In this Q&A Thursday session, Chris Prefontaine teaches real‑estate investors how to handle sellers who refuse to lower an over‑priced listing. He argues that arguing about comps is a losing strategy and instead recommends moving to the seller’s side of the table by using neutral, market‑based language. He provides concrete scripts for probing how the seller arrived at their price, positioning the investor as a helpful ally, and shifting the conversation from price to flexible deal terms such as owner‑financing, extended terms, and principal‑only payments. He demonstrates how to calculate the benefit of longer terms and how to present oneself as the “best buyer” who can overpay in exchange for favorable terms. When a seller still won’t budge, he stresses the importance of uncovering true motivation by asking a “Plan B” question, which reveals whether the seller has a deadline or genuine urgency. Throughout, he intersperses calls to action for his live “In the Trenches Boot Camp,” weekly themed videos, free resources on his website, and a limited‑time free Authority Book for investors. The overall message is to replace price battles with collaborative problem‑solving, using scripted dialogue, creative financing, and motivation probing to turn overpriced deals into profitable transactions.
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All right. Welcome to this week's Q&A Thursday. This is a huge topic that comes up all the time on our private coaching calls. And it's what do you do when a seller won't lower their price? A bunch of things we could talk about. Let me kind of start with some basics for you, because this is one of the things that causes like other investors in other niches to run away, right? If a seller is high on their comps for whatever reason, we don't know yet. We didn't dig into it yet. Let me give you some techniques. But if you're arguing comps with them, you're already losing and you're going to have a much, much better result by what I call moving to their side of the table. Literally, just use mindset now. Get on their side of the table. When a seller won't lower the price, let me give you some exact things I do. First of all, let me tell you, I alluded to other investors, so let me tell you where they mess up. Right. Don't do this. Arguing comps I mentioned. Okay, just don't do that. It's not worth it. I'm going to give you a tactic and some hacks to do that instead that we do personally that's far different from anyone else. And, and I'll hear like brand new people that come in our community trying to like argue or prove the seller wrong. Like, no, this is my comps and they're getting emotionally involved in it. Then they end up walking away too soon, right? Because there's no synergy there. The key line, if you remember, and I'll give you a little bit more of a script here. So this is super practical today. Is the market makes up the numbers. You and I don't, Mr. and Mrs. Seller. The market. So now you're on their side of the table. Look, I'm on your team. The market makes up the numbers. We don't. So just with that in mind, let me give you some more scripts here. Here's, here's how you get on their side of the table and stay on their side. So you're working out their solution versus banging heads, right? This is cool. I'm on your team is a good one. I just said that simple script. Look, I don't make up the numbers and you don't either. The market does. I just don't see comps supporting the price we're talking about here. So you didn't say your price, right? I just don't see comps supporting the price that we're talking about here. So I'm curious, how did you arrive at that number? And then just be quiet. They might say realtor, they might say a true appraisal. That's a different answer. Not a CMA, a true appraisal, not a comparative market analysis. If you guys didn't know what CMA was from a realtor, I'm talking about a true appraisal. Like, let them answer you. Because reality is, here's what I tell them. Here's what I tell the seller. Look, reality is in the conventional market, let's just take your price for a second. Take me out of the loop. And by the way, I always say to them, look, I'm going to talk to you like I talk to a family member, whether we ever do business or not. That's another way to, like, remove you from the emotional part and the head part. Look, I'm going to talk to you just like I would my brother or my father or a family member. You guys pick. And, and whether we do business or not, this is just sound advice. So now you're coming across as the authority without butting heads, right? Okay. So here it is. You say that, look, reality is in the conventional market, let's say that someone falls in love with your price that you have on this, that we don't— you and I aren't seeing comp yet for. Let's say they do. You're lucky enough to have that. Unless they pay cash, you're going to have a headache. And here's why. We're going to have— they're going to have bank financing, most people. They're going to do an appraisal. This takes time. Now you've gone through home inspection, you've gone through appraisal. Now you're 2 to 4 months out in the market. Now, again, side note, is this going to be bad for their timing? I don't know. I'm— because I'm talking generalities here, but this might be bad for their timing. That's why you're saying it without tying it to them, right? Yeah. So, so now, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, you're out 2 to 4 months. The appraisal doesn't come through. Nobody in their right mind is going to overpay, so the deal dies. Now, the market may have slipped by now. Opportunities you had to move may have slipped. Your job opportunity you're moving to may have been, you know, whatever their motivation is. So that's super important. Now, here's kind of a— now you're in this table, you've kind of gained some