Part One: Buyer Feedback (The Uncensored Edition)

**[Scene: A stressed-out buyer agent, finally responding to a listing agent who’s been hounding them for days. Cue the email.]

Subject: Feedback 3609 Dandelion Drive (You Asked for It…)

Hi there,

Thanks for following up again (and again). I’ve been putting off writing this because I wasn’t sure it would be helpful. But you’ve earned it. You want the truth? Hold on to your sneakers, cause here goes: We didn’t like it. And I mean, really didn’t like it. My buyer said it smelled like a litter box married a family of ferrets. Does your seller have a cat?  They weren’t sure if the ceiling fan was a design feature or just hanging on for dear life. And the wallpaper—I don’t want to say it was offensive, but it may have personally attacked my client’s eyeballs. Also, just FYI, your Ring doorbell now has 4 minutes of raw, unfiltered commentary on it.

-Buyer’s Agent

Okay. Deep breath. I say this with love: It’s not personal. It’s real estate.

Ah, feedback. That tender little slice of honesty wrapped in awkwardness, served cold after a showing. If you’re a listing agent, you crave it. If you’re a buyer’s agent, you dread giving it. If you’re a buyer, you’re texting it in all-caps to your friend before you even make it back to the car.

It’s the peanut butter and jelly of the market—messy, sticky, but essential. And when it’s real and raw, it’s also the closest thing we have to market truth serum.

Let’s start with the elephant in the family room: Most agents are chasing feedback like it holds the meaning of life. And maybe it does—in our industry, it’s a vital sign. Is the house priced right? Is the layout working? Are people recoiling from the 1987 kitchen appliances?

And let me tell you, some of the feedback we get? Well said, thank you!

Like the buyer who walked into a listing and immediately said, “Nope. This place has divorce energy.”

Or the one who described the kitchen as “perfect for a witch who only eats gruel.”

Then there was the man who told his agent, “I can feel ghosts in here.” Not “see” ghosts. Feel them. Said it felt like a Victorian child was judging him from the staircase. Listen, you can stage around clutter, but you cannot stage around haunted.

But here’s the thing—crazy as it sounds, all of that is useful. This is raw consumer insight. Buyer feedback is a live feed of what the market is thinking in its most unfiltered form. It’s the Yelp review of a listing. It’s a focus group with zero filter. And it often says what comps, appraisers, and Zillow algorithms can’t.

As a listing agent, yes, it can sting. I once had feedback say, and I quote, “The house feels like sadness.” (Like, ouch. We had just updated the lighting!) But that feedback helped the seller realize we had to rework the entire first impression. We made changes. We got offers. That buyer was harsh, but not wrong.

And sellers? I know you want sugar-coated responses, or ideally, no feedback at all because everyone is obviously in love with your hand-painted mural of a unicorn in the dining room. But feedback—real feedback—is your best friend. It tells you why offers aren’t coming in. It helps you stop blaming your agent and start addressing what buyers actually care about.

Buyers too get something out of this. By articulating their thoughts—even just to their agent—they start to understand what really matters to them. Sometimes the house isn’t “just not right,” it’s “I hate when the primary bedroom faces the street and the bathroom feels like a closet.” 

And buyer agents? Oh, we are reluctant messengers. We take the heat from our clients and deliver it with as much grace as we can. But let’s not kid ourselves—sometimes we delay feedback not because we’re lazy, but because we’re trying to edit out the part where our buyer asked, “What happened in here?”

Then there are the Ring doorbells. Ah yes, the digital confessionals of modern real estate. If you’ve never had a buyer accidentally leave a full feedback session on a seller’s Ring, then have you even shown houses in 2025? I’ve had buyers rate a home like they were on a home improvement reality show. “Curb appeal: 5. Interior design: 2. Basement: Terrifying.”

It’s hilarious, it’s humbling, and sometimes it saves everyone a lot of time.

So what do we do with all this unsanitized truth? We use it. We share it. We coach our clients through it. We translate “feels like sadness” into “the lighting and paint colors might be turning people off.”

Because, behind the sign, there’s a whole ecosystem of perception and preference. Feedback is the market whispering its secrets. And yeah, sometimes it’s yelling them at a Ring camera.

Tips for Giving (and Getting) Better Feedback:

1. Be Specific, Not Savage: “Too dark” is better than “depressing.” One is fixable, the other just hurts.
2. Don’t Wait Too Long: Feedback loses value the longer you wait. Plus, the listing agent will definitely text you again.
3. Use It to Educate Your Clients: Let feedback guide the conversation about price, presentation, or timing.
4. Be Honest, Not Brutal: Unless they really, really need to lose that unicorn mural.
5. Check for Ring Cameras: Before your client starts doing their best stand-up comedy routine about the wallpaper.

So, listing agents, next time you’re hounding us for feedback, know that we’re not ignoring you. We’re just trying to find a way to tell you your listing smells like bats moved in or looks like a time capsule without starting a war.

And buyer agents, let’s embrace the awkward. Let’s give the feedback. Honest, kind, unfiltered (with maybe a gentle edit). Because behind the sign, that’s how homes get sold.

Stay tuned for Part Two: All that Feedback…and What to Do About it

Until then, may your showings be smooth and your Ring doorbells mercifully silent.

—Roxanne