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poopsie_poo

Feedback after showings?

poopsie_poo
15 years ago

Our home has been on the market for some time. Without going into long explanations there, I was wondering if my realtor is typical or what. After any showing (and they are few and far between the market here is abismal!) we cannot get one ounce of feedback from our realtor. We would love to hear WHY the people looking at our house chose not to buy it. Too big? Too small? Or is it something cosmetic we can change?? She did call ONE time because the woman complained that the kitchen was "too big" which their office thought was hysterical since no one EVER complains of a kitchen being too big. But otherwise, we even call & leave messages and never get a return call. Is a little feedback too much to ask??? I'm ready for a new realtor, but my husband (who deals with realtors daily in his line of work) says this is typical. I'm extremely frustrated.

Comments (14)

  • blueheron
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I don't think that's typical at all. We also have our house for sale and our agent contacts other agents who have shown the house to get feedback and immediately calls us and tells us any comments. Unfortunately, other agents aren't always prompt in getting back to our agent.

    Yesterday, we had an open house, and our agent called us as soon as it was over and told us how many people looked at it, who seemed to be interested and what the general comments were.

    Some comments previous to the open house was that it was dated (true to an extent - no granite counter tops, etc., but all appliances were in working order.) Some were concerned about the RE taxes which are higher in the city than in the suburbs. Also true, but nothing can be done about that. Another person said it was too small for their purposes.

    He calls us practically every day if there's anything to report.

  • jy_md
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Maybe we had an ultra-plugged-in agent but she actually had a webpage we could log into to view comments. She gave each agent who brought clients to a showing a website and they would enter comments (or maybe the clients did it themselves) about the house.

    So we got LOTS of feedback - to be honest, it was kind of tough to read - but it was useful. The clients answered basic questions:
    1. how did they feel about the exterior?
    2. the front and back yards?
    3. the mechanicals?
    4. the kitchen?
    5. the bathrooms?
    6. the bedrooms?
    7. living room?
    8. Did they think the pricing was too high/low or about right?
    9. time, day of visit and agent name

  • aprilflower
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The question I would want answered is "Is my Realtor attempting to get feedback for me?" instead of "Why isn't my Realtor giving me feedback?"

    Our Realtor uses a tracking program that automatically sends an email requesting feedback, followed after a day or so by a personal phone call from him to the showing agent. Out of our 9 showings this time around, we've gotten feedback on 3. It's frustrating, but I know that my Realtor's doing what he can to get whatever info he can to get our house SOLD.

    I would ask your Realtor what steps he/she takes after a showing to get you that feedback and go from there.

    I will say waaaaaaay back when we first listed (and I'm embarrassed to even say how long ago that was), our first Realtor refused to get feedback. Her take on it was that "if they're interested, they'll call me. I refuse to badger anyone - if they have something to say they'll say it and if not they won't." I see her point, but I didn't feel that was what we wanted from our Realtor and we eventually ended up switching (because of other issues as well). It's all about communication.

    Speaking of communication, the not answering your calls would be a big red flag for me. Maybe it's time to sit down and talk expectations and/or compromises. Maybe something along the lines of a weekly email update or something similar.

    Good Luck with it all! :-)

    april

  • justnotmartha
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My agent took it a different direction. She sent an email to the agent asking for feedback, and the price they thought the house would sell for. Each response went into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to the restaurant of the agent who was the closest. We got about 85% feedback on our showings!

    I believe it has a lot to do with how your agents tries to get it . . . if they try at all. Agents with buyers are badgered these days. It needs to be worth their while to respond.

    Good luck!

  • snvanvl
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I would always asked the realtor that scheduled the appointment to call me on my cell phone when they were done showing my house. This gave me the opportunity to request feedback from them and hear it first hand. It also help me know when they had left my home since I have 5 kids and sitting in the car was not alot of fun.

  • theroselvr
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    There's a post at another real estate forum I go to on this same subject and some of the responses are surprising me.

    The biggest thing is the buyers agent is not getting paid to give feedback and that it isn't their "job" to do so. They feel that if their client does like the house, they are not going to give that away with feedback, other then an offer. They also said that if their client didn't like the house, what is to say about that? Then there is it's not my problem to respond telling the seller the house is over priced or out dated/smells, the sellers agent should tell their client that. If it is over priced, the listing agent isn't doing their job to price it correctly to begin with.

