KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Six Daily Habits Real Estate Agents Use to Earn Client Trust

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Summary:This episode provides actionable habits focused on building rapid client trust and streamlining the sales cycle. The content outlines six specific, repeatable behaviors that move an agent from being a salesperson to a trusted advisor. Agents learn how to leverage consistent communication, radical transparency, and purposeful post-sale follow-up to reduce friction in deals, shorten closing timelines, and create a powerful referral engine. This episode provides essential, easily implementable behaviors to dramatically improve the client experience.

Welcome to Uncommon Real Estate, where it's all about finding creative solutions for real estate agents and investors. In exclusive mastermind conversations with some of the brightest minds in real estate, you'll learn how to earn an extra six figures a year. Don't follow the herd. Be Uncommon. Here are your hosts, multi-millionaire real estate agent and investor, Chris Craddock and Jeff Saferight. Hey, friends, welcome here to another episode of your Uncommon Lunchbox for the host, Chris Cradd. myself, Jeff, Safe, right? Today, we are going to talk closing. So, Chris, why don't you go ahead and give us a little bit of an idea of what's in store for today and let's jump in and do it. Boom. I love it. So we're going to go over the six steps to close at a high level. So this is part one. And then on our next podcast, we're going to do part two, which are types of

closings. So ways to close. Now, here's a little bit of a spoiler alert is all of the closing techniques and styles, those are all great, but none of them work unless you lead up to the clothes well. So today we're going to talk about what gets us to the close. And Thursday, we're going to talk about how to close at a high level. So the first question is, or the first thing that we're going to talk about before we even get there is this. To get to a good close, you have to listen well, right? You have to listen to understand. So I talk about this all the time, but on, in screenwriting, right? You watch any great movie. And if you get through the beginning and then it has a bad ending, it means that the beginning actually wasn't great because

it didn't set up the ending for the logical conclusion. And even if it's a surprise logical conclusion, it doesn't set up for a logical conclusion. Because how many times there's a, oh, what is it, Ex Machina Day, I think is what it is. And it means God in the Machine. How many times have you seen a movie where there's no great ending? And so something happens like somebody out of nowhere comes and saves the day and makes it work. Like God in the Machine happens. And everybody's, oh, that you cheated.

It's a cop out. That's not how real life works. It's a cheat. And so what we're going to talk about now is what happens to get us to. the logical conclusion without God in the machine. So with that said, if you don't start yourself off well, you won't lead to the logical conclusion on the end. So Jeff, your closing deals left and right. I'd be curious. I know I've got five things on here, but a high level of listening, that wasn't actually one of mine. It was like the beginning one. So I should have six on here. But let's just call it

six. So high level of listening. Jeff, tell us. When you're working with a seller, right? What are the things that you're listening for in order for you to know, hey, I can close this because this is what they told me. This is how I need to go to close it. Can you just share? Does that question make sense? Yeah, it does a little bit.

I'm going off script here a little bit, but I was literally just thinking about this yesterday when I got out of a listing appointment. And one of the things I've been noticing recently, and I don't know if it's always been there, but I've just really noticed it, is that the seller begins to use inclusive language. It's not like I typically will use inclusive language, but what I've noticed here recently is that buyers, or I'm sorry, that sellers are using inclusive language before I begin. So when they start saying we, and they're not talking about them and their spouse or them and their family, but they're talking about themselves and myself. Now I know that we're all

packed, we're all loaded, we're ready to head towards the listing towards everything else. So when they start using language like we, okay, so what do we need to do next or when should we list the house? And again, it's just this like inclusive language as though we are now on a team. We are a team and we're moving together. Now, again, they may start talking about those next steps. And that's a primary one. When they start talking about next steps and what things, what do they need to do? And that's a sign for me that we're heading in the right direction. But when they start utilizing the inclusive language that suggests that we are now a team working towards the same goal, then I know that we're ready to rock and roll.

That's it, bro. That's it. That inclusive language. So you're listening for a little clues. And I'll tell you, when you listen, you should, I love Sherlock Holmes. The new Benedict Cumberbatch, it's not new anymore, but the BBC Sherlock, it is one of my favorite. I just love Sherlock Holmes in general, but I think it's just so, so good, well-written, everything there. But with it, one of the things you see is he's looking for clues or the show Syke.

