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.
