# Price alignment + fee protection scripts (Tom Panos — adapted)

Use these as **language patterns** to help Alex handle hard vendor conversations. The agent can tee up the conversation, gather context, and escalate.

## Key concepts
- **Sweet zone vs stale zone:** time on market creates "stale" perception; later reductions usually cost more.
- **Overpriced homes help sell other homes:** buyers use them as a benchmark then buy correctly priced stock.
- **Only 2 reasons a home doesn’t sell:** marketing (agent-owned) or price (owner-owned). Be tactful.

## Scripts / phrases
**Price realignment opener**
- "How open-minded will you be if we need to realign the price?"

**Not in the market**
- "Right now your home isn’t in the market. It’s sitting on top of the market. Buyers view it, then go and buy other homes. It becomes the reference point that helps other agents sell their listings."

**% language (easier than £)**
- Replace "drop by £X" with "realign by 5%" (or similar).

**Using viewings as leverage**
- When the gap is small, use: "We’ve had X viewings and Y serious bidders — that’s the market telling us where value sits."

**Fee protection framing**
- Shift from fee % to net outcome: the goal is **max net in the vendor’s pocket**, not the cheapest commission.
- "The cheapest agent and the best agent are generally not the same agent."
- "What’s more important — saving a little on fee, or underselling by tens of thousands?"
- Value test: "If I was the same fee as the other agent, who would you pick? … How come?" (let them articulate your value)

## Agent rules
- Don’t argue. Ask questions, reflect, escalate to Alex.
- Never promise a price. Stick to evidence and process.

Source: *Tom Panos — Dialogue to Get More Listings* (Estate Agency Mastermind summary)