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Are you thinking of selling? Watch out for these top red flags in agents
InvestorKit founder Arjun Paliwal has shared three common red flags among real estate agents that sellers should be mindful of to help them achieve the best price and make the process seamless.
Paliwal said that, based on his experience, the worst red flags included excessively high sale prices, poor communication, and a lack of visible knowledge of the market.
He said that, as soon as sellers saw one of the red flags or a combination of all three, that was their sign to not pursue business with that specific agent.
“All of those things are spelling out to you that you shouldn’t, almost immediately,” he told SPI.
Excessively high sale prices
Paliwal said one of the first red flags to look for was agents enticing vendors with unrealistically high sale prices to obtain the listing.
“Many of the sales agents that are a bit funky, they operate in a way where it’s like they’re trying to grab the listing, not make the sale.”
“You’re weighing up two, three agents and you’re like, ‘oh, we should go with that one, they said our home could be worth a million’.”
He noted that selling the property at the specified price was often difficult, with agents trying to convince sellers to lower their price expectations, given the trust already established.
He said that if the vendor had gone with an agent who had given them a realistic price in the first place, negotiations would be easier and the deal would close faster.
He added that sellers should look for agents who can demonstrate their market knowledge and explain why their property could sell for a specific price, rather than just telling them.
“It’s just what the agent thinks it could go for and the systems that they’ll demonstrate to try and sell it for more – ‘this is the realistic value based on the sales around’.”
Poor communication
Paliwal said that while overpromising on prices was a common deceptive tactic, agents with poor communication skills and a failure to follow through were also signs of untrustworthiness.
He said this could include agents not calling back when they said they would, being hard to reach, or not having systems in place to schedule times to speak with sellers.
“If the communication to win business is horrible, the communication to close the deal will be horrible as well, with buyers.”
Paliwal said one sign of a good agent was prompt replies.
“I believe in something called a sunset and sunrise rule, so I get back to you before the sunset, and if you call me in the evenings, I’ll get back to you before the sunrise.”
Paliwal said society’s expectations were changing due to emerging technology and faster deliveries and services, meaning agents had to keep up.
In addition to timeliness, he said sellers needed to be mindful of using agents whose wording was vague.
For example, he said phrases like, “I’ll get back to you soon”, “I’ll get back to you shortly”, and “I’m working on it up late” were subjective.
“Your ‘soon’ might be different to mine. Your ‘COB’ might be different to my COB,” he said.
He said that ultimately, it was important to find an agent who could combine communication with efficiency and speed, and take accountability for what they said they would do.
“These are the things that just are the one percenters – they’re the foundation for success over the long term,” he said.
Lack of knowledge
While flaky communication may signal an unreliable agent, Paliwal said that without demonstrating thorough knowledge, vendors will be left without guidance on their property.
“Research is something that’s available more than ever in 2026 – websites, listing portals, data available, and online information, so you need agents to go that next level.”
He said agents needed to present their knowledge backed by data, so vendors could understand what was happening in the market.
“They might say, ‘I know that you’re thinking of $800,000 for your property, but I actually think it might be more around $770,000, and the reason why is, what sold down the road at $800,000 has an extra bathroom, also has an extra study’.”
‘I’d rather agents give an honest answer that it should be around that much, but if we can achieve more, we’re going to push for it.”
He said trustworthy agents might not even use data, but simply leverage their own brand and popularity to convince sellers they were the right person to sell their property.
“You need an agent with information and commitment [rather than] someone who just regurgitates basic stats and can show you what you can see yourself, and someone who doesn’t even prepare,” he concluded.