I just watched the pilot with some folks over the weekend. The show Syke, he's looking, he sees clues that give him a logical conclusion. And that's what Jeff is talking about. You're listening for these clues that will put you down the right path. So high level listening, the second piece that I need to throw out there is you got to not be attached to how it all is going to play out. Because otherwise, Jeff, have you ever been there where you get commissioned breath where all of a sudden you get very, very much attached to the outcome? And then you no longer make the best strategic move because you start getting emotional. Have you ever been there?

Maybe. Well, let me ask you to do. Have you been there recently? Because we've all been there. Let's be honest. Have you ever been there? We've all been there. Yeah.

No, I would have to say recently, I feel like I've been pretty good. I've been pretty strong. I think the thing that I would say where it comes out is when another agent has told them something that's just completely out. outrageous and I know that it's the worst idea in the world. Right. So I, the comps I had in this listing agreement or this listing appointment yesterday, this agent shows me the paperwork, or I'm sorry, the seller shows me the paperwork of this other agent that we're going to get you at least four, four 25 for this house. And I knew that

the best comp in the neighborhood, which was fully remodeled and renovated only got 380. And this house needs about $80,000 worth of work. And I'm just like, I'm like, what do you do in that moment because you want to call the other agent a moron, but you can't do that because it really does look like you're just trying to beat up the other agent. So in moments like those, I just kind of, if I'm not in the right mindset, because every once in while we go in with the wrong mindset, whatever outside influences, they come into play and you don't step back and, okay, let's address this situation. Fortunately, yesterday I was like, okay, and I just started asking questions.

Okay, so how did the agent assume that we were going to get there? What was their strategy? Did they have a good plan for you? And they shared it. I said, okay, that's, that's good because here's the comps that I found. And here's the best comp and it only sold for 380. And like, when it dawned on this person that this other agent's projections were like just out of this world, then they just sat back and they're like, oh my gosh, and they just slump because their house is the retirement plan. And they just found out that their retirement plan is. probably belly up, right? Yeah.

Well, that's it. And I'll tell you, Jeff, you did, just curious, did you end up getting it or are you still working on it? I got them on my side. We are now using inclusive team language. The problem is they're planning to sell the home so they can retire, but they're literally, I mean, this is probably a short sell situation. They went from thinking they were going to net $70,000 to,

probably going to be a short sell. And so now they're like, how do I even retire? So I got them to escape the travesty probably of this other agent, but now we have to come up with a game plan so that they don't, so that they can somehow retire. Yeah. Now, that makes, that makes a lot of sense. That's, that's the rough, rough part of that is what do you do there? What do you do next? So the interesting thing is, point one that I have is the assumptive close. And you're already talking about that, which is you're listening for them to use assumptive language, but we also need to be from the very beginning, use assumptive language. So, Jeff, why don't you give us a couple examples of assumptive language for the close?

I do as a tester, is utilize inclusive language myself. right? I say we. I say so when we go to when we go to the list and actually I've stopped using the list and started using marketing price, right? So I'll say once we determine your marketing price and we're ready to market your property, we'll do X, Y, and Z, right? And then I'll pause and wait to see how they respond to that language. If they get a dejected posture where it's like, or it's like maybe the inclusive language or maybe it's the marketing price, even though I didn't say it, If they kind of slant back, then I know we're not ready to close yet. If they kind of move forward or if they continue to use that inclusive language themselves

in those moments that I know we're ready to continue to move forward. But that's one of the ways that I utilize that assumptive close of just assuming that we are already working, that we're ready to work as a team and now we are going to determine the next steps. Yeah, that's it. Assuming it. So we're working, we're working together as a team. one of the things that I learned and actually what I think is one of the giftings I have is

pitching vision, helping people see the bigger vision, what we're doing and also having stuff that they live into. So some of the things that I would do. So Jeff and I are not, Jeff is the seller and I'm on it. And so I would just say stuff. So Jeff, when we go on the market, this is how we're going to do it. All right, when we list the property here or we market the property here. So I just say, when we do this, I'm assuming there's never, ever an if. If there's if, if, there's an if in their mind. If, if, if, you get rid of the ifs. And then you just, you just say when, when we do this, when we do this. And some people have really gone all in with NLP. What is it, neurolinguistic programming, where you, you kind of speak into existence

so that people hear it and you're accepting their mind. I, I don't know that I, I'm all. I, in on NLP, but I don't know that I don't agree with NLP. I think a lot of that is, is a sumptive language where you assume the close and people start just saying, yeah, like they just kind of buy in to what you've said. Yeah. Honestly, one of my favorite lines for that kind of assumptive close, if you will, is how are we going to celebrate once we sell this home? So, so it's kind of really giving them the vision, of being at the goal line, right? We've hit the goal line.

