You’ve worked hard to get your home ready for showings, and big moment arrives and you get a call for an appointment or two or three.
The buyers arrive at the appointed time and you head out so the buyers can view your home comfortably. Dreams of sugar plumb fairies dance about your head as you envision an over list price offer with no conditions on kitchen table when you return.
As you return home the reality sinks in as their is no offer waiting for you on the kitchen table. Nor is there a note outlining the particulars of what the buyers thought about your home.
So you pick up the phone and call your agent and ask "have you heard anything yet?" "Not yet" they reply, and they tell you they’ll call if they do. Funny you think, they weren’t such jerks when you hired them…j/k.
In our case after the showing we try contact the buyer’s agent to get some feedback. In most cases if we do get a hold of them we’re lucky if they remember the property because they’ve shown so many. "Yeah" we tell them "you know the one with the pink lamp shades that match the pink molding?" Slowly but surely recognition dawns on them and they spout a few facts and hang up to get on with their busy day or they just hang up or they don’t answer.
Now lets turn the tables. If you were the buyer and you did like a property, would you want me to tell the listing agent you liked the property and its number one on their list? The seller’s Realtor is pretty much the last person you’d want me to tell that to. It’s like saying "hey we looked at fifty homes and yours is the best one now take our low offer…. puleeze!"
So, when I’m working with a buyer, and the seller’s Realtor calls me for feedback they are unlikely to get much information, if any at all. Unless of course the buyer hated the property, then I might elaborate a bit. To be clear the buyers rep has fiduciary obligations to the buyer. If giving feedback could be detrimental to their client they shouldn’t give it.
Not too mention, I’m not in business to provide feedback for sellers reps and vice versa. The only time I do give feedback is to get something I can use for my client or my client is truly not interested and therefore the probability of having a conflict of confidentiality is absolutely nil.
The truth is, some REALTORS are set up for getting feedback and some aren’t. For most showings I never get a request for feedback.
Ok, time to put your seller’s shoes back on. Most of the time if you’ve hired someone competent they know what the feedback and problems are going to be before there are even any showings; they’ve sold enough properties to know what the scoop is going to be.
So before you bet the farm on feedback take it for what it is, and listen to the pro you’ve hired.
And remember, the next time your REALTOR gives you a long list of negatives from me it just might be followed by an offer.
Good point. Though I might have done this before. Tsk tsk. bad.
“Now lets turn the tables. If you were the buyer and you did like a property, would you want me to tell the listing agent you liked the property and its number one on their list? The seller’s Realtor is pretty much the last person you’d want me to tell that to. It’s like saying “hey we looked at fifty homes and yours is the best one now take our low offer…. puleeze!”
I think Realtors are overpaid as well, HOWEVER:
If that’s accurate, the only issue with that is that 2% has to be split with the other Realtor as well, so 1% & 1% OR worse 1.25% and 0.75%. When I sold my house in Edmonton in March 2007 (the peak) I went with a younger Realtor that charged me less, and in effect the other side got less. We received a few complaints then when inventory was still low.
I suspect when the inventory is this high, it’s probably the worst time to use a discount Realtor just because there’s already so much competition. With an ADHD client excited with all the listings, the last thing you need is a buyer’s agent cringing at a 0.75%-1% commission when your neighbour down the street is 2.0% ish for the buyer’s agent.
In a worst case scenario, you have the Realtor using their relationship to influence them away from that property. Some Realtors even lie (I’ve had a lier for a Realtor twice).
Client: “Wow am I excited to go into that house!”.
Buyer’s Agent: Lie: “Sure. Just to let you know that this is a 1950′s area. The seller has disclosed on their notes that the paper “No Corrode” sewer line running through the property on this particular lot is collapsing, maybe we should look at another on the market with so much available?”
Client: “Thanks for the save! Sure, let’s go!”
You could get away with lowering the commissions when the market had low inventory and the clients were sitting on MLS all night and saw your house as the only listing in that area. Then they FORCED their Realtor to take them there.
Now it’s easier to miss you house in the first place, never mind pissing off the buyer’s agent as well, because the power is with the buyer and the buyer’s agent right now.
I asked a question in regards to realtor’s to who charge 2% commission for sales. Why was those offensive that my comment was deleted?
I asked a question in regards to realtor’s to who charge 2% commission for sales. Why was those offensive that my comment was deleted?
I have a similar question regarding a MLS listing service called my realty.ca . They charge 0.5% to list the property; you get to choose whether to set a commission for the buyer’s agent. You get the MLS exposure, which links to your own web page. I think may be a solution to those have time and a little marketing savvy and want to save a lot of cash. Any opinions or experiences?
2% realty seems very convenient, they do everything that other realtors do and have a flat fee of 2% they have mls exposure and have there own site, they started in may 2007 and have sold lots of properties in the slow months too, which seems promising.
Don’t get too excited by 2%….our company charges anywhere from 1.5% to 3% depending on the level of service and marketing required by the home owner. The fee offered to the buyer’s agent is also up to the home owner. We feel different people and different homes require different choices.
As for taking down your post…if you want their phone number look in the yellow pages. I think most people realize that was rude – you wouldn’t ask Pepsi for Coke’s phone number!
SARA, if you do 1.5% to
3 %, why didn’t you say that so long ago. We couldn’t even count how many times inflated realtor fees have been discussed. So why disclose this now?
Reality setting in for your group?
BTW Sheldon,
I didn’t fail in the real estate industry, never aspired for it. My position was p/t as I preferred.
My opinions must threaten you or you wouldn’t try so hard to discredit a simple show home assistant such as my self. Oh yes, with a lack of experience and education. You were really quite nasty, first time I have saw a post closed for comments.
I will not go away as I think it is important to balance out your blog. FSBO and/or lower realtor fees must stay in open discussion.
Great perspective on Feedback, which I haven’t heard before.
I also heard about a buyer agent that was sued for giving feedback to a seller since it hurt the deal.
The buyer agent said something about the something that the buyer did not like. The buyer ended up making an offer, and the seller was offended and countered much higher. After closing they said if they hadn’t commented on XYZ, they would have sold it for much less.
Bottom line is, who is your client!
Frank