What Should Happen After Every Showing, and How Does It Tell Me Whether to Change the Price?

After every showing, your REALTOR® should contact the buyer's agent and ask what the buyer thought, and you should hear that feedback quickly, in the buyer's agent's own words. I do it within twenty-four hours of every showing. One showing tells you very little. The pattern across several showings tells you a lot. When buyers keep mentioning the same thing, that is presentation, and it can usually be fixed. When buyers like the home but choose others, or when showings are not happening at all, that usually points to the price. My 10-10-0 rule puts a line under it: ten days without a showing, or ten showings without an offer, and something needs to change, either the price or the presentation.

I'm Courtney Foster, a REALTOR® in Bozeman, Montana, helping longtime homeowners decide what their equity is for and move into a home that fits their life now. The complaint I hear most about a previous agent is not incompetence. It is silence once the sign goes in the yard. Here is what should happen instead, every time someone walks through your home.

Because a showing is the market talking to you directly.

Before your home goes live, the price is an estimate built on real comparable homes. Once buyers start walking through, you get something better than an estimate. You get reactions. A buyer who spent twenty minutes in your kitchen and then wrote an offer on a different house is telling you something. So is a buyer who walked in, looked around and left quickly.

Most sellers never hear any of it. The showing happens, the lockbox closes, and nothing comes back. Weeks later, the seller learns that buyers all thought the carpet needed replacing, and those weeks are gone. Waiting months to find out what every buyer already noticed is a waste of your time and your best weeks on the market.

The buyer's agent gets a call

Within twenty-four hours of every showing, I contact the buyer's agent for specific feedback. Not "did they like it?" but what they noticed, what they compared it with, what they loved and what held them back. Buyers' agents are busy, so the questions are short and easy to answer. The goal is real information, not a polite thumbs-up.

You hear it in their words

You get the feedback in the buyer's agent's words rather than my summary of them. That matters. A summary can soften things you need to hear, or sharpen things that were minor. Their words let you judge it yourself.

It gets written down

Every showing and every piece of feedback is tracked, so the pattern is easy to see. A single comment about the paint color might be one buyer's taste. The same comment from several buyers is a signal.

You hear from me every week, news or not

On top of the feedback after each showing, you get a weekly update from me whether or not there is news, because no news is information too when you are the one waiting. That update covers showings, feedback and what I recommend doing about it.

One comment is an opinion. A pattern is information. Here is how I sort what comes back.

Comments about the house itself

"The carpet is worn." "The back bedroom felt dark." "There was a smell in the basement." "The yard needs work." These are presentation, and they are usually fixable. If several buyers say the same thing, it is costing you offers, and it is worth deciding together whether to fix it, adjust for it or leave it.

Comments about value

"Nice home, but they found more for the money." "Priced high for the condition." "They liked it, but they liked another one better at the same price." These point to price against the competition. Buyers are not judging your home alone. They are comparing it with everything else they can buy in the same range.

Comments about fit

"Not enough garage space for them." "They need a main-floor bedroom." "Too far from where they work." Those are about the buyer's needs, not your home's value. They are worth noting, and they do not usually mean anything needs to change.

Silence

When showings are not happening at all, there is no feedback to read. That silence is information too. Buyers are seeing the home online and ruling it out before they ever walk in, or they are not seeing it enough. Usually that comes back to the price, the photographs or the exposure.

This is the question every seller really wants answered, and the feedback is how you answer it with facts instead of feelings.

Plenty of showings, the same complaints, no offers. Buyers are coming, so the price is getting them in the door. Something they find inside is not matching what they expected. Look at presentation first: a repair buyers keep mentioning, a room that is not working, new photographs, or clearing out more of the house.

Plenty of showings, good comments, no offers. Buyers like the home and still choose others. That usually means price against the competition. The home may be priced fine on its own and still lose to a similar home that offers more for the money.

