Kevin Ray WardFounder & Head Coach at YesMasters Real Estate Success Training

What to Say to Hostile Sellers #realestatecoaching #listingagent #fsbo

6 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:02

In this segment of his real‑estate coaching video, Kevin Ray Ward advises listing agents on how to handle hostile sellers or FSBO owners who resent real‑estate agents. He warns against entering a defensive mode—such as defending the profession or the agent’s commission—because doing so validates the seller’s negative perception and makes the agent appear as part of the problem. Instead, he recommends a counter‑intuitive approach: immediately agree with the seller’s frustration, acknowledge their past bad experiences, and express empathy. By aligning with the seller’s viewpoint, the agent avoids triggering anger, builds rapport, and creates space for a constructive conversation about listing the property.

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never defend agents, never defend your industry. Because the moment you do that, defending your industry makes you the enemy. It makes you one of the things they hate, right? All you Realtors are just the same thing. All you're after is a commission check. And they don't want to deal with that, right? And so when you start going into defense mode, it validates you are part of the problem. You're the part of the profession that they don't like. You become the agent that they're angry at. So, the counterintuitive move is to agree with them. I'd rather burn my house to the ground than list with an agent. And you just go like, oh, oh my gosh. So, it sounds like you have not had a great experience with agents in the past. I hear you. Okay? I just agreed with them. I hear you. I get it. You hate agents. There are agents that I hate too, okay? And what you're doing is you're getting on their side. I'm not going to try to defend that agent that burns you or an agent that had a bad experience with in the past, cuz that's not who you are.