How do I handle the commission objection?
Treat it as a question about what reaches their account, not about your fee. Say your fee plainly, since it is yours to state, say why, and put the net side by side with the alternatives. Then ask for the meeting where the net sheet sits beside the fee, with two day-and-time choices.
Read the transcript
- We've got a mortgage to pay off and a move to pay for, so every dollar counts.
- Honestly, your fee feels too high.
- Would you take less?
- Oh, sure, I totally understand.
- Let me see what I can do.
- I can probably come down a bit on my fee, if that gets us working together.
- After every practice call, your card arrives: what worked, and the one thing to fix.
- The call trains four moves. Hear it as a question about what reaches their account.
- Say your fee plainly, and why.
- Put the net side by side. Then ask for the meeting, with two day-and-time choices.
- A fee that moves the moment someone pushes tells the seller it was never real.
- Sellers do not lie awake thinking about your commission.
- They think about what is left after the mortgage, the costs and the move.
- Practice it until it sounds like you.
- Each call runs as long as the conversation needs,
- and you can make as many as you want.
- Practice free at 10before10.com/try.
Drafted with AI by the 10before10 team, reviewed and approved by Grant Freer and Gia Freer, licensed Florida real estate brokers. Updated October 25, 2026.
What is really being said
"Your fee is too high" and "will you take less" sound like an attack on you. Usually they are one of three things. A question: what do you charge, and what is it for.
A test: does this person believe in their own number. Or a real interest underneath: what lands in my account after everything is paid. Almost never is it about the fee as a figure.
Sellers do not lie awake thinking about your commission. They think about the number left after the mortgage, the costs and the move.
Say that out loud and check it, and the conversation moves to ground where you can actually be useful. That is the whole handling: name the interest underneath, get the nod, then talk about the net openly.
One thing to settle before the phone rings. Commissions are negotiable, and your fee is yours. You set it, you know what it pays for, and you can say it in one plain sentence.
What any other agent or brokerage charges is their business and never a subject for the call, not to compare and not to compete. A seller can hear whether your number is settled or whether it is waiting to see how hard they push. Decide before you dial.
What to say
These are examples in plain words, not lines to memorize. Say them the way you actually talk.
"I hear the fee question. I think what you're really watching is what ends up in your account after everything. Is that right?"
This names the interest under the objection and checks it, out loud. If they say yes, you are now talking about the net, which is the conversation you wanted. If they say no, it really is about the fee, you have learned something, and the next line covers it.
"My fee is what it is, and here's what it pays for, in plain words: two or three things you actually do. It's the same number I said yesterday and will say tomorrow, so you're not getting a figure I made up for you today."
Plain, settled, on a falling tone. The last sentence is the one that holds up when they read it back the next morning: your fee is a decision, not an opening bid. Say it the same way every time and it will sound that way.
"Here's what I'd suggest. Let me put two numbers side by side: what you'd likely walk away with my way, after every cost, and what you'd walk away with the other way you're considering. If the other way wins, I'll tell you, and you'll have the sheet.
If it doesn't, we talk. Either way, you decide."
Two real options with a real consequence each, then quiet. The sheet moves the fee from an argument on the phone to a line on a page next to the number they care about. You are not asking them to trust you.
You are asking them to look.
"If the fee is the deciding factor for you, tell me now, and I'll tell you straight whether I'm the right fit."
A real no is always available, including the one you do not want. Offering it is what makes the rest of the call credible.
What not to do
Do not talk about what other agents charge. Not to compare, not to compete, not to explain why yours is different from theirs. You do not know what they include, and the seller may like them.
Every sentence about someone else's fee is a sentence not about the seller's net.
Do not defend the fee and do not fold it. Defending sounds like the number is under attack. Folding on the phone, before you have seen the home or built the net, tells the seller the number was never real, and it teaches them to push again at the listing table.
Say it once, say why, and move to the net.
Do not argue the fee on the phone at all. The fee belongs on the net sheet, beside the number that reaches their account, at the meeting. On the phone, your job is to name the real question, answer the fee question plainly, and offer the comparison.
How to practice it
Have a colleague play a seller who opens with "will you take less" and pushes twice more, once with a lower fee someone else quoted and once with silence. Your job in order: name the interest underneath and check it, say your fee the same way every time with the reason, offer the net side by side, and never mention what anyone else charges. Run it five times and record it.
Listen for a rising tone on your fee. A fee said on a rising tone is an apology, and it is the habit 10before10™'s scorecard listens for on this drill.
Honest answers
Related answers
Make one practice call. See your card.
A prospect who sounds real raises this exact moment. Ten minutes, in the browser, no account. The scorecard tells you the one thing to fix.