Just a rant about realtor feedback

[cottonmather0]

This afternoon while I was wrapping up some work on our new floors and base molding (as I've explained before), the listing agency called around 2:00 to make an appointment to show the house at 3:30. Not even two hours notice, but I told them 4:00 would be fine and I started trying to clean up my construction mess and straighten up the house. Yeah, it's little bit dusty and there's furniture moved around in places where there usually isn't furniture, but our agent has encouraged us to keep showing it while the construction is going on, so I cleaned up as well as I could (pretty good, actually), and put a sign on the front door apologizing for the mess from the newly installed floors and encouraging the lookers to come back next week when the project is complete.

In the process of cleaning the house I mopped the kitchen floor and the bathroom floors and there was a smell of windex and bleach in the air, but hey, I think that's a good smell because it means things are clean.

Anyway, the lookers show up at 3:55 and ring the doorbell, just as I'm heading out, and I apologize for the construction mess in person and get in my car and drive off.

Tonight we got this feedback from the automated system:

Client thought the place was dirty and had an odor. It was not the paint odor either. He wanted to walk right out. I think price is high considering that it back us to _________.

I know this kind of stuff isn't supposed to be taken personally - and he likely expected it to be filtered through our agent and we would never see it - but for some reason this really has me stewing. We've gotten a lot of feedback on the house, both good and bad, but even as short as it is this one just feels kind of unprofessional and rude, especially considering that I EXPLAINED what was going on and invited them to come back and see the finished product.

I mean, yeah, it's all business and it's his honest opinion, but for Chrissakes, it's still my HOME (not "the place") and you could be a little more professional about the whole thing, for example:

The client was not interested in the house because he thought it was not as clean as it could have been, plus we both noticed a bad odor in the house that did not seem to be connected to the paint or to the other construction. You might also want to reevaluate your price given that the property backs up to _______ street. Thank you.

I thought that was the whole point of using agents in the first place - to inject a layer of professionalism and credibility into the process.

OK, rant off.

[musicman]

bleach is a turn off to me too. smelling that in your home is not something that most people would like. as for prefessionalism in a realtor, that's another topic.

[sarahiki]

I totally agree with OP... We would get a call from Centralized Showing as the doorbell was ringing, or we would clear the kids out of the house for two hours at dinnertime to accommodate a realtor who was a no-show. And I'd say at least 50% of the time no feedback at all was left.

But this is like complaining that drivers are rude. You can complain, and you'd be right, but people just are what they are.

[cottonmather0]

Thanks for the replies. I wouldn't say it was an overpowering stench of bleach, just kind of maybe a whiff of house cleaner in the air, but if they didn't like it, that's fine with me.

It's the professionalism thing that I'm complaining about more or less: he could have given his critiques without turning his nose up in the air in 50 words or less, that's all.

[rbarz]

One of the cardinal rules of remodeling is to never show the house until it is complete. No mater what the buyers or your ill informed agent tells you, the buyers will not like it and will never come back to see it again. When I first started in this business I would break this rule for whatever reason I could come up with... the house is almost done, the buyers would beg me, the house is in such a desirable neighborhood with a lot of interest, etc. It always produced the same results and reinforced the rule over and over.

I do think that feedback should be constructive, it really misses the point if it isn't. As a Realtor, I would personally monitor the feedback for my client and not just blindly forward everything to them.

[TheNiche]

One of the cardinal rules of remodeling is to never show the house until it is complete. No mater what the buyers or your ill informed agent tells you, the buyers will not like it and will never come back to see it again.

This is the bottom line.

Most buyers haven't got a clue when it comes to the process of construction or remodeling and have even less in the way of imagination that would allow them to think of the house as it will be rather than as it is. And even the creative types get distracted by strong odors or visual mess, making it more difficult for them to envision how they'd live there.

[flipper]

This is the bottom line.

Most buyers haven't got a clue when it comes to the process of construction or remodeling and have even less in the way of imagination that would allow them to think of the house as it will be rather than as it is. And even the creative types get distracted by strong odors or visual mess, making it more difficult for them to envision how they'd live there.

here here!

flipper

[cottonmather0]

One of the cardinal rules of remodeling is to never show the house until it is complete. No mater what the buyers or your ill informed agent tells you, the buyers will not like it and will never come back to see it again.

Well, that was my first instinct - to wait until it was all finished and our agent (and my wife, too) vetoed that idea. As of this morning, I've informed them both that it will be available for showing again once I have everything finished, which will be either late this afternoon or tomorrow, but not before.