Self-represented sellers on GetMoreOffers should always carefully weigh what they say to buyers’ agents. This includes whenever the seller is soliciting feedback which may or may not prove helpful.
You can’t always trust that negative feedback reflects the real reasons buyers don’t make offers. Let’s say the home has been shown fifteen times with absolutely no offers, and you have received seven different feedback comments, such as they didn’t like the floor or the location. That fact that there have been zero offers indicates that it’s not issues with the home itself but with the price.
In other words, the home is likely over-priced because all fifteen buyers walked away while only seven of them had negative feedback on various issues. Interestingly, sellers most often say, “It’s not my price because no one has mentioned price and everyone liked my home.” Had the price, however, been $10,000 lower, some or all of those buyer objections would disappear and possibly an offer would have been presented.
Some sellers long to hear positive feedback, but that’s rarely forthcoming from a skilled buyer’s agent. The savviest buyer’s agent will be less than forthright about offering overly positive feedback because they are working to get the buyer the lowest price and won’t want to give away any negotiating advantage.
Still, many sellers and listing agents alike view feedback as honest and helpful, but remember that the buyers’ agents are always negotiating against sellers. For example, a buyer’s agent may mislead you by giving negative feedback that the home is a more house than the buyer needs or maybe that it’s in the buyer’s top three choices, but in reality, the buyer thinks the home is the perfect layout, and it’s the buyer’s first choice of homes.
From a professional negotiator’s point of view, it’s not feedback a seller wants, it’s an offer. That being said, a seller should not ask if an offer is forthcoming unless there is another offer in play. Why? If you have another offer in play it’s appropriate to inform the buyer’s agent. Knowing there’s another offer may motivate the buyer to make his own offer or risk losing the home. But asking if an offer is coming without having another offer in play may be viewed as either too aggressive or too anxious which may then be interpreted by the buyer’s agent as meaning “Wow, this seller is motivated. We have the negotiating edge.”
So sellers beware. Before you speak to a buyer’s agent, remember that every time buyers’ agents hear something they can use against a seller, they will.
Comments(0)