Getting feedback after an open house can provide valuable property specific information as well as candid advice to offer to sellers. Keep in mind most people don’t like participating in surveys, unless they are getting compensated in some way. However, even if you offer some type of incentive, like a gift card or tickets to a local event, for potential buyers to fill out a broker open house feedback form, it doesn’t guarantee quality feedback. In fact, it’s difficult to ensure quality feedback, but there are a few things you can do to increase the chances of receiving useful information from potential buyers.

First, keep your feedback form short; answering more than four to six questions becomes cumbersome and you aren’t likely to get answers to all of your questions, or the answers will be too brief to be useful. Second, asking open ended questions gives potential buyers an opportunity to provide additional information.

Example Questions for Your Broker Open House Feedback Form

SCENARIO ONE – yes/no question:

Question: Is the price of this home to high?

Possible responses: Yes, No, Maybe, I don’t know

SCENARIO TWO – open-ended question:

Question: How does the listing price compare with similar properties you’ve viewed? and/or How do you feel about this home’s list price?

Possible Responses: This property is priced higher/lower/the same as other properties. I feel the amenities/lack of amenities of this home justify/don’t justify the price.

As you can see from the above example, when you formulate open-ended questions for your broker open house feedback form, you get information beyond yes or no. If a person answers “yes” to “Is the price too high?”, what does this mean? Is the price too high for the market? Is the price too high for their budget? These are two very different sales obstacles.

In the open-ended question example, you capture information about the market. You might also find how much the buyers have been shopping around. There may be specific feedback about features and amenities of your listing. There are times to include multiple choice and yes/no questions, but you must be going after specific information which you might not be able to acquire easily from an open-ended question.

Finally, you cannot simply ask ANY question on a feedback form, you need to find the best real estate feedback questions which allow you to extract as much useful information as possible. Below we provide the five questions you should include on your broker open house feedback form.

1. Do You See Yourself Living in this Home?

This is an example of yes/no question which can provide a lot of information because it’s a “loaded” question. As a real estate agent trying to sell a home, you know making a sale goes beyond price and features. You need to encourage and coax potential buyers into seeing themselves in the home they are viewing. When you include this as a feedback question, a potential buyer’s answer gives you more information. If buyers answer yes, it could mean they love the layout, the staging, the price, the features, and the location, as well as a number of other things.

When buyers answer no, you can expect they won’t likely make an offer. In an open house situation, potential buyers know the location ahead of time and are likely happy with the location or they wouldn’t look at the home. If they have a negative response to this question, it’s likely something specific to the house or its pricing. The rest of the questions on your broker open house feedback form will hone in on more specific information you can use to improve your chances of receiving offers for your seller.

2. What Are Your Favorite Features of this Home?

Even potential buyers who have an overall negative response to a home, probably have at least one or two features or characteristics they like. This question allows you to hone in on things you might not have thought about for your listing. Videos, photos and any literature created for the property could be updated to highlight these features. Depending on the property you might receive all types of answers here, such as:

• Spacious Kitchen
• Walk-in Closets
• Proximity to schools, shopping, and/or parks
• Extras like pool, hot tub, soaking tub, sauna
• Bonus room which can work great for an office or play room
• Original woodwork, architecture, or built-ins found in an older, historic property
• Landscaping/backyard features

Pay close attention to these answers, especially those which are consistently repeated. If you haven’t already highlighted these features, make sure to update your listing and associated literature.

3. What Do You Like Least About this Home?

You might think it’s counter-intuitive to ask for negative information on your broker open house feedback form. However, when buyers offer honest and complete answers to this question, the information is gold. You can put these details to work in a few different ways. First, you can use it to change the marketing strategy for the property.  For example, let’s say it’s a three-bedroom home, which includes one relatively small bedroom in comparison to the others. You’ve been touting this property as a great family home, but you keep reading negative comments about the size of the third bedroom. You can change your marketing strategy to target single professionals, retired coupes looking to downsize, or first-time home buyers.

Sometimes negative feedback might include things which need to be fixed or upgraded. This might include plumbing and electrical work, replacing carpet or flooring, or replacing outdated plumbing or light fixtures. Some of these things can be inexpensive, others can break the bank. When you bring this feedback to the seller, you can encourage them to offer an allowance to potential buyers which target one or more of these areas, or get out the credit card, do some of the upgrades, and adjust the listing, maybe even the price, accordingly.

4. What Is Your Opinion of this Home’s Listing Price?

As an agent, you likely know your market well. You know how to help your sellers set the right listing price. Yet, sometimes you might be off or maybe comps are difficult to come by. In any case, you need to get feedback on the listing price of the house for your sellers. Not only do you want to ensure you aren’t overpriced, you don’t want to be too far below market value. This could leave money on the table. As mentioned in the above example, the answer to this question can provide useful information. Those who offer complete responses might give you clues about their budget, clues about the market, and clues about why you might be struggling to get offers. If you find most of responses to this question lean to the positive side—that is open house attendees feel the house is priced fairly—and you aren’t getting offers, this might suggest price is not the issue. This should motivate you to really dig into the answers provided about a home’s least favorite features. If you find the responses about price to be negative, you might want to go back to the drawing board with your sellers and reevaluate the listing price.

5. What Would it Take for You to Submit an Offer Today?

Regardless of how many questions you have on your broker open house feedback form, this should be the last question you list. Although this might seem slightly aggressive, this question provides an opportunity for the potential buyer to list any deal breakers. Although some of the other responses might give you insight into negative thoughts about the property, this questions will give you the answers you need to close a sale, or determine if the potential buyer is serious about taking next steps. Additionally, you’ve likely had hours and weeks of real estate training and maybe years of experience, so you understand the fundamentals of making a sale. If you want to close a deal, you need to ask for the sale; albeit slightly indirect, this question does ask for the sale by leading the potential buyer towards making a decision. Once you see the response, you can advise your seller on how to negotiate with this information or you can use the information to make changes to increase the chances of the next looker to buy.

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Contact Pro Agent Solutions Today

Whether you are an agent or broker,  you can sign up for the Pro Agent Solutions free 14 day trial to learn more about Showing Pro. It will automate the feedback process and save valuable time that can be used more productively. The Showing Pro system automatically loads your real estate showings from electronic lockboxes, and the showing agent receives a list of feedback questions and feedback forms. You and your client receive the responses, so you can put the feedback to work and turn your open house or showing into a sale.