Feedback requests
When a Charleston real estate agent shows homes to their clients, they are asked to provide feedback in order to help the seller understand what buyers like and don't like about their home. It's basically an automated process with an email automatically sent an hour after the appointment to view the property.
So far, so good.
Now usually, most agents show several homes and in some cases, quite a few homes to their clients so they can't necessarily respond to the feedback request right away. And the system is set up so that it's optional for the listing agent to have follow up feedback requests sent if the showing agent doesn't respond quickly. Some other agents also phone and others send personal emails requesting a response.
And how helpful is all this stuff anyway.
The real truth is that only one kind of feedback is helpful and that is when the buyer writes a contract on a home. That says they liked it.
The next best feedback is when a second viewing is set up which also shows that the buyer is at least interested in the home and thinks highly enough about it to consider it a possibility.
Most of the rest of the feedback is a waste of time. Let me explain. If the house is horrible, you surely don't want to say that so you tone down your remarks. You say something like the floor plan didn't work or it was nice but they liked other homes more. Rarely would you get into the details of how badly the home was because you don't want to insult anyone and if the home is a mess (and yes, some sellers really do need to not just straighten up but really clean their home), the listing agent should already know that and properly advise their client.
Now, here is where it gets interesting. If your client really likes the house, the last thing you want to do when representing your clients best interests is to let the other agent and the seller know how much they loved it because it basically destroys your negotiating position. So once again, you temper your remarks and say that it was a nice home on a nice lot and it was well maintained or something equally plain vanilla.
Remember, if a buyer writes a contract, that is the only feedback that counts. If you aren't the fortunate seller and come in second or third, that doesn't mean your home isn't nice, it just didn't get to the top of the list and there are a lot of homes for sale in Charleston right now.
And for those sellers who price far above market value, haven't updated their home for a while or have put off ongoing maintenance projects or just leave a sloppy mess, all the feedback in the world is no substitute for taking an honest look at why your home isn't selling.