We've hit our objectives. We hit our goals. Now we're ready to celebrate. What's the celebration going to look like? And it just kind of depends on the person, right? So especially if I go to the house and they got a nice bar full of spirits, if you will, I'm like, all right, so what are we drinking at closing when we're ready to celebrate? Because we just sold this bad boy and you put money in your pocket and now you're down to Florida

or now you're in your next house, et cetera, whatever. And again, just giving them the visualization of succeeding, not just getting it sold, but succeeding in a manner in which we're ready, willing and able to celebrate because it went so well. Yeah. I mean, that's it. Yeah, you're pitching that vision. I love it because, yeah, you're also helping them see the end.

And that's, there's that book, The Messy Manil where it says it's, easy to start. It's easy to finish, but it's the middle that gets hard. And that's where a lot of our sellers and a lot of our buyers get lost in the quagmire. They think about all the things they have to do in the middle. And so, Jeff, what you're doing very well there is pitching a vision to say, hey, let's look at the end. Let's look at it. And even Stephen Covey says that in the seven happens to highly effective people. That's one of the one of the habits is begin with the end of mind. And so when you're doing that, when you're pitching the end, where you're helping people realize why am I doing this? Here's the reason. Every once in a while you get stuck with somebody that

they're doing it to make their 70 grand. It turns out they're at a short sale. But for everybody else, now you got your work cut out for you to figure out how can you help them. And that's, honestly, this is this is the other piece there is to be a good closer. You got to be good at what you're doing. And one of the things, Jeff was a pastor forever. So he loves to help people. And one of the things that I think is so awesome here is the fact that, now they've got to come up with a new game plan. So Jeff gets to do what he's done his whole adult life, which is sit down with them and help them have wise counsel and say, okay, you've got a goal here.

How are we going to solve this? How are we going to get to the goal? And honestly, guys, that's what we do. The people that make the most money are the people that solve other people's problems and help other people. So I just want to throw that out there. So all right. So let's go to number two.

Number two, we talked about this a little bit. emotions. We've got to get away from the emotion of it. And why do we get there? So I'm going to give an example of this. So one of the agents on her team, she called me right before this podcast. And somebody had called her. So a good friend of theirs is listing their property. Somebody had called her and said, hey, I'd like to buy the property. I'd like my son to buy it. And I'd like to use you all as agents, but I needed to give back 1% of the commission. And the lady was so pushy about that one percent that it became an emotional battle there where it was all emotion instead of logic sticking through it because the lady was so pushy, which let's be honest, it is so hard when

somebody's personality is a little bit abrasive to step back from the emotion and just set your ego and your pride aside, which I say that completely loving. Like most of the time, people say ego and pride and they mean it like, oh, you got ego, you got pride. We all do at time. And anybody that says differently is a liar. Yep, I called you a liar. I said that so you can hate me for that. Get your emotions out of it. Stop being mad at me. But the reality is all of us let our ego and emotion to get into it and somebody pushes us hard. And we're going to do that. We're going to do a series on negotiating. And that's one of those big things, too. We'll talk about there is that oftentimes when our emotion is involved, that's when we make bad decisions.

So this lady, like when you got down to it, why was she pushing for that 1%? You found out that her son had some other issues that he had to work through as far as bad credit, as far as a grant, as far as meeting money, like all of these different things. And so when you were able to step back from it and realize, okay, maybe she's got an abrasive personality, but why is she asking for what she's asking for? Is it just to squeeze you or is there a reason? And that was when you could find out what the reason is and then work to solve the problem different way. So, Jeff, you have something to add to that, like the emotions. I don't know we kind of briefly talked about it already. Well, I mean, kind of one of my favorite things that I got to

continuously tell myself when I found myself getting frustrated with people is that we play an emotionless, we play an emotionless game in an emotion-filled arena, meaning that in order to be at the top of our game, we got to put the emotions aside. We really got to be as almost stoic as we can. No emotions, but it's within this arena that's filled with emotions, and you can get sideswiped at any turn. And so it's just a constant reminder to step back and understand that, people, like you said, they're coming with a context, right? So maybe there's a reason there. But also on the other side of that, it's moving into something. They're moving into something new. And if something doesn't go right like this deal yesterday where this guy is thinking, man, I'm going to retire.

