David Rathgeber's

The Feedback Fallacy

Some listing agents call every agent who shows their listing for their comments or "feedback." This practice is likely the result of...

• The listing agent is constantly angling for a price reduction, and hopes to gain the seller's agreement if enough other agents comment that the home is overpriced. Such an agent is clever enough to know that a lower price means a faster sale, but has no idea of when a price should be reduced or for what reasons.
  
• The listing agent knows little about marketing homes and is just talking to other agents as a learning experience.
  
• The listing agent feels the need to prove that something productive is happening and is trying to dazzle the seller with fancy footwork.
  
• The listing agent has hired an assistant who otherwise would be playing computer games if there were not something else to do like "feedback" calling.

If the agent showing the home really does have interested buyers, a call initiated by me is not a favorable start to our best negotiating position, unless we are trying to convey our desperation. Worse, a preemptive call from me prevents collection of very important information: Is there any real interest, or not? Further, I have found that useful information rarely results from such activity; so I do not routinely make such calls. Busy agents have no time to return my calls anyway. If there is something important to know, we already know it! But if you would like me to do this for you, just ask.

Meanwhile, I do have an innocuous automatic system that occasionally generates a response.

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AFiRE — Florida-licensed real estate broker
A Friend in Real Estate, LLC

YFiRE — Virginia-licensed real estate broker
Your Friend in Real Estate, LLC




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