authority and some rapport. Here's how you make that. Let me call it the transition. Look, here's the good news. If we can't make this price work, maybe we can work on terms. Now, again, I'm being general because I don't know, are they free and clear? The seller you're talking to, if they're free and clear, you could crazy do crazy creative stuff. But we're going to shift here. We're going to shift their mindset from price to terms. So let's talk about that. If they're owner financing and debt-free or they, they have a mortgage but they have some equity, you have total play because all you do is you extend the term out long enough and you make your monthly payments to them principal only. Yes, we do that on almost every single deal. Like there are very few exceptions and I'm talking about over a decade. Right. So you, you get your term, you get your principal only. And the reason it works is let me use a number. Let's say that I'm making a $1,500 a month payment to my seller, principal only. Well, do I mind if I pay them a premium of, let's just say, $10,000? If I can extend the term from 3 or 4 years to 10 years, I'm making that up, right? Well, in the course of 12 months, I get what, $1,500 a month, $18,000 of paydown. I paid him a $10,000 premium. Who cares? In less than a year, I eat that up, right? So the key is price is super flexible when terms are flexible. So you can be— you literally And I don't mind saying this to a seller. Look, I'm your best buyer because I'm the only one that'll overpay. That's another good line. So this is loaded with scripts, guys. I would kind of take this and work this a little bit, maybe get it transcribed and be very comfortable talking to sellers. Now, I tell some of the people I coach one-on-one, it's a small group, look, take something like this, this video we just did, right? And drill this for like 2 or 3 weeks. Because what's going to happen is next time you get on the phone with the seller, you're like in your mind begging them to just, just ask me about price and just ask me about— like, you can't wait to talk about this stuff, right? Because you're going to be the only viable buyer and realize that, that they're— by them being in this mode of, you know, I got to get my price, that's in the owner financing world. That's great. Great. I just need my term. And most people in the owner financing world who are debt-free don't, quote unquote, need the money. They will take it over time as long as they get it right. Now, other issue here, because I don't know, like I'm throwing this at different deal sets. So let's say that they just won't budge. I don't care what you do. And let's say that they don't want to do owner financing. Here's the key question. This is the absolute key question for you to think about. Do they have motivation? This is going to tell you, should you follow up? Right? Like if people are doing the— what do they call it on Zillow? The make me move price or whatever the hell they call it now. Or the people have no timeline or they literally like you're not seeing or hearing a problem to solve. Here's the key. All right. I'm going to give you the last— like, this is the— this script I'm about to give you is killer. This is it. Ready? When in doubt, use the script. Just ask them. All right, like you're going around and around, you're not getting anywhere. Let me ask you that. I'm super curious. If you don't get that price, what is your plan B or what is your backup plan or what should we consider next? The answer to this question tells you everything because the answer is, I'll just stay, not motivated. If the answer is, what do you mean? I like— I have to move. I have this job that I'm moving to and this has to happen. The kids are getting in school in September and I got to be at So the answer to what if it doesn't sell, what's your plan B, is 100% motivation driven and it will answer what the heck you need. All right, guys, I could go on and on on this. This is cool stuff. Really cool for you to know that we do this live. It's called In the Trenches Boot Camp. We do it live right here in our classroom at our office where we're calling your sellers on your behalf and doing these types of calls live. You definitely want to learn more about that. In the meantime, You want to learn how to restructure these things every week? Just subscribe to our channel here. This happens to be a Q&A Thursday, but we have Deal Structure Sunday and we have Motivational Monday so that you're putting in all kinds of different skill sets as well as the mindset to help you just crush it when you're talking to sellers. Not sure where to get started? Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/getgoing for free books, strategy calls, and a whole bunch more. We're going to help you get going the wicked smart way. We've been after this for over a decade doing exactly that. I used the word authority earlier. Let me give you a free offer here. And the team's not going to love me for this, but I've got a small supply left. So let me just say the first 20 or so people that, that request this, we'll give it to you. We have a book on how to build your authority, and I don't want you to go on Amazon and buy it. I want you to send us an email, support@smartrealestatecoach.com, and say in the subject line, Chris said I could have this book. I had no else to say. And then just write in the— write in the description, please send me the Authority Book for Real Estate Investors. All right. I'll send it to you for free, guys. Until then, subscribe, share this video with other investors and other niches, because literally I'm not— I'm not poo-pooing them, but they have no clue when it comes to the creative real estate and how many problems you can actually solve and how many sellers you can help and how cool of a win-win that is. See you next week on the next Q&A Thursday.
