In this coaching session, Chris Prefontaine guides agent Debbie DiPasquale through a real‑world seller follow‑up scenario. They evaluate a property that appears upside‑down, dissect the numbers (listing price, Zillow estimate, seller’s asking price, PITI, loan balance) and decide whether a sub‑2 acquisition contingent on finding a buyer is viable. Chris emphasizes a streamlined approach: keep conversations brief, focus on the seller’s upside‑down status, and use specific script language when leaving voicemails (e.g., “I’m with Chris, sorry we missed you, please leave times”). They discuss the $14,000 assistance program, its impact on due‑on‑sale clauses, and why a contract‑for‑deed may be preferable. The session also covers handling data inconsistencies (bedroom count), the importance of confirming property details, and follow‑up tactics such as sending a “sold” letter after three weeks to plant doubt and keep the seller engaged. Throughout, Chris reinforces the use of concise, confident messaging and provides actionable next steps, including re‑dialing, recording calls, and leveraging the Smart Real Estate Coach resources.
Chapters
Yeah, because they all say, yeah, I'm good, I got it sold. Okay, sounds good in theory, but if it doesn't work, that's kind of what we're saying, but not so facetiously.
He's still out. He just bought it in August. He's got a, a job opportunity. I don't know if it's within his company. I can't remember what he said to move to. It's the North Kingston area, which he'd like to do.
He's upside down.
Yeah, he owes— he owes— he just bought it. He overpaid, I guess.
This is your time now. So if you— this— I might— there is no other discussion here. He's upside down. Will he sell it to you sub-2? Is he current? That's it. There's no other discussion.
Okay.
Really? No other discussion. Does he think we're calling him? We call this guy. You just had questions.
No, I told him I was going to call him this morning. So I told him that I could— well, I think I might have said probably help. I could probably help him. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. I should have said I can look at it and see.
No, you can help him, but there's no money in it for him.
No, I don't think he's necessarily looking for money. I think he's just trying to— he— but the price. Okay, so it was listed. It was— it came over as My Plus Leads as $324,900. Yeah. Zillow for $335,000. And when I asked him how much he was selling it for, he said $345,000.
Well, what?
What?
There's no source here. Is this an expired or FSBO?
It's not a FSBO. I didn't put— I think it was 5+.
It's going to be a FSBO and expired. You don't know which?
Yeah, I'm not sure if it's expired. I didn't put it for some reason. I didn't put it on.
And make sure you do, because that's a different conversation, right?
Yeah.
Okay, let's give them a call. Okay. I don't need to know more than that. I mean, this is super simple, dude. We can buy it.
The— okay, the— his PITI is $2,530, which is higher than rents are.
Yeah. Contingent upon a buyer. Again, don't— you don't have to spend much time at all on these things. You don't have to have a long conversation with people. These are the ones I want you to streamline. Like, this clearly is breakeven or upside down. We can buy it sub-2 contingent upon us finding a buyer. Do you want to do it or not?
Okay.
Because you're looking at PITI, but you didn't break down how much of that is taxes.
$226,000.
It's down. So it's down to $3,300.
Yeah.
You get $2,300 for a house in the $300s.
Yeah.
Rhode Island. I could get that back 10 years ago.
The other thing is, he's— it says 3/2 somewhere, but I think it's really a 2/1.5.
Let's find out. Let's call him. You try and ask questions too. Like that, if you're confused in that, say, what are we really dealing with? Why do you have two different bedrooms there?
Yeah, because it didn't show on the. I looked up some pictures that only didn't show three bedrooms. Okay, so he did say that he's going to be working.
So I just wouldn't spend it. You'd kill me. I wouldn't spend any time on that. You just ask him.
Okay.
I know you're looking at stuff, but you don't have to.
I will.
All right, let's call this.
He said if he didn't answer, he might have to call me back because he's going to be working. So we'll see. Hopefully he's—
That's okay if he calls you back. Tell— always, always, always say this. I'm with Chris. Sorry we missed you. If you call me back, let me know. Sometimes we can get you back. We're going to be on the phone.
Oh, okay. Should have said that.
Always say that. Annette said that to me the other day. She goes, oh, it's good because You say, leave me times to get you back every time you leave a message.
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Okay. I had my REI open, but it closed. Let me just reopen this. Yeah.
Oh, so you can dial in there?
Yeah.
All right. And if you're hearing me fine, then he should hear me fine like last time.
Okay.
