This is something that has been rattling around in my brain for some time. I show a buyer a home and I get a message back from the listing agent asking for feedback. They want to know what my client thought about the property. Sellers appreciate feedback and agents in my market are aggressive about collecting it, I guess I am too.
Yet it causes a dilemma. One of the questions on most feedback forms asks about pricing. If my clients are interested in the home, I may be doing them a disservice, and even violating my contract with them, by letting the listing agent and sellers know that my buyers think the pricing is great. I may also be doing my buyers a dis-service by reporting that the house exactly fits their needs and that they like it as well as or better than the other homes they have seen.
If I give negative feedback about the property and my buyers later decide to write an offer the sellers may have formed a negative opinion of my buyers and that could make the negotiation process more difficult. I have had this experience when representing sellers where they disliked the buyers in part because of some feedback the buyers agent provided.
My contract is with the buyers, not the sellers. I don’t have any obligation to do anything for the sellers other than to make sure that I remove my shoes, turn off the lights, lock the door, leave a card and refrain from letting the family pet out. Giving feedback to the sellers on the property is outside the scope of my contract with the buyers.
When I sign a buyers representation agreement I am agreeing to confidentiality, and I am also agreeing to act in their best interests. The right thing to do when representing buyers is to ask their permission to provide feedback to the seller and have a conversation discussing the implications of giving feedback. If the buyers say no, then my response to the agent who is asking for feedback has to be no.
