Attending Open Houses

[Jason King]

As part of performing my market research I have been trying to go to as many open houses in my area (in my desired ARV price range) to get a feel for what is currently available on the market, what quality of materials buyers expect at certain price points, and what can help sell a house quickly vs. what will keep a house on the market for too long. Naturally, as I have been working my way through the houses I have been getting questions from the listing agents about how I found the house, what I am looking for, etc. To this point, I have been keeping my answers pretty vague, i.e. "I am just browsing, looking in the area, not serious, etc.".

I am not sure if what I am doing is misleading or not (I certainly have not expressed any real interest in any of the properties, and have tried to make that as clear as possible).  Should my answer to these questions be that I am a real estate investor checking out the competition?  I am not sure how a listing agent would respond to this type of answer, which is why I haven't taken this approach thus far.  Any thoughts?