What’s the point of feedback on viewings?

[nightnightcircus]

We’re first time sellers and our first viewings are today. The estate agency mentioned getting us feedback after and I’m wondering what on earth the point is? I didn’t understand this as a first time buyer and I don’t understand it now!

As a buyer, my feedback was either “I don’t want to buy your house for reasons you can’t change” or “I want to buy your house and I’m offering £XXX.” We almost never gave the real reasons, as they were things like “I didn’t realise how much I’d hate a front door that opens straight into the kitchen until I saw yours” or “You should have left the kitchen and bathroom instead of fitting brand new ones in hideous colours” and why would anyone find that helpful?

As a seller, I’m not interested in the kind of pointless feedback people mention a lot on here eg to do with structure, location. I just want to know if they want to buy it or not! If they don’t, it’s unlikely to be because of anything we can change.

I suppose the only useful feedback might be if they think it’s overpriced, but we’ve priced it very sensibly for the current market.

What am I missing here?

The main feedback I would give.

“Unfortunately the photography exaggerated the size of the rooms.

yep

estate agents think their job is to get viewings so they often make the photos unrealistic in order to do that. Then the actual house isn’t as advertised

If lots of people mention the same thing that you can't change (eg busy road) the message is drop the price.

Other than that, a good EA will pass on the helpful feedback and filter out the nonsense.

There are some things that you can tell from the advert and some things that you can't. E.g. I got annoyed when people would come to see my house then feed back things like "we don't like the road", or "there isn't a second lounge". Both things that you didn't need to cause me to faff around preparing for a viewing for. On the other hand, we went to see a house that looked amazing in the photos but absolutely reeked of cigarette smoke - that certainly wasn't mentioned in the rightmove listing! The agent did the viewing and I was honest that it was off-putting and for the price of the house I didn't expect that I'd need to rip up the [very nice, but stinky] carpets and possibly take the house back to bare brick to get rid of the smell. I don't know what he passed on to the vendors!

On things like a second lounge
it might be that you can see a house doesn’t have some you’d like, but you’re prepared to compromise on that if everything else is perfect. When you view you realise you don’t like the overall package enough to make that compromise

ive done that before with location. You know it’s a bit far away but maybe it’s so good you can compromise, but it turns out not to be. It’d seem I rejected based on location, but it’s not that simple

fuller feedback in that case would make that clear

Now having flashbacks to the house we viewed where the lodger’s room reeked of weed and feet.

We had one viewer who said the garden wasn't big enough for their pony. It was a 3 bed semi, albeit with a nice old-fashioned very long garden. But come on!

Our last house 3 bed semi with an large garden for the estate - so few trees at back - and we backed onto another garden who also had trees at their back.

Basically a series of streets up a hillside - road one house garden garden house road - very clear on maps and walk round neighbourhood.

We had complaint there wasn't a large wood at end of our garden. There were any wood to back onto in that entire estate. There weren't mixed up as they said it to us on visit and later complained to estate agent.

I'm currently viewing houses and tried to give genuine feedback.

The photos are deceptive and make the property appear much larger than it is. The square footage wasn't on the ad either

The property was very cluttered it was really difficult to imagine by stuff in it. There was something up against nearly every wall. I know I would get a better sense of space if it was stripped back. Obviously I could measure but if everyone said the same, it might be worth stripping it back

Third one, I said I was interested but wouldn't be able to offer the asking price as I would need to redecorate immediately. Lovely house but walls are red and bright blue and bold wallpaper everywhere so I would have to factor that in & that several coats of paint would be required plus the inconvenience. I might still put in an offer but if it was more neutral, I probably would have already.

It may or not make a difference but those were the reasons I was put off the properties.

Good points you made OP. It really depends on the feedback. Maybe the feedback itself is not useful, but if in the event your house isnt selling for many months, it’ll mean you’re overpriced. That’s the main feedback I think: if a house isnt selling. EAs like feedback to use to see how to improve points for sale or to see if the same thing is being said about the house. Ultimately, if someone views and doesn’t make an offer, it’s worth nothing to them if that makes sense. The person who matters the most is the one who is considering your house.

I tend to agree with you OP. We had a couple view whose feedback was "we are looking for a four bed house" - why view our three bed then?!

It always surprises me that people won’t consider a house, which let’s face is an investment of hundreds of thousands of pounds, because they might have to
paint some walls.

the one we’ve just bought (well… in the process of buying) needs a few rooms repainting. Didn’t factor as a problem at all

Lovely house but walls are red and bright blue and bold wallpaper everywhere so I would have to factor that in & that several coats of paint would be required plus the inconvenience. I might still put in an offer but if it was more neutral, I probably would have already.

