Red Flags When Hiring an Estate Agent: A practical guide to spotting agents you should avoid
Choosing the wrong agent is an expensive mistake. At best you lose months on the market. At worst you end up selling or letting for less than the property is worth, or the whole thing collapses because it was poorly managed. Most people only work out their agent was the problem once the damage is done.
Here are the warning signs to look for before you sign anything.
They give you the highest valuation, with no evidence to back it up
Overvaluing to win an instruction is one of the oldest tricks in the industry. You get a flattering figure, you sign up, the property sits on the market with no interest, and a few months later you're told it needs a price reduction. By then the best buyers or tenants have already moved on and your listing looks stale. If an agent can't show you the comparable sales or lets that support their number, the number is meaningless.
They need a contract to keep you
A good agent doesn't need a tie-in period. If they're confident in what they deliver, they don't need small print to stop you leaving. Tie-in periods and exclusivity clauses exist for one reason: to keep hold of clients who'd otherwise walk once they realise the service isn't up to scratch. Ask how long you're locked in for and what happens if you want out. If the answer makes you uneasy, that's the point.
The marketing is an afterthought
This is the easiest red flag to check, because you don't have to take anyone's word for it. Look at what the agent is marketing right now. Are the photos sharp and well lit, or dark and clearly taken on a phone? Is there a floorplan? Watch their video content and check the view counts. A handful of views on every listing tells you nobody outside the agent's own office is seeing that property. Good marketing gets a property in front of thousands of the right people. Poor marketing means it's sitting there hoping someone stumbles across it. Your property will be marketed exactly the same way every other one on their books is being marketed right now, so look at the evidence before you sign anything.
They push you towards their in-house services
Plenty of agents earn referral fees for introducing clients to their own solicitors, mortgage brokers or surveyors. That's not automatically a problem, but it should be declared upfront and without pressure. The risk is what you don't see: an agent choosing which buyer or tenant to push forward based on how much they personally earn from the referral, not on who's actually best for you. A cash buyer with no chain can get quietly overlooked in favour of someone who needs the agent's in-house mortgage broker. Ask what referral arrangements are in place and what they get paid for them.
They're vague about their own track record
A good agent knows their numbers. Average time on the market, asking price achieved, fall-through rate. If they can't answer these questions, or dodge them with vague reassurance instead of figures, one of two things is true: they don't track their own performance, or they don't want you to see it. Neither is a good sign.
The bottom line
Most of these red flags show up in the first meeting if you know what to look for. Trust your instincts, ask the questions that make an agent slightly uncomfortable, and don't let a confident pitch stand in for actual evidence.
And one last thing that has nothing to do with figures or contracts: pick an agent you actually like. Selling or letting a property is a process that runs over weeks or months, not hours, and you'll be going through it together. The kind of person you get on with is often the kind of person your buyer or tenant will get on with too.