Will Scathing Feedback Lower the Seller’s Price?
I’ve certainly taken my swipes at the seemingly ubiquitous showing feedback forms that Buyers’ agents receive after they show a home.
The main knocks: they ask for information no good Buyer’s agent is going to provide — e.g., “what is the home worth?” — especially if they have a client with serious interest; 
the agent doesn’t know the area, so isn’t qualified to answer that question, anyways; it’s not the Buyer’s agent’s job to critique the listing agent’s staging and marketing; it can be transparently (and blatantly) self-serving, most commonly by a Buyer’s agent who thinks they can lower the price by dumping on the house*; and most agents spend about 3 seconds filling them out, rendering them useless. See, “The My-Client-Didn’t-Like It-Stop-Bugging-Me Showing Feedback.”
So, what is the one instance where — at least in my opinion — Buyer feedback can be very useful?
When it alerts the Seller that prospective Buyers are overlooking something.
Exhibit A
I sold a home in Golden Valley last year where — not withstanding the “.25 acre” listed on MLS, no one seemed to realize that there was a big yard to the west of the house (the yard was located on the other side of the detached garage, and apparently Buyers thought it belonged to the neighbor).
So, I had a second sign put up in the middle of the yard, and also called attention to the yard’s location in the Agent and Public Remarks fields on MLS.
It sold 3 weeks later, after a total of six weeks on the market.
P.S.: My listing clients regularly hear my favorite line about Buyer feedback: ‘the only kind I really care about is a full-price offer (or close) from a well-qualified Buyer.’
*I actually received something very much like this feedback on one of my listings a couple years ago:
Curb appeal: ‘Awful’
Floor plan: ‘Atrocious’
Condition: ‘Terrible’
Price: ‘Ridiculously high.’
Comments: ‘They’re very interested; please keep me updated.’
The upshot?
I sold the house — which was actually quite appealing and in good overall condition — to someone else shortly thereafter for 96% of the asking price.