Few or no showings. Buyers are not coming to see it. That is usually the price, and almost nothing else will fix it. Sometimes it is the photographs or how many of the right buyers are seeing the home, so I check the marketing at the same time.

Offers coming in low. That is the market answering your price. It is information, not an insult. A low offer on a home with plenty of showings tells you roughly where buyers see the value, and negotiating it well is the next step.

Feedback tells you what buyers think. The 10-10-0 rule tells you when to act on it.

Ten days without a showing, or ten showings without an offer, and something needs to change, either the price or the presentation. I would rather catch it in week two than month three. Without a rule, everyone has a reason to wait one more week, and every week of waiting makes the next conversation harder.

The feedback after each showing is what makes the rule useful. When the rule fires, you already know which signal it is, because the comments have been coming in all along. Here is the 10-10-0 rule in full.

You do.

When something needs to change, you hear a recommendation from me with the reasoning, then the decision is yours. Sometimes the recommendation is a presentation fix. Sometimes it is the price. Sometimes it is both. Sometimes it is to hold steady because the feedback is good and the right buyer has not come through yet.

My job is to make sure you are deciding with real information in front of you, not a hunch and not the silence most sellers get.

Showing feedback is the heart of Step 6 of the Simple Selling Method™, Market Response and Negotiation. That step covers managing showings and feedback, adjusting strategy in real time when it is needed, and negotiating the terms that protect you.

It works best when the earlier steps were done well. A price set from real numbers in Step 1, Clarity and Plan, and a home prepared in Step 3, Home Preparation, give the feedback clean information to work with. If something is not working, you know it is not a half-finished room or a rushed photo.

1. The showing happens while you are out. Buyers relax and look longer when the owner is not home.
2. I contact the buyer's agent within twenty-four hours for specific feedback.
3. You get it in their words, not my summary.
4. It is tracked with every other showing, so the pattern shows.
5. Your weekly update pulls it together, news or not.
6. When a pattern shows up or the 10-10-0 rule fires, you hear one clear recommendation with the reasoning.
7. You decide, and the plan adjusts.

• No feedback at all. A showing with no follow-up is a lesson nobody learned.
• Reacting to one comment. One buyer disliking the paint is taste. Several is a pattern.
• Ignoring a pattern because it stings. If buyers keep saying the same thing, they are not all wrong.
• Blaming the market and waiting. Waiting rarely fixes a listing. It makes the eventual change bigger.
• Changing the price when the problem is presentation. If buyers keep mentioning the same fixable thing, fix it first.
• Fixing the presentation when the problem is price. A fresh coat of paint will not close a gap between your number and what buyers will pay.
• Talking to buyers during a showing. Be pleasant and make yourself scarce. Every question about the house can come to me.

What if the buyer's agent never answers?

Some do not. Many do when the questions are short and the follow-up is personal. A missing answer gets noted, and the pattern from the rest is still there.

Will I hear negative feedback too?

Yes. That is the feedback you most need. You hear it in their words so you can judge it yourself.

Does one bad comment mean I should lower the price?

No. One comment is one buyer. It is the pattern across showings, and the 10-10-0 rule, that tell you when a change is due.

Can feedback tell me my home is priced too low?

It can point that way. Lots of showings early and competing interest are signs the price is drawing buyers in. That is a conversation for how to respond to the first offer.

Should I be home during showings so I can answer questions?

No. Buyers need to feel free to open cupboards and talk openly with their agent. Here is how to get ready for photos and showings.

What if the feedback is good but nobody makes an offer?

That usually points to price against the competition. Buyers like your home, and they like another one more for the money. It is worth looking at what they bought instead.

Good feedback starts with a home that is priced from real numbers and launched well. If you want a number first, start with a real value on your home. You can also read how I sell a home in Bozeman. When you are ready to talk, tell me about your house or call me at (406) 606-9551.

Courtney Foster is a REALTOR® in Bozeman, Montana, helping longtime homeowners decide what their equity is for and move into a home that fits their life now. www.CourtneyFoster.com