ChitownLiving | Chicago Real Estate + Life

I have been meaning to write a brief post on showing feedback for some time as it baffles me.  Geno over at Chicago’s Home Weblog beat me to it with an interesting take.  While representing buyers, I get these all the time after showings.  The requests come in three forms, the on-site “assault”, the phone call, and the automated email. The On-Site Assault - In this form, the listing agent can barely contain themselves during the showing.  After presenting the property, they stand guarding the front door and ask my client directly, “So, what do you think of the property?  Is it what you are looking for?  My clients would appreciate some feedback”.  It is almost as if they expect my client to pull out a pen and ask who they should make their check out to.  This is the exact type of situation I prepare my clients for during our initial buyer consultation.  Emotions should be kept in check and answers kept neutral. The Phone Call - The call starts as follows, “Hi Jeff, this is X, assistant to Y.  You showed Y’s listing the other day and I am just calling to get some feedback.  Our client would really appreciate it”.  Replace X with your favorite assistant name and Y with your favorite agent name.  Again, answers are neutral if provided at all, provide no insight into my client’s intentions, and in many cases are negative.  I have actually received these in the car while driving my client to the next property.  Nothing signals desperation more than a feedback call placed only minutes after leaving the property. The Automated Email - This is an attempt to automate the feedback process.  The requests are sent three times until answered, and then thankfully they stop.  My feeling on this is that if feedback is so important then listing agents, please take the time out of your day to contact me.  I have included an actual feedback email form below received after a showing last week.  While reading it, please refrain from laughing if possible.   As a buyer agent, I am not sure how the listing agent expects accurate answers, especially to the first three questions.  Answering these in my opinion is a violation of fiduciary responsibility.  It really is none of the listing agent’s business what my client thinks of their client’s property.  In addition, shouldn’t they know the answers to these already? Don’t get me wrong, feedback is very important and there are many places to obtain it such as during initial agent office tours (caravan), broker opens, private agent showings, and open houses.  There is also a ton of data that can be reviewed with listing clients such as # of showings, virtual tour/website hits, # times property has been emailed to prospects, etc. In the end however, there is only one type of feedback that matters and speaks louder than all the others combined and that is a written offer.  To quote Geno’s response to one feedback request:

What does my client think of the place? Did I fax you an offer? I didn’t? Hmmm…I guess that’s what my client thinks of the place.

Think I will use that line next time.