Here’s a new question I’m going to suggest sellers ask the real estate agent they are considering hiring. “Do you give good feedback to your fellow agents?” (“Do you use professional photographers” should be one of the top 5 questions asked, by the way)

Giving feedback on houses I’ve shown kinda sucks. It’s tedious. I don’t always remember which house is which (after showing 12 houses in a day, 20-some over the course of three days, the houses sometimes run together – even for a professional!), and the feedback requests usually come a couple days later.* Frequently I have to search the MLS for the house so I can remember it. And the listing agents tend to not use the mnemonics my clients and I use to remember houses – the stinky house, the cold house, they yellow house, the house on the hill, country house with road noise …

But. Feedback on listings is valuable.

I can make the argument that giving feedback could damage my buyer client’s position. (ie. If the listing agent asks what I think of the price, I say it’s probably pretty accurately priced and then my client and I make an offer 10% below asking ) But for this post I won’t make that argument.

As a listing agent, getting (actionable) feedback is extremely valuable:

– The house smells (for God’s sake, get rid of the smelly things, people!)

– Fix the carpet

– Mow the grass

– Replace countertops

– The price is way too high

Sometimes the feedback is “they didn’t like it” or “the house is too big” or other inactionable things.

But.

A big reason I diligently try to give useful feedback to listing agents is because I want them to give me feedback when they show my listings.

Charlottesville is a small town; with not so many productive agents. Building, having, and maintaining those relationships is crucial to my clients. Being able to be candid and have good relationships and rapport is absolutely critical, and while giving feedback on listings may be one of the less fun and sexy parts of being a real estate agent, it’s one of the many important little things that matters.

* I tend to delete automated, often immediate requests for feedback. I’ll answer a human, but probably not software.

I wanted to use this Flickr image but the CC license wouldn’t allow it. 🙂