He was going to make $70, $75,000. He was going to take that. And he had found a house in Grenada for $80,000. So it was like, man, we're going to be able to buy this house. And then all of a sudden it's, boom, it's all gone. Now, fortunately, I wasn't the agent that was overselling the trying to buy the listing, if you will. But if that's a different situation, we have the house under contract and then we find out it's not going to go down this way. And I didn't know about this other house and I didn't know about these other plans. And all of a sudden, I'm the bad guy. And because that's what happens. They always want a bad guy.

They always want somebody to blame. So we try to shift it to the market. We try to shift it to the other agent or to the other buyer. or we try to shift blame or whatever. But, you know, that's when I really get myself like, you know, when it really gets hard for me is when something goes wrong. The seller wants to blame me. I'm the bad person. And it's, man, all I've been trying to do is help you in this situation.

But I don't actually know the pain point that is really got them upset. And they're just feeling hopeless. And they got to put that angst in that. They got to let it out somewhere, right? That's it. That's it. Yeah. How are you going to help them? They're looking for the dog to kick. How are you going to let them have that dog? And sometimes we're the dog, right? Sometimes we just got to take it. And I had that, I had that happen on a deal that I was working on. It was a close friend's good friend. And some stuff didn't go the way they wanted to go. And they were, they literally had no money. And so if we didn't close right away, they were, they were in a lot of trouble. And so they got very, very, very upset. And, needed a dog a kick and I ended up being that dog. But thankfully she came back and apologized like crazy and was like, you didn't deserve that. I'm sorry for yelling at you. And you were just so kind and generous with us and the way you reacted. And when I got off home thinking,

oh my gosh, what did I get myself into? But but then I realized when she told us about the financial situation, she was just massively scared. And that's, that's why. I mean, they got a bunch of kids. and she was scared. So it makes sense. I'd probably be scared too if that was if I were in that situation. All right. So number so one, assumptive language. Two, get your emotions out of it. Three, always, this comes straight from Dale Carnegie. Always let them save face, right? Always let them save face. So when you're going for the clothes, you need to make sure that they feel like they're getting a massive win here. And sometimes the win, there's a handful of ways that they can get a win. Sometimes the win is that they got you the best, right? Sometimes the win is if they're fighting like crazy over commission.

And let's say give them, you've got to give up half a point on commission or something like that, which we don't give up often. But if you do, you make a trade for it, right? Okay, I'm going to do five and a half percent. But if I do that, I need you to sign this NDA, non-disclosure agreement. and two, I'm going to need you to promise that before closing, you'll have at least one other person that you will refer me to as long as I'm doing a good job for you, that you'll refer them to me. So you're making, when you're doing that, you're not just giving because if you just give and you get nothing in return, then they're going to look at you and say you're a terrible, they won't say this, but they'll think this. I'm a, this is what they'll think. I'm a better negotiator than you are. I'm a better closer than you are.

I've just out negotiated you. They're not going to say that, but subconsciously they're going to feel that. So that's where it's so important for us. If we give, we need to get. Even if it's something that's insubstantial, you cannot just give for nothing. Otherwise, you show that they outnegotiated you. And that's not who they want defending them and defending their bottom line. So if you're, if you are being interviewed by a, and I also say you're interviewing them,

but that's probably a different conversation. But if you're being interviewed by a potential seller, that's smart, that's trying to negotiate commission, they're probably interviewing a couple other agents. And I guarantee you one, if not, two, if not all of those agents are going to fold. And they're going to say, sure, I'll do it for whatever you want to do for. Just give me a job, please. I need something to do. And so if you just simply join the crew, what makes you need different?

Now you're just basically saying who's going to work the hardest for the least amount. But I go through a couple things. And one is I always do the put your money where your mouth is deal. I'll say, hey, let's make a deal. Boom. Okay. If it's here, if we reach our goal, then you pay the full six. If not, then you'll pay this.

But then you can go to, like you said, the non-disclosure agreement. Okay. Then you can go to the refer a friend. Eventually the question is going to come up of, well, this agent over here says that they're just going to do it for four and a half or five percent or whatever it is. and they didn't have me do all these things. So why would I do this with you? And what's the answer to that? Well, the answer is two things.

Number one is selling houses is about two things. It's about solving problems and negotiating. And so those other agents didn't do either one, right? They didn't solve any problems for themselves, right? Because this is inevitably a problem, right? So if you're asking me to reduce my commission, that's a problem that I got to solve for myself while also solving your problem for the money that you need. Number two, as we always say, we do always say this. And it's amazing when you actually say this to a client, it actually makes them think 99% of the time.

