How do you feel about showing feed back forms?

I really do not care for them...a short response box is about all I have time for...and I always give feedback.

Even though I am newer to the business I have had more listings than buyers.  I still don't care about feedback because price is the #1 motivator on getting traffic into a house and getting it sold.  If more agents in the valley believed that, there would be 12000 less homes on the market today!  I am just coming back to restate my case :)

Almost sounds like it is the first stages to a negotiation.  Our feedback forms are more generic but cover the same ground.

Debbie~ I guess I am one in those agents that get on a Buyer's agents' nerves...as I send out automated feedback request forms and feel strongly that an agent can communicate their Buyer's opinion without revealing their position regarding a potential offer...as a matter of fact, I wrote a similar post last week (although mine was from the Listing Agent's point of view) and it's really interesting to me to see the comments we both received and to compare. It's good to see everyone's opinion of this so that I have more of an understanding when I don't get responses...Feel free to check out my post! :)

Hey Debbie,

its me.... kool blog..

Quite frankly most realtors have no idea what their customer thinks of the house unless it is the one they want to buy, because they don't bother to ask the buyer what they think most of the time. I gave up long ago asking agents showing my listings for feed back, half the time they had shown so many homes they can't even remember which house was which. If they do remember they give you some generic answer like "They didn't like it"  "they liked another house better" unless you are willing to grill them and they are willing to be grilled you are not going to get any valuable feedback..move on

I have no problem with these questions. Your answer to that question comes from you and doesnt change what the buyers will offer or the motivation of the buyer.

Everyone should pay close attention to Jim Crawford's comments in regard to feedback.  Renee Burrows made a great point in her comment, too.

Buyer's agents should really be very careful if they choose to give feedback - their loyalty and fiduciary duty is to their buyer, not to the listing agent or the seller of the home they showed to their buyer-client.

Ann

Hey, Sis :)

As the listing agent, I feel I should know how the home is priced, I should know if my seller has "clutter" issues or "dirt" issues.

Well, there ya go.  I have been saying this forever.  If the L/A can't tell whether a house has issues, then they probably need a new job.  I don't need feedback to an incorrect listing price or the clutter in the master bedroom.  We should all be dealing with those issues long before the house hits the market, no?

Hi Debbie, you raise a good point.  I've generally seen these form in open houses/Realtor tours.  More often than not it appears the listing agent is trying to get additional support to encourage their seller that they really need to listen to their Realtor's advise.  When I show a house, I'd almost prefer to get a written feed back form versus getting a telephone call asking about the showing.  In this area, many sellers expect their agent to get feedback.  I wouldn't hesitate about saying a house is over priced, if it is, but I'd never tell someone that its too low.  

Congrats on getting featured.     

Debi - I'd rather respond to an e-mailed feedback form, which I can answer at my convenience, rather than play phone tag with an agent or assistant. I only answer the questions that I want to, and ignore the rest. If I don't like any of the questions, I'll make my general response in the comment section. Generally I'm representing the buyer, so won't give away any negotiating leverage.

Debi - Wow I never thought that this subject could cause such an uproar. Feedback is something I was trained to give when I began in this business in the 90's. It is a courtesy to the seller and their agent, as mentioned here, who have worked to get their home in "show condition". If I have a problem answering one of the questions I simply leave it blank. I will comment if only to simply thank the seller for allowing the showing. I guess that as the world is today we can be sued for anything we say, does that mean we should stop communicating???

Right on Judy!  It's a professional courtesy and you should know not to give feedback that would compromise your clients.  I still am not sure about the case law mentioned in the law suit above.  I'd really like to know what the circumstances were and where it happened.

The way I see it, the agent is asking for YOUR opinion on price. In some ways, it's like doing the listing agent's job for them, but if I think they are way off the mark on price, I will tell them. I don't tell them what the buyer says about price, though.

As for the forms themselves, I don't like them. I don't use them myself. If i want to know something, I send a personal email to the agents who showed my listing and I ask them an open-ended question that they can answer any way they see fit.

I'm a little late in responding, only because I just now read this post, but, hopefully, Debbie, you and maybe some others will still get and find some value in this belated response.  First, as a listing agent, I think feedback in any form, written or oral, is very helpful to me, especially if I'm trying to convince my seller they need to do something that would increase the curb appeal or marketability of the property for the price they are asking. 

Now, with respect to price, I think we agents need to be very careful about asking each other regarding the price of a property and our opinion as to whether we think it's good, bad or indifferent.  In the last couple of anti-trust classes I took, we were told that agents discussing price could be construed as "price-fixing" and, hence, in violation of the anti-trust laws.  If the feedback form in question had asked what the prospective buyer thought of the price, that could (with no guarantee) protect the 2 agents involved from violating anti-trust laws. 

Frankly, asking any buyer's agent or transaction broker what they think of the price is kind of silly, really.  Can you imagine the buyer's agent or TB ever responding, "Oh, well, they thought the price was really much too low"?  That's almost as silly or useless as asking a listing agent if their sellers would consider accepting less than they are asking. 

As someone said, I love to get feedback but don't always like to take the time or remember to give feedback.  Anyone can feel free to follow up and ask me for it--but I'm less apt to fill out and fax back a feedback form than just talk to a buyer's agent who calls me to ask for it.

~Ninah

Russ - haha good one! like you are really going to tell the listing agent the price is too low and then submit a lowball offer. It seems that there was a fad going around with feedback request programs. They have since tempered out in my market.