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Do buyer's agents (and buyers) "forget" to provide feedback or purposely give vague feedback on a listing they are interested enough in to perhaps make an offer down the line?
This seems totally plausible and strategically smart to me - from the buyer's perspective. How reliable is the feedback we sellers receive after a showing? Our house is on the market and when we look at possible future homes for us, my husband is tight lipped about any home he likes. He doesn't want to seem like he likes anything too much and hurt our chance at negotiations. Of course, this isn't fooling our agent one bit because he's vocal about the listings he doesn't like. LOL
Well, you shouldn't be trying to fool your agent - that defeats the entire purpose! Your agent, on the other hand, should be being noncommittal with feedback on those properties that you are interested in, unless there's something that's a real issue that the listing agent likely already knows about - place didn't show well because it wasn't clean, or weird colors (not just bright, but truly weird combinations), or lawn needs mowing, or something like that.
I give feedback to other agents if they email or catch me on the phone. Faxed requests are ignored.
I will tell them if there is a potential 2nd showing, or it's in the running. I answer questions about the condition of the house and how it showed. I never answer the question if I think it's fairly priced or anything about the pricing.. unless...my customers have moved on to something else already.
Good comments. Yeah - I'm more honest with my agent about my likes and dislikes than my husband. Being in sales and having had a past career as a purchaser, he feels one should never tip their hand in any way. Not sure I agree...
What are the problems/disadvantages with not being totally honest to our agent about how much we like a property? I'm trying to educate myself as much as possible. This will be our 5th home we hope to be buying soon so we are not newbies. But, the circumstances of this move are a first for us - totally by choice, we are picking up and moving 3 states away.
Do buyer's agents (and buyers) "forget" to provide feedback or purposely give vague feedback on a listing they are interested enough in to perhaps make an offer down the line?
Your post/question was very interesting to me. It indicates to me how times have changed since I last shopped for a house. The last time I shopped for a house was 2002 when the real estate market was good (but before the bubble).
First of all, I was never asked to provide feedback, but at that time, What was the point?
The market was good, houses were moving quickly, so it was about acting quickly on a house that was priced right.
Now I am shopping for a 2nd home and I would have to agree with you that it is a little more "devious." You don't want to tip your hand too much because everyone is looking for a deal. Frankly, the market is so bad where I am, I have only looked at distressed properties so obviously, I have not been asked to provide feedback to the bank!
I did get into a situation where I went to go look at a short sale home and listing agent (showing it to me) turned out to be the owner. She didn't really appreciate me pointing out to her that there was a huge 4 foot tear in her carpet. I guess she wasn't so open to feedback.
I give feedback to other agents if they email or catch me on the phone. Faxed requests are ignored.
I will tell them if there is a potential 2nd showing, or it's in the running. I answer questions about the condition of the house and how it showed. I never answer the question if I think it's fairly priced or anything about the pricing.. unless...my customers have moved on to something else already.
palmcoasting - in your area is there a centralized showing service that automatically sends a feedback form for every showing in the area? Down here there is and some agents ignore it and some answer all the questions. The questions are the same for each showing and cover topics like condition, cleanliness, curb appeal and pricing.
Sellers also get periodic updates from centralized showing recapping all feedback for the month, etc.
Relying on buyer/buyer agent feedback means either the listing agent is not doing his/her job or the seller is not accepting his/her agent's counsel. Instead, the seller gives more weight to feedback from strangers who may have other motivations. What is wrong with this picture?
Oh man....I hate to use the HGTV thing, but here goes.....there is a show called The Unsellables. The condition of the subject home is always inferior to the competition. The price is always too high versus the market.
HGTV comes in and addresses the condition and compels the listing agent to re-evaluate the price and surprise, surprise, the home usually gets sold.
I always wonder where oh where the listing agent was, in the mess, before HGTV came on the scene. The listing agent did not tell the seller what they needed to hear......the home does not show as well as the competion and their perception of value is whacked. And yet, those same agents go on to tell future clients that they were featured on HGTV ( as this weeks idiot ?).
Now most sellers are not fortunate enought to have HGTV execute and pay for the work. If the sellers either will not or cannot do the work, that means one thing....the price needs to be further adjusted to account for condition.
My share of my broker's 2.5% listing fee is nowhere near enough money for me to tell a potential client what they want to hear as opposed to what they need to hear, to get sold. Sadly, that's not the case with all agents.
Choosing a listing agent is a business decision and yet many, too many homeoweners, hire the agent who tells them the best story, what they want to hear.
Frankly, the market is so bad where I am, I have only looked at distressed properties so obviously, I have not been asked to provide feedback to the bank!
Getting sold is a business transaction. Bank employees are not sitting back waiting for potential buyers to stroke their ego and say nice things about their homes. Banks want an offer.
Sounds cold, eh?
I have compassion for the sellers who clean and vacate their homes in hopes of getting sold and how they do it again and again. I appreciate that they want someone to acknowledge their effort and inconvenience, even if it does not come with an offer. It's emotional.
I also understand that getting sold is a business transaction. All the nice feedback in the word means nothing, without an offer.
When I'm working for a buyer, the sellers request for feedback on a home that my client has expressed an interest in is my opportunity to begin negotiation. My feed back will be something like "My client liked the house, but there are other similar properties that are priced much better". If my client has no interest my feed back is something like "nice house, showed well".
When I'm working for the seller, the only feedback I'm interested in is "Did the buyer make a decision?", if not "Is my sellers house on the probable list".
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LOL
