the plan?" Everyone who puts a home on the market has a plan, even if it's loose. Getting to that plan tells you their real motivation, whether they're in a hurry or just testing the waters.

Our Go-To Objection Handlers

A few of the objections that come up constantly, and how I handle them:

"I'm not interested in paying a commission." I get curious about the net instead. Do you have a dollar amount in mind you need to walk away with? I'll also mention that without a listing agent involved, they're often only looking at paying one side of a commission, not the full amount, which tends to soften this one quickly.

"We want to try it ourselves first." Fair enough. How long do you want to try before you reassess and talk to an agent?

"Agents just want the listing." Sure, everybody wants the listing. But I'm not here to list houses, I'm here to sell them, and I've got a track record to back that up. I like knowing my market's average days to contract cold, so if a FSBO tells me they've been at it a month with nothing, I can point out that a month is a long time relative to what's typical right now.

"I'm on Zillow, that's good enough." Zillow is one source. I talk about professional photography, video, and targeted advertising, Facebook ads that can put a listing in front of buyers within a fifteen mile radius, for example. Most FSBOs, and most agents honestly, aren't doing that kind of targeted marketing. They're putting a sign in the MLS and waiting for the phone to ring.

"We already have an agent" or "a family member is an agent." I handle this one two ways. First, I ask what made them choose that agent, which tells me who my real competition is. Second, and this is the one I like best, is the second opinion close. Around 72 percent of people work with the very first agent they meet, without ever comparing. You wouldn't sell a car to the first lot you visit without shopping it around, and a house is worth a lot more than a car. A free second opinion costs them nothing and gives them real information.

Get Good Data, and Pay for the Upgrade

Wherever you're pulling your FSBO and expired lists from, whether that's Vulcan 7, Red X, LandVoice, PropStream, or Property Radar, it's almost always worth paying for the upgraded tier. I used to skip the paid upgrade and got burned by it constantly, wrong numbers, people who'd already sold a year earlier. Once I paid for the better data, accuracy jumped to somewhere around 90 percent. LandVoice in particular goes a step further by flagging signals like pre-foreclosures and divorces, which predicts who's likely to sell rather than just handing you a phone number.

One more thing worth saying clearly: always check the Do Not Call list before dialing, and talk to your broker about your local compliance requirements. It's not worth the fine.

And if you end up calling someone in a tough spot, behind on taxes or headed toward foreclosure, don't think of it as vulturing. You're often the person who shows them they have an option they didn't know about, walking away with something instead of losing the property outright. That's solving a real problem.

Keep Practicing

We run these exact scripts every Saturday morning at 8:30 Eastern on a roleplay Zoom open to any agent, regardless of brokerage. If you want in, email me at mike@21mike.com and I'll add you to the invite. We also cover a new topic every Tuesday at 11:30 Eastern in our regular training session, live on Zoom and posted after to YouTube and the podcast.

Mike Ferrante
The Mike Team at LPT Realty
www.21mike.com
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