I suppose it would be like asking the attendees of a rummage sale for their opinion on just how the sale went, or how they liked your used wares, or perhaps, how they felt about the prices of the things that you used to like before you splayed them out on your driveway atop tables that you borrowed from the church, or the school, or maybe some from both. If we were to poll rummage sale attendees after they left, asking them all these things about the rummage sale, I wonder how that might go. Most people wouldn’t answer their phone. Some of the nice ladies that attended would give honest feedback, others wouldn’t. That’s just the way it is.
It’s like that with houses too. On showings, buyers walk through homes and they comment on this or on that, but mostly they’re looking at a house to see if they can see their own pictures on the walls, or their own children running down the lawn and to the pier. They are looking, judging, wondering why a homeowner did this or didn’t do that, and in these many thoughts an opinion is formed. Usually, the opinion is formed immediately. Remember that whole thing about curb appeal? It’s very, very true. Buyers essentially like something before they get out of the car in the same way that they might hate something before they get out of the car. Sometimes, they don’t get out of the car. Which makes this game of seller feedback a delicate one.
Feedback. It’s often asked for, commonly delivered, rarely truthful. Sellers want to know what the people that just walked through their home think of it. Did they see the sconce I put over the mirror in the basement bath? Well, did they?! Likely, they did. And they either didn’t like it or they didn’t care whether it was there or not. Buyers look, brokers talk, sellers cross their fingers. In this game of real estate sales there are many constants. Buyers are not always transparent, brokers are not always telepathic, and sellers are not always patient. Feedback, the thing that sellers love and hold so dear, is useless.
Here’s why. Assuming the broker attending the showing is any good, that broker will work to overcome any reasonable obstacles that a buyer discovers during a showing. All other immovable obstacles and the discussion of those result in an absolute waste of breath and time. For instance, if a buyer walks through a house and says that they’d really love this particular house if only it had hardwood floors, this is the time that the broker gets down on hands and knees and pulls up a floor register, or tugs on a loose bit of carpet in a closet to see what lies beneath. If there is wood, the obstacle has been mostly solved and the showing can continue while the buyer interest grows. If there is no wood, a broker will suggest that for a paltry sum of money the buyer can have hardwood installed after the closing. These are obstacles that present and can be overcome in a single showing.
Other obstacles, the sorts that actually keep people from buying a particular residence, these are the obstacles that are unchangeable. The buyer likes the house but hates the location. The buyer likes the kitchen but hates the house. The buyer likes the plates that the seller stacked on the open shelf but hates every single other thing about the kitchen, the house, the street, the neighborhood, the town, and the state. These are the sorts of obstacles that make real estate selling a challenge, which it is. Without these obstacles, we’d just match homes with buyers and everyone would be happy, no feedback required. Sellers can’t fathom this, but buyers can actually hate homes that they tour. Worse yet, a seller can have a house with a 183′ deep sink hole in the middle of the living room and if that hole is mentioned as a possible source for a poor showing, the answer will generally be, “What, that little spot in the floor?”
So sellers wait for feedback, and that feedback is usually pointless, barring an obstacle like the hardwood that can easily be overcome. After some level of selling, a resistant buyer is a resistant buyer, and the house that was shown simply is not the house that they will buy. No selling can overcome that, and it shouldn’t. Informing a seller that the buyer hated his house isn’t a fun job, which is why feedback is mostly absurd. There are cases where it is valid, and necessary, but those cases are when the obstacle to the sale is a movable object. In the absence of an easy fix, a showing that doesn’t yield an offer or a follow up showing is a bust, and that’s just the way it is.
Here’s a great new way to view feedback from your broker. If your home is shown, this is a wonderful, exciting thing. But if after a day or two the broker hasn’t provided any feedback then you’ve already received the feedback without knowing it. No feedback is the result of a negative showing, whereas positive feedback is, you guessed it, positive. It feels good to have solved that.