Buying or selling a home can take weeks or months. During that time, there are dozens of decisions, conversations, deadlines and unexpected issues.

Yet there is often no formal opportunity for you and your Realtor to stop and ask a very simple question:

"How are we doing?"

That's the idea behind the Real Estate Progress Report.

It's a periodic opportunity to stop what we're doing for a moment and talk about the experience—not just the transaction.

At different points during your purchase or sale, we'll take a few minutes to discuss things such as:

• Are you getting the communication you need?
• Do you understand where we are in the process?
• Are the next steps clear?
• Am I providing the information and guidance you need?
• Is there anything you wish I were doing differently?
• Has anything changed about your goals, timing or circumstances?
• Is there something you're concerned about that we haven't discussed?
• Most importantly, are you comfortable with the way we're working together?

And if something isn't working, I want to know about it.

Not after the closing. While we're still working together.

Most Realtors ask for feedback after the transaction.

That's understandable. By then, however, it's too late to change the experience.

If a client tells me after closing:

"I wish you had communicated with me more."

There's not much I can do about it.

But if you tell me that three weeks into the transaction, we can do something about it.

That's the purpose of the Progress Report.

It gives you an opportunity to speak up—and gives me an opportunity to listen, respond and make adjustments.

The Progress Report isn't designed to give me a grade.

There won't be a required 1-to-10 rating or a score that determines whether I've "passed."

It's a conversation.

Maybe everything is going exactly as you'd hoped.

Maybe there's something small that could work better.

Maybe something has changed and we need to rethink part of our strategy.

Or maybe you're unhappy about something and haven't known how to bring it up.

I'd rather know.

A good working relationship doesn't mean that everything always goes perfectly. It means that when something isn't working, you can talk about it.

You may begin your search thinking you want one thing and discover that your priorities are changing.

Perhaps you've seen enough homes to realize that your original price range isn't realistic for what you want.

Maybe you've decided that location matters more than you initially thought.

Perhaps your financing, timing or other circumstances have changed.

The Progress Report gives us a natural opportunity to stop and ask:

Are we still looking for the right home?

Selling a home is a process of gathering information.

Showings, buyer feedback, online activity, offers—or the absence of offers—can all tell us something.

A Progress Report gives us an opportunity to review what we're seeing and discuss whether our strategy still makes sense.

That might mean staying the course.

It might mean changing the way the home is presented.

It might mean reconsidering timing.

It might mean discussing price.

The important thing is that we're looking at the information together and making decisions together.

Please tell me.

That's probably the most important reason for having a Progress Report.

You shouldn't have to wait until the transaction is over to tell your Realtor that something isn't working.

If I'm not communicating enough, tell me.

If I'm explaining too much—or not enough—tell me.

If you don't understand why we're doing something, ask.

If you think I should be handling something differently, let's discuss it.

You hired me to help you make one of the biggest financial decisions of your life.

You should be comfortable telling me what you need from me.

Real estate transactions don't always go according to plan.

Inspections uncover problems. Appraisals can create issues. Financing can change. Deals can fall apart. Buyers and sellers can change their minds.

A good Realtor-client relationship isn't one where nothing goes wrong.

It's one where you can talk about what's happening, understand your options, and decide what to do next.

That's what the Progress Report is designed to encourage.

The Progress Report creates an opportunity to ask along the way.

Because your real estate experience shouldn't be something you evaluate after it's over. You should have a voice while it's happening!