And if nothing else, if I want to get out of this is when you look at numbers, because you want to know, how do I know, like, what to structure? Some— yeah, don't— some of them you need 2 or 3 different options. But I'm telling you, this one here, when you see this, you go straight to, well, it looks like I can help you instead of coming out of pocket. Here's how it works. You just tell them how it works. Does that work for you? I don't know. I want to try it a little while longer. Okay, let me know. Like, there's no other options here.
Okay. I think I did this not as streamlined as you just went through, but—
What's the $14,000? A true second mortgage, I hope. Not a— what is that?
It's a— it's something that Rhode Island is like an assistance for the down payment.
Okay. So it's no interest, no payments until it sells.
I take it that's how he described it.
Okay. Why I'm asking you that is a sub-to would trigger that. So we're going to want to do a contract for deed. Oh, if that's the case, I'm going to ask him how it works. But if it's due on sale, which it probably is, It's going to be due.
Okay, I see.
Now, I— here's the caveat with this. We're not getting conventional financing. Joe Schmo buying this as a buyer would get conventional financing and their lender would have to pay it off, right? Of course. But we're not buying it conventionally. So it'd be similar to any other due-on-sale. Like if they call us, they call us and it's only $14,000. It's not a big deal. So it's not a catastrophe if we took the deed. Just point here.
Okay. So you're saying that's written differently, so it might get triggered?
My point is, I don't know. I would never say to you we're okay, right? So yeah, my point is, for $14,000, if someone called us in 6 months, would it be a catastrophe? No, we could do zero interest or we could take part of the deal. I'm not concerned about it. Okay. But let's find out. Go ahead and call them.
Right? Yeah. All right.
And if you can record, all the better, because this would be— because this is a part of a whole recording, you know?
Yeah. Yep.
Dialing contact now.
So you want me to ask him to leave times? Yeah.
Sorry we missed you. Call me back. But if you missed me because we're on calls, leave me some times to get you back. And I'm with Chris.
Oh, it just disconnected. I don't know if he disconnected us or what happened.
So Try him again. One more time.
Try again.
Hey, I just tried you. We get disconnected.
It's your voicemail. The person you're trying to reach is not available at the tone. Please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up. Hey Ryan, it's Debbie DiPasquale. Um, just following up with you. We spoke about your, um, home on Canal Street the other day. So sorry I missed you. When you have a chance, uh, just gimme a call back. Let me know some times that I can call you. Because I'm going to be making calls with my partner this morning. So I look forward to talking to you soon. If this morning works, that'd be great. But I look forward to talking to you soon. Thanks. Bye-bye. Oh, my number. Sorry. 774-243-0735.
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Hi, Bill.
Yeah.
Hi, Bill. It's Debbie DiPasquale. I'm here with Chris, so I thought I'd give you a call. We just— I don't know if you remember me. I had come to see your home in Cranbrook Road, so I just wanted to follow up. I had sent you over an email and I didn't know where you stood, if you had any questions on the email or— I know you were trying to look at all your options.
Couple buyers, couple offers.
Okay, so you're going the traditional— you got some traditional offers that are adequate. Okay. Okay. And you're going to be accepting those? You're saying you're looking at— you'll be looking at those this morning or sometime today? They're due tomorrow.
And I'll look at them over the weekend. Hey, hey, Bill, it's Chris. How are you? Hey, that sounds good, actually. I thought that's what the route it would go if because of the financing side of things, if any of those have financing, just let us know if it doesn't come to fruition. That's all. Hey, if that happens, maybe I'll reach out to you. Yeah, yeah. Because you got like Wall Street Journal just had this out. You got like over 20% of these things they call fractured closings. They try to get to the closing table and the banks are brutal. So just if it doesn't come to fruition, give us a ring.
Okay. Good luck with everything. Take care. You burn it up. Okay. You take care. Goodbye. Yeah. Okay. Take care. Yep. Bye-bye.
Okay, Deb. So, so I planted that on purpose. You saw that, right?
Yeah. It's—
there's a— there's a stronger than 20% chance that he'll go through this ring, this whole rigmarole for 2, 3, could be 4 weeks and then go, oh shit, I'm still in the same spot. That's very likely. So call him, send a sold letter even though it's not, because that's kind of in his face, right? In a nice way. Like, oh, congrats, you know?
Okay.
And then call him in 3 weeks. These are good follow-up tweaks for you to know. Okay. Because that's a stat he can look up, right? I said walk on purpose. He can look that up and that just planted a very small seed of doubt.
Okay, good. Yep. Yeah, he seemed a little more, a little bit more Softer after you said that.
Yeah, because they all say, yeah, I'm good. I got it sold. Okay, sounds good in theory, but if it doesn't work, that's kind of what we're saying, but not so facetiously.
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Okay, so three weeks, send the sole letter.