If I can't negotiate for myself, what makes you think I'm going to be able to negotiate for you? So you want to hire me at a cheaper discount to let me be kicked around by these other buyer agents? that makes no sense. Yeah. And then that kind of gets them thinking, yeah, this is, this makes, that makes a lot of sense. And I rarely get beat out on commission when they're saying that another agent's going to do it for something else. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you just this morning.

So I sold a very good friend of mine's house for a really good price. And a neighbor called me and said, hey, will you sell mine like three doors down? And so I talked to him, I just sold him. And he ended up pushing back on the commission a little bit. And I ended up, we're going to talk about this on Thursday using the takeaway clothes, which is essentially you take away the offer. So I use the takeaway clothes. And he's like, Chris, listen, other people are willing to pay way more.

I mean, literally talking about like $17,000. more is what we're charging than what other people were charging in real dollars. But at the end of the day, they decided to go with us because a number of things that led them to the close. And we showed them. And frankly, there's good reason. Like, I'm going to make them way more than that $17,000. I've got no doubt about it.

I know that we will make them more than that because of the way that we market and a way that we negotiate deals. But that was the deal. he was like thinking about everybody else and that's when I came in strong with kind of the the whole takeaway close and all of a sudden now like they're ready to go because they the fear of loss was huge. So number four, I know we don't have much time left. So and I really want to get to the actual closing styles and closing techniques on Thursday.

So one is always ask for more than what you can can get. So you always want them to feel like they're. getting some sort of a win. So you always ask for a little bit more. And then number five is a closing is a natural end to a great experience. So if they're not asking, okay, what are the next steps? Okay, where do I sign? Then I'm just going to say this right now. And I'll tell you guys, you can push back all you want. But if they're not asking, okay, where do I sign or what are the next steps? I'm going to tell you, you did a subpar job. Oh, man, I know. I know. that burns and that stings because very rarely do people ask us that. I'll tell you,

that is where you need to step up and get better at your game. And myself too, myself too. I'm not just saying other people, myself too. But a good closing is a natural end to a great experience. And so the bottom line is if people aren't asking, if they're not asking you how they move forward, you didn't give them the great funnel into that. that question where they say, how do I sign up? How do I get this? How do we work together? How do we make this outcome happen? And if you have not left into that with your experience and everything else, and I'm going to give you one little piece of homework assignment here, which if you've never done this before, then now's the time to do it.

Write down 50 reasons why somebody would be an idiot to work with anybody other than you. And I'll tell you, not just why somebody would work with somebody other than you, why they would be an idiot to work with somebody other than you. And you just write it down, write it down. At some point, it's going to get hard. You're going to have to start Googling things. You're going to have to start looking crazy. But the more you get it, the more you get to that place where you feel it in your bones, in your being.

Yes, somebody is an idiot to work with anybody other than me. Then you walk with swagger. You walk through it. You're talking about those talking points all through the whole presentation so that you get to that end piece where they say, what are the next steps? And I'll tell you, if they're not asking that, I'm telling you, you need to work on your presentation. Oh. All right. So Jeff, tell them about the offer. I know I actually had someone reach out to me after

while Jeff was on vacation for that. And I think we got a handful of other folks to reach out as well. So yeah, please tell about the offer as far as the coaching session. And then let's take us home. Sounds good. Listen here. If you will do us a favor, all right? That's what this is all about. Networking and favors and fun and all that good stuff. But hey, go to wherever it is that you listen to the podcast, give us five-star review. Go to review redux group.com.

Give us a five-star review there. Reach out to me at 703-899-7-270. Once again, 703-899-7-2-70. Do those two things. Give a five-star review. Reach out to me. And we will do a free half hour coaching call. What are we can do to help you grow your business to grow as a leader in this industry to help you get to get that close?

Okay. What if we can do to help? We're here to do it. Please reach out and would love to connect. So again, hey, this concludes another episode of the Uncommon Lunchbox with the host Chris Pratic, myself, Jeff Safright. And we hope you enjoyed your time. We look forward to seeing you again Thursday. Same time, same place.

Until then, carry on, continue to crush it and have a great day. Bye. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Uncommon Real Estate. Subscribe to the podcast to stay up to date with the latest mastermind conversations from Chris, Jeff, and other Uncommon Real Estate industry leaders. If you love this podcast, please write us a review. And to fast track your real estate career, go to chriscratic.com.