It's easy to stay focused on your own clients and customers and their needs, but it is also important to maintain and polish the image of the professional Realtor by meeting responsibilities to non-clients, too.

Among the most discourteous behavior is the refusal to provide feedback to an agent and his/her seller on a listing. The listing is being offered in a cooperative environment to you, why would you repay the listing agent by failing to provide feedback when he has provided you with inventory to sell?

Refusing or neglecting to provide feedback can harm you in more ways than you realize. Do you really want to hurt yourself?

Real estate is competitive, but it is also cooperative. The idea is to get homes sold, isn't it? Unfortunately, many Realtors believe that if they provide feedback, they are helping the competition. These short-sighted agents have forgotten that nothing happens until something is sold, and a sale isn't going to happen with sub-par or overpriced inventory.

Giving sellers feedback is a great way to help yourself, the market and the image of Realtors as a whole.

Here's a short list of reasons why providing seller feedback is a good thing:

1. Feedback can get you a sale. Your feedback after a tour or a showing could stimulate the seller to make additional repairs or lower the price of the home. When those changes occur, who do you think the listing agent will call first? You! If your buyer was interested in the house, but hesitant, she might love to know about new repairs or a price drop and make an offer. Then you get paid!

2. Feedback puts you in front of the listing agent. Even if you feel you are helping the listing agent with information he or she should already know, it helps all Realtors to get a second opinion. A well-presented, well-priced listing deserves a compliment to the listing agent who will remember you favorably for noticing.

   Providing feedback is a good way to make connections, and if your suggestions result in the home being sold, the listing agent isn't going to forget you. Next time he has a listing, he just might call you for an opinion, and you'll have the jump on other agents, which can only help your buyers.

   Don't turn up your nose at the listing agent for a home that needs work or more realistic pricing. It is part of the game to test the waters. Even great agents can't predict subtle changes in the marketplace or the stubbornness of a seller, making pricing a home an art as well as a science.

3. Feedback puts you in front of the seller. Sellers can be anxious. They want the most return for their home sale, but they also want to know what the market says. Try to email your suggestions to the listing agent, so that your name gets in front of the seller and the seller knows this is a legitimate opinion. They may appreciate your suggestions and do exactly as you suggest. They may like your suggestions so much, they hire you to represent them on their next purchase. Think about it, haven't you picked up some clients that way before? Just because a client has a Realtor, doesn't mean they're married.

4. Feedback can correct a problem resulting in better inventory for the market as a whole. With the advent of technology and dual working parents, among other social change, homes have to perform in ways they didn't have to for previous generations. Buyers expect and demand updates as part of the maintenance of a home. Encouraging sellers to make repairs and updates results in better inventory all around for you to sell.

5. Feedback makes you look professional. By showing attention to detail on feedback, you show that you care about the seller even though you aren't her Realtor. It shows you know about the market because you know what buyers want. And again, if your feedback results in the home getting sold, you've just made yourself look good in the eyes of your peers. This is an ideal way to get invited into those power groups of Realtors who sell a lot of homes through networking.

6. Feedback helps the industry. By having a higher standard and taking the time to provide feedback, you make all Realtors look good. But you make yourself look even better. If all Realtors operate as you do, then it becomes something special to be a Realtor. And if they don't, it makes you special.

Don't be tempted to cut corners on your time by refusing to answer a request for feedback. It will pay off for you in many ways any time you take a minute on behalf of someone else. Your peers will appreciate it and so will your clients and customers.

Published: May 6, 2004

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