I think it should become customary for people viewing a home to leave some sort of tip to the homeowner. Its not fun to clear out at a moment’s notice for an hour or more. Often the prospective buyer (or buyer’s agent) doesn’t bother to leave any feedback so we’re often left with no clue anyone’s even been here.
You wouldn’t come invited to someone’s party without bringing a small gift or snack, so why should seeing someone’s home be any different? Leaving a tip or gift would show appreciation for being invited into someone’s home, even if you don’t choose to buy.
You are for sale by owner right? A good, well respected agent will get feedback as the other agents are afraid to offend him or her by blowing off the request for feedback when they ask for it. You can try calling the showing agents to ask for feedback and you’ll probably get some if you catch them in the office. They won’t return your calls to provide it though.
In this market perhaps you should be giving your lookers a little present for visiting? If you left them a plate of freshly baked brownies (along with a nice note and perhaps a thermos of coffee to go with the brownies) not only would the house smell “homie” but if they ate some you would at least know they had actually stopped by. And it would associate your house with good memories.
Ron
Our agent gives us a web site where we can see that things are scheduled and any feedback comments from the visits. Note a feed back comment is not always useful. For example, someone saying that the color of the tub is wrong doesn’t help. You could work with them if they made an offer and said it was a problem; but, no one would rush off and change something like that just on feedback. You could chase comments until the cows come home.
Ron, we actually tried that when we sold our Garner home. We cooked our trademarked Fresh Loaf Of Bread and had it parked on the kitchen table. When two days of showings went by with no one touching the bread, we gave it up. 🙂
We’ve got another showing this morning! Hopefully this will be The One. I’m encouraged that we’re getting so much attention, if not offers. That will come in time, I suppose.