Sellers Ask: Why Don't I Get Showing Feedback?

It's a common question and sellers often want feedback on the showings held at their homes. When you're trying to sell your home, it's only natural to want to know what's going on. 

Typically, we get feedback from about 40% to 45% of the showing agents. Some of our clients that have been listed before have made it clear they received no showing feedback from their former listing agent. 

Even though we are getting feedback, it's still less than most sellers would prefer. Here are some of the reasons why it's not always easy to get showing feedback when your property is listed for sale.

Buyers See 8 to 10 Properties

One of the reasons you may not always get showing feedback is simply the volume of properties a potential buyer will see. Usually, buyers will see between 8 and 10 properties before making a purchase. In some cases, they may see more than 10 properties and in others, they may see less.

In reality, the buyer's agent simply doesn't have the time to provide showing feedback for every property they show to a potential buyer. If they are working with multiple buyers, they may be showing 50 to 100 properties every week. 

Even though sellers and seller's agents are asking for feedback, the large volume a buyer's agent may be handling could be causing the lack of feedback. They may simply choose not to return the calls made for showing feedback because they are too busy to provide feedback on every showing.

Feedback is in Favor of the Buyer

Another reason you may not get feedback from a showing is the fact that the agent providing the feedback is representing the buyer. They may say things, such as, the property didn't compare as well to other properties they have seen or they may point out what they didn't like.

This is simply done to set up the buyer for better negotiations later on. Often, the buyer's agent doesn't want to provide much feedback from the showing for this exact reason. They want to make sure they can negotiate on behalf of the buyer when the time comes.

Fiduciary Duty

As a real estate agent, we all have a fiduciary duty to put our buyer or seller in the best position possible. The buyer's agent is going to try to put their buyer in the best position possible. Providing feedback to help out the seller's agent may not be in their best interest.

For example, if the buyer's agent provided feedback that the potential buyer loved the home, but stated it needs new carpet, then they make an offer $10K below asking price, the seller's agent now holds the cards. As a seller's agent, it's now possible to make the point that new carpet won't cost $10K and counter with another offer that makes more sense.

This doesn't set up the buyer in the best position for negotiations and it may have been better not to provide any showing feedback in this example. Since the buyer's agent's job isn't to help the seller, but to represent the buyer, they may not provide showing feedback if they think it could hurt the buyer later on.

Getting showing feedback isn't for a lack of trying. Even sending several emails and making multiple phone calls may not get you the showing feedback you'd like. It's more important to see what the market is saying. If you're getting as much activity compared to similar properties for sale or that have already sold, it's not necessary to worry about showing feedback as much.