Showing Notes Template: What to Record After Every Showing
Nine fields, sixty seconds, filled in before you start the car. The template, the mistakes, and the voice shortcut.
The showing note is the whole business
Everything a buyer's agent does after a showing — the follow-up, the offer strategy, the next search, the conversation with the listing agent — depends on what was captured in the ten minutes after the door closed. Agents who take showing notes consistently don't have better memories. They have a habit, and a format short enough to fill in from the driver's seat.
Below is the format we use, a printable version, and the mistakes that make notes useless three weeks later.
What a showing note needs to capture
| Field | Why it matters later | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Property & time | You'll show 40 homes this quarter; two will blur together. | 412 Oak St, Tue 2:15 PM |
| Who came | Decision-makers who weren't there need a different follow-up. | Sarah + her mom (husband didn't come) |
| Overall reaction | Hot / warm / lukewarm / cold decides the next 48 hours. | Warm — lingered in the kitchen |
| What they liked (quote them) | The follow-up email quotes it back. It's the proof you listened. | “This deck is where we'd live.” |
| Concerns / objections | Each one is either solvable (comps, inspection) or a deal-breaker. | Third bedroom tight; HOA $310 |
| Comparisons they made | Reveals their real ranking, not the one they say out loud. | “Kitchen better than Maple” |
| What you promised | An unkept promise ends more client relationships than a lost house. | Comps by tomorrow AM; ask about HOA rules on fences |
| Next step + date | A follow-up without a date doesn't happen. | Second showing Sat 11–2 if comps look good |
| Private notes (agent only) | Your read on urgency, budget stretch, dynamics. Never goes in a client message. | Mom is the real decision-maker |
The 60-second showing notes template
Print it, or keep it as a note on your phone. The format matters less than filling it in before you start the car.
Three mistakes that make showing notes useless
- Writing them at the end of the day. After four showings, the reactions blend. By the time you sit down, “the one with the deck” could be two houses. Notes have a half-life of about an hour.
- Recording opinions instead of quotes. “They liked it” tells you nothing in October. “She said the deck is where they'd live” writes your follow-up email for you.
- Mixing client-facing facts with private reads. Keep the “mom is the decision-maker” notes in their own box. If your notes ever get forwarded, pasted into a CRM, or shown to a client, you want that line nowhere near the rest.
Showing notes for the listing side
If you represent the seller, your note after each showing is the feedback you'll relay tonight: who showed, how long they stayed, what the buyer's agent said, and one thing the seller can act on (“three of five buyers mentioned the street noise — consider showing with the windows closed”). Our showing feedback request templates cover how to get that feedback from buyer's agents in the first place.
Paper, app, or voice?
| Method | Good | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Paper / phone note | Free, zero setup | Rarely filled in after the third showing; nothing gets structured |
| CRM note field | Attached to the contact | Typing in a parking lot; most agents skip it |
| Generic voice memo | Fast to capture | Nobody re-listens to a 2-minute memo; nothing gets written |
| Voice → structured recap | 30 seconds of talking, notes and drafts come out typed | Needs an app built for it |
The last row is what ShowingIQ does. Tap record as you leave, say what happened in plain language, and the app fills in the fields above — reaction, liked, concerns, promises, next step — and drafts the follow-up email and text from your words. Agent-only notes stay out of anything client-facing. Audio is deleted after 90 days; the recap stays. Your first three notes are free.
Frequently asked questions
What should I write down after a showing?
The property and time, who came, the overall reaction, what they liked in their own words, their concerns, any comparisons to other homes, what you promised and by when, and the next step with a date. Keep your private read on the client in a separate section.
When should I take showing notes?
Before you start the car. Details fade within an hour, and after several showings in a day they blend together. Thirty seconds in the driveway beats fifteen minutes at the kitchen table that night.
Should showing notes go into my CRM?
The client-facing facts — reaction, likes, concerns, next step — yes. Your private read on the client's urgency or family dynamics should stay in a section that never gets pasted into a message or shared with a team.
Is there a showing notes app for real estate agents?
ShowingIQ is built for exactly this: you dictate a 30-second voice note after the showing and it produces a structured recap plus a follow-up email and text draft. It's available for iPhone and Android; the first three notes are free.
Talk for 30 seconds after the showing. The follow-up writes itself.
ShowingIQ turns a quick voice note into a showing recap plus an email and text draft you review and send from your own Mail app. Your first 3 notes are free.
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