Feedback is king with listings.

Too frequently sellers will get frustrated with their listing agent for not following up with buyer agents. This is a crucial step. Oftentimes you can find out who might be on the fence and move them to make an offer, or the feedback will help the seller understand what the buyers don't like about a home (ie. price, location etc). Forwarding untouched feedback is priceless (vs a verbal recall).

But I hate the phone. When I have my buyer's agent hat on, I HATE getting a call after showing 10 homes. They might say, "What did you think about the house with the yellow shutters and the windy driveway." Meanwhile, I haven't got a clue. I have a horrible memory. So the business cards that I leave have no phone number on them! They say to please email me a link to the property.

So I always knew about HomeFeedback.com, a system that would allow you to email buyer agents that came through your property. But for the most part, I thought it was a waste. I still had to spend most of my time compiling the emails from the business cards, or logging into the lockbox's online reporting to get the emails.

Then I would produce a simple email text only template with a link to the property (no attachments!!) and a series of questions. Then 1 by 1 I'd email out a few each day, and forward the replies to my client. It was simple, fairly fast and cheap.

But now, YOU DO NOTHING! They will log in for you and email all visitors! This finally step makes it a killer app. No need to check daily for new visitors. It will automatically log into your lockbox (after you set it up) and email everyone that visited that day. Wow. Very cool. All for $35 a month after a 45 day trial.* A buck a day to check your listings? Give me a break, how can you not use this?

NOW WHAT? I SAY, THE FUTURE IS WIKI! 

So where is the future with this company? How do they top this? WIKI the information. Set it free!

Just imagine, thousands of agents giving feedback to each other about thousands of homes. Now imagine if that feedback was added to a site for consumers to see. I know, I know, those that don't fully get the world of the WIKI will be quick to point out the possible problems, but those that "get it" will see the benefits for everyone.

1) The Listing agent looks high tech for allowing their listing to be accompanied by unfiltered feedback from all agents. Also buyers are more likely to believe feedback if there is some negative feedback in the mix.

2) The Buyer agent gets a little free ad. Kind of a "I was here, if you need a buyer agent, and you liked my analysis of this home, consider hiring me."

3) Helps the seller. Press is good press, even if it is bad press. People talking about your home, even if you don't like what they say, is still activity. One can even design a sight to feature listings with feedback. Therefore the occasional negative feedback would boost their viewers.

4) Helps the buyer! Having several people who have already visited the home rate it? That would be amazing for the buyers. 

Tony And Danilo already do something similar over at their blogback, blogging for feedback. They haven't seen any of the problems that I'm sure people will raise.

This is the future of the MLS, and HomeFeedback.com should embrace this data, and with permission from all parties, allow it to be set free!

If you are a seller, go tell your listing agent to read this post!

Written by Frank Borges LL0SA Broker FranklyRealty.com

* For full disclaimer, when I saw this product at INMAN, I said to them "If only you all removed the step of entering each agent's name..." and when they said they did, I was sold! So I wrote this primarily to share this with everyone, but I did make the link an affiliate link. Revenue from this link will go to charity.