Are you really expecting sellers to have similar tastes to yours? Why? Nobody's decorating preferences are universal. I can't stand white/pale/beige/brown or the white-and-black styles.

I'm currently viewing and would have liked to give this feedback on different flats:

The common area is covered in used fag ends under the window
The enthusiastic vendor in his shorts living upstairs is not acceptable
You have no smoke alarms which is illegal in Scotland
Stylish Italian restaurant style tiles embedded in artex!!
An open facing toilet in the master bedroom with no door may be convenient but not for me

I just said not what I'm looking for

I told my estate agent not to give feedback after the first few viewings.

"The house was cold" - you gave me 30 minutes notice to get home from the shops and put the heating on
"There isn't a bath" - that's why it says shower room, not bath room
"There isn't a garage" - it says parking in street outside house

I could go on

Yes, this! Our current house had some rooms painted in ridiculous colours when we moved in. We paid a decorator about £500 to paint them back to white. Not something to factor into the sale price.

Are you a first time buyer?

I would strongly advise you not to let paint or wallpaper put you off a property - they are easy to change. Also nobody is going to negotiate a sale price based on something like this.

dancinginthewind · Today 11:49

Oh and one other bit of feedback was "we didn't like how the furniture was arranged in the sitting room". Did they realise the furniture didn't come with the flat? I guess that what they meant was that whatever furniture they wanted wouldn't have worked in the room in which case, fine.

:) that made my whole afternoon

period headache day

@Britpop123 & @nightnightcircus

No, not a first time buyer. I'm not an idiot. If I really wanted a house and the decor wasn't the only issue, it wouldn't put me off.

But when there is plenty of choice, I couldn't be bothered with the hassle.

If I like the decor somewhere, I can just clean the place and move it. I can upgrade it to my taste over time.

If the decor is headache inducing, it nests I have ri do it all before I move in, costs me time & money so no, it's not for me.

I can buy any one of several houses, the vendor is usually only selling one. If they prepare it for sale properly - fully clean, neutral decor & tidied landscaping etc, it will sell quicker. If sellers don't accept that, that's up to them.

Each to their own

i think missing out on a great house for the sake of some paint is daft but you’re not alone in letting decor influence your choices tbh

I once gave the feedback "the layout doesn't work for us. If you had a floorplan on the listing we need not have wasted your time".

Me too. I have thought that something was not ideal, but we could live with it if the rest was what we were looking for. There is often a compromise. Then you see it and realise that it really will not work.

Can you appreciate that for some people, they might a) not have the time or inclination to do it themselves, therefore it’s an extra few grand plus inconvenience and b) there might be a house on at the same price that isn’t full of dark or brightly painted walls?

If a house isn’t decorated/renovated to my taste, it’s the kind of thing that I’ll either have to tolerate and not enjoy living in, or pay through the nose and deal with likely flakey tradespeople in order to sort out. And why put myself through either of those things when there are plenty of other houses available?

I agree with most that most people's feedback doesn't help, but it is when all viewers are saying the same thing, then it might be something the EAs can go to the vendor with.

We have recently viewed 2 houses that smelled of smoke. One was going to have to be completely renovated anyway (new boiler, central heating added, new electrics) so was priced to include all that and you'd need to decorate and rip out the carpets etc to have it done, so it was less of an issue than the other house, which the vendor wanted the same money for as another house that had sold in the same road. However, for anyone buying, they'd have to do a lot of work to get rid of the smell before moving in, so it wasn't a house where you could sell and move from your house and on the same day move into this (more expensive) house. The vendor (as a smoker) clearly didn't realise what an issue it would be for so many people, but after it sitting on the market for some time when the other houses were selling quickly, he might eventually accept the feedback.
Other things - like parking - as a pp said, if you never have any issue parking on the road, it could be something to get the EA to emphasise when showing people around.

It would cost me about £500 per room to redecorate..

I don’t think as a seller you can try to urge people to consider things they don’t like - in a market where buyers are plentiful and sellers have more power, paint colours/decor are less likely to influence people. But as the market is now.. I think buyers can afford to be picky.

Feedback can be very useful. Someone said our smallest bedroom couldn’t fit a double bed in it. We had it as a study, we cleared it out, painted it, put a double bed we had in storage in it and gave it a general spruce up. It took a week to turn it around. They came back and offered and eventually bought it. Friends were told that their front garden was wasted as a lawn and should be turned in to a driveway for 3 cars. Every person viewing it said the same thing. They took it off the market, got groundworks done and did the work. It transformed it and they got more money for it as it now had so much parking.