    Then you have.. well I took my client out for this many hours yesterday, trying to show them around town plus houses, I can't remember all of the houses we went into.

    The listing agent sends me a form to fill in. I don't have time to answer 10 questions. The listing agent calls me 2 days after we saw the house, honestly I can't remember at that point because I've seen so many houses with clients. Filling in their form or talking to them on the phone takes me such & such time, if I shoed 25 houses and had to give feedback on all 25 houses, I would be sitting there 1/2 a day just on feedback.

    The agent calls for feedback while I'm cooking dinner/trying to help with homework. The agent calls at 9pm.

    Now, to be fair, there were agents that did give feedback, some saying that the listing agent then used that to hound them about the house. Some said they will give feedback to some agents but not others from what I remember

    ---------------------------------------------------

    What I noticed was that the agents that didn't have time because they were so busy were in Texas, where I don't think the market was hit as hard as most states. Where I am, there really isn't that many buyers out and I know this because the 1st agent I had went into a few real estate office to ask why my house wasn't being shown. With my 2nd agent, he also told me there weren't a lot of buyers out.

    -----------------------------------------------

    As for the reply that they aren't getting paid to give feedback, I responded that with our current payment system, commissions, they aren't being paid to show houses for some people that never buy or don't find a house with them but when they do get paid commission it isn't exactly a fair system with us sellers being charged what we are. Feedback IMO may end up paying for itself because people like me that save business cards of agents that have shown my house or given me feedback, if I am not happy with my agent, I just might list with them. If a neighbor wants to sell, I might pull my cards out and suggest one of the ones that took the time to give feedback.

    Yes, in the end I do see where they are coming from but I don't think it would hurt to give some feedback, even if they didn't give to every house they showed. While it isn't in the contract to give or even ask for feedback, IMO it is common courtesy and something that I always thought was part of the job description. Live & learn.

    Those of you getting feedback, you're very lucky.

  • TxMarti
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Got a nanny cam? ;)

  • sweeby
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Love your agent's approach JNM -- Clever.
    I particularly like the "guess what it'll sell for" as our house will be hard to 'comp'.

  • poopsie_poo
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you all for your responses and clinching my decision to change realtors when our listing expires. It is now Wednesday night and after a call put in over 24 hours ago, we still have no feedback from the Monday showing. Without going into a long novel, we had very valid reasons for chosing this real estate agency. Because the owner was so busy, he did give our listing to another family member within the firm. She did a great job at first, but definitely seems too laid back for my taste. Another realtor in the company showed the house on Monday. I don't think she's too busy, not with real estate anyway.

    I will begin looking for a new realtor ASAP. My husband has access to the MLS so I am going to see who has been actively and agressively selling. I know a few of the realtors at our current company will be on the top of that list, but surely there are others!!

  • blueheron
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Didn't u sign a contract with this realtor? Or is it about to run out?

  • mitchdesj
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I did not care for feedback after every visit when our home was for sale; we had prepared the house optimally and we knew what the shortcomings were.

    I am not a curious person so all I need to know from my agent is if we are going to receive an offer, otherwise I know most of the comments are irrelevant, and subjective to individual taste.
    Unless it's something we can remedy easily and we forgot to address.

    When I was househunting and had to comment, I was not totally truthful in my comments when I was asked, did not want to hurt people's feelings.

  • chris8796
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    If my agent did the showing then I would expect some type of feedback. If the buyers agent did the showing I wouldn't expect any feedback.

  • sml295
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Our agent asks every agent that shows our house for feedback. Most of the time the response comes to him in the form of an email, that he in turn, forwards to us. From what I understand most agents are working with each other to try and make a sale, so that they both can profit. He specifically told me, that they(agents), are brutally honest with each other, so that each of them can advise their own clients on ways to improve, pricing concerns, etc. The information he has provided us through these emails has been extremely useful in keeping us on task and focused positively on selling our house. I think providing you feedback is the least they can do, considering the amount of money they will make on the sale of your home.