When you list your Wilmington area home for sale, you will have a number of agents showing it to their buyers. After each showing, the agent will receive an automated form through our centralized showing service asking them questions about what they or their clients thought of the home. They are not required to fill out this form. Giving feedback is just a matter of courtesy. Many agents take the time to fill out the form, but some don’t, and we know that can be frustrating. As a seller, you want to know what parts of your home may be hindering the sale and if buyers are showing any sort of interest in it. So, why don’t agents leave feedback? Here are some reasons why:
1. They don’t want to lose negotiating power. Showing agents can pick and choose which questions they anwer on the form we send through the centralized showing service, but some agents feel that if their client showed serious interest in the home, anything they might say could affect negotiations. If they make their clients sound like they loved the home too much, the seller may counter at a higher price than if they didn’t know their motivation. So, they may wait on giving feedback until after their client decides on a home. Sometimes, this happens so late that they forget to give it.
2. They don’t feel they have feedback to share. Maybe it was just a preview for their clients (meaning the clients weren’t present) or the buyers didn’t have much to say about the home. If that’s the case, the agent may feel giving feedback is a waste of time, because they have nothing helpful to add. We always prefer an agent to give feedback, even if it’s just their own impression, but some agents are against providing their own opinions of the home, because they think it can get them in trouble when they show it again later.
3. They saw too many houses in one day. The day can become a blur when you see house after house after house. If an agent showed their client a lot of houses in one day, it’s possible they don’t remember exactly what they said about the home. To not risk giving the wrong feedback, they may choose not to provide any at all.
Not receiving feedback can be feedback in itself. If the buyer’s agent doesn’t feel the need to contact the listing agent directly or give feedback on the home, their clients were clearly not interested. It also implies there was nothing about the home that was an obvious issue. It doesn’t matter how many homes you see, if there was something about a home that really stood out (good or bad), an agent will remember it.
We try to be considerate of other agents’ schedules. We know that showing houses to a client can be a multi-day process. If an agent doesn’t fill out a feedback request for a home, they get sent reminder emails. If we don’t receive feedback in a few days, we do our best to contact the agent to get feedback, but as we stated above, agents have their reasons for not providing it.
If you have any questions about selling a home in the Wilmington area, give us a call or send us a message through our Contact page.
