Showing Services and Agents

In today's real estate market showing services are a must. Sellers and buyers both have busy schedules and want to make appointments on the spot. An agents entire day can be consumed trying to track down the involved parties to get one showing scheduled.

As nice as showing services are, they only work if the agents participate. Not just participate, but participate with some thought. Feedback is vital. Feedback can help the listing agent make improvements or verify they have gotten the price correct. There are many positive outcomes provided by feedback. Agents must provide the feedback however. I have recently experienced several agents that refuse to provide feedback. Why is this? Are they lazy? Who knows the reason, but it hurts everybody. One of my clients that has access to view feedback responses called to ask me why it had been over a week and we had not received feedback from a recent showing. I told him I had sent 5 requests and also called the agent but without any luck. He then asked me why an agent would not be willing to provide feedback. It is very hard to explain this to a client without violating the Realtor Ethics by saying something negative about the other agent. But yet, how do you explain it to a client? They want an answer.

Here are some tips that can help all of us.

-Provide feedback promptly, it only takes a few minutes.
-Be honest but not ugly. Clients can sometimes read the feedback and your response may have a direct bearing on your reputation.
-you do not have to quote your clients directly. If your client says that a house was ugly and filthy you may send a feedback response that your clients are looking for a more "move in ready" home. Or perhaps you would say that your clients prefer a different style of home.
-If you encounter a serious problem with a home, get in touch with the listing agent directly, don't wait to casually pass on the information in a feedback response.
-If you do not make it to a showing, let the agent know. Tell them you ran out of time, got lost, client got sick, or whatever the reason was. Remember, the seller is going to ask their agent about the showing.
-be realistic about showings. Do not try to schedule 6 homes in one hour. You know it is not possible and you need to let your client know it is not possible.
-be responsive to showing service calls and emails. They are not trying to contact you to waste your time.
-Make sure you give precise instructions to the showing service. Remember that they are not out looking at the houses and if you leave vague instructions the buyer agent will probably be calling for further explanation of which they will not have. This just delays the whole process and aggravates the sellers.

Together the whole system works a lot better and a little respect and consideration go a long way for everybody.

Todd Pierceall
Prestige Properties
www.prestigeproperties4u.com