Why Buyers & Sellers Often Choose Not to Work with Honest Real Estate Agents & How To Avoid That
- Adam Garrett
- Jun 11, 2023
- 16 min read
Updated: Aug 26
Did you know that buyers and sellers regularly reject honest agents in favor of those who don't care as much about them for precisely those elements that the 1 agent is honest about & that which another agent is dishonest about? Without realizing it, that's exactly what happens quite frequently in the realm of real estate. In this article, I wanted to share how to spot an honest real estate agent, the importance of an honest agent, as well as how to avoid choosing a dishonest real estate agent.
Why is Honesty a Critical Element of a Good Agent?
An agent's honesty and their willingness to take their fiduciary duties to protect their client's interests above their own at all times & to be loyal to the clients over their customers (without breaching integrity) are critical elements to a good agent. An agent can have all the knowledge, experience, & resources in the world, with plenty of good reviews, a high level of availability, & more, but if they are dishonest, & don't treat their clients' own interests above their own, it can easily lead to their clients losing thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars as a seller (i.e. by not performing cost-effective preparations of your home prior to listing) or a buyer client purchasing the wrong home only to have severe buyers' remorse after. According to a study, "82% of recent buyers had regrets about their home purchase (Housingwire)". Also, a dishonest agent can lead to buyers buying & sellers selling when doing so is not in their best interests or at a time that is not in their best interests. See more in section below on "Dishonest Agents Are Less Likely to Point Out Negatives of Homes", where I highlight an article by Investopedia that calls agents pointing out changes needed prior to listing as one of the top reasons to hire an agent.
Related:
Top Reasons Why Buyers & Sellers Pick a Less Honest Agent
1. Picking a "Yes Man" (Which is Not to be Confused with an Agent Who Consistently Goes Above & Beyond)
You don't have to be a "yes man" agent to go above and beyond other competing agents again and again. In fact, "yes man" agents harm their buyer and seller clients by not disagreeing with them as much as they should even when it hurts the buyer or seller to agree with them while helping to preserve the relationship between client & agent. If most other agent qualities are the same between 2 agents, a "yes man" will be inherently inferior to someone who is honest because a "yes man" will fail to inform a buyer or seller when they're hurting themself.
In my opinion, a "yes man" in real estate, who almost never disagrees with their clients, is in regular breach of their fiduciary duties to their clients. There are plenty of agents who are "yes men", so if you want one, they're not hard to find.
A "Yes Man" does what their clients ask, even if it's against their clients' interests, without telling them about any problem with it. In doing so they aren't acting in their clients' best interests. They care more about their relationship with you than protecting you & pointing out when something you're asking for could hurt you.
A "Yes Man" likes to keep things simple, often providing a one-sided view of things so that the other party can say "yes" to them and not share pros & cons of a particular path.
2. Finalizing Decisions Prior to Cross-Examination of Top Agents
A dishonest agent has a distinct advantage over buyers and sellers when the buyers or sellers fail to ask the other 1 or 2 highly considered agents that they spoke with specifically about why they are leaning toward another agent & for their feedback about their line of thinking.
Conflict avoidance in this arena can mean the difference of thousands of dollars (or 10's of thousands of dollars in some cases) if you pick the wrong agent.
If you tell another agent that you've made a decision already, sure it means that the agent is less likely to bother you, but it drastically increases the chance that an honorable agent will respect your decision by not protesting, even if it means not sharing with you that which you would REALLY want to know that could have reversed your decision if you had simply asked the competing agent prior to making the decision & informing the agent that you did so.
3. Failure to Notice Logical Fallacies
In life, it's extremely beneficial to know logical fallacies so that when they come up, and they will, you're able to identify them & to navigate them. Whether you're interviewing real estate agents or speaking at a town hall, knowing logical fallacies is extremely beneficial in identifying holes in arguments. Logical fallacies are commonly used by the dishonest to weasel their way around questions.
There are little tricks that agents like to use at times that may or may not be an outright lie but can inflate a prospective buyer or seller's opinion of them substantially. For instance, my neighbor once told me that it was his understanding that his listing agent had sold most of the homes in the neighborhood. In reality, they hadn't sold a single home in the neighborhood yet and they were about 1 year into the business. It's possible that the agent was outright lying, or they could have used the "royal we" without making any distinction between their own transactions and those of their company they very likely had no or minimal involvement in.
4. Getting Caught Up in Emotions Rather than Logic
Dishonest agents thrive on emotional appeal, while honest agents often lose points on emotions because of their honesty.
A dishonest agent is more likely to be charismatic, may seem more excited about working with you, & is less likely to object to your requests no matter whether it's hurtful to you or not. If your requests are hurtful to you, you'll typically have no idea. An honest agent is more likely to challenge your ideas in a professional demeanor. That's not to be confused with an abrasive agent who is rude and unprofessional. In some cases, honest agents may even question whether it's best for you to buy or sell right now. That should never be confused with being a bad thing; that's a hallmark of an honest agent, but some buyers & sellers will confuse it with an agent not seeming "enthusiastic" enough about working with them.
5. Failure to Ask the Tough Questions (Especially Metrics)
Because dishonest agents rely so heavily on deception and the emotional appeal, it's important to get from the agents you're interviewing hard facts and details about what they are able to do for you. If something they offer seems fishy, ask them for more details, and don't be afraid of asking tough questions in order to pursue the truth, even if it's a bit uncomfortable.
Related: What Adam Offers Sellers
6. Failure to Check Agent Reviews Specifically for Honesty
One way to check through a high volume of reviews is to do keyword searches once drop downs for all reviews are on 1 page unless an agent has a section where they've done the work for you, i.e.
"Adam is exceptionally honest and supportive. Not once during the process did I question whether I could trust him. That kind of confidence is invaluable when making such a significant decision." Chandan Ghosh - Google Maps
7. Failure to Check an Agent's Reviews to Sales Ratio (Some Agents have More than Twice the Number of Reviews than They Have Prior Sales)
Did you know that the top reason why some real estate agents have a lot more reviews than others isn't because they're necessarily good agents, but because they simply have a more aggressive review acquisition strategy than other agents? Most clients won't write reviews unless asked. Think about how many businesses you've used in the past year that you've reviewed vs the number of businesses that you've used. If you're like most people, you haven't reviewed most businesses, whether they were terrible or fantastic.
This aggressiveness with review requests is most apparent if an agent's number of unique reviews exceeds their total number of sales. In some cases, their unique reviews-to-sales ratio is double or triple. That's right, some agents have 10 reviews with under 5 sales, and some agents have over 100 unique reviews with less than 50 sales. If an agent is boasting about their review volume or you're impressed by their review volume, be sure to check their reviews to sales ratio.
How to check the ratio:
Sometimes the agent will send you their former reviews, or there may be a page dedicated to reviews that links to their various websites like I have. If you Google the name of the agent, their company, and "reviews" you should find some results for most experienced agents.
There are a few ways to check for the total sales volume.
(most accurate & preferred method)
Ask the agent to send you links to all (or at least most if some are hard to pull due to MLS discrepancies) of their past sales where they represented clients including:
A. 1 for buyers (or more than 1 if more than 1 MLS)
B. another for sellers
C. another for any properties where they were a dual agent (if applicable - some states & some brokerages prohibit these due to all the issues with them; they are legal in VA but prohibited by my firm without principal broker authorization under special circumstances. I've never done one & hope to never attempt one.)
With agents who have been in the business for decades, the agent may be unable to provide you links to all since MLS didn't used to be online.
Some buyers and sellers aren't comfortable with asking for an agents' past sales. If that's you, check the agent's Homes.com profile, Zillow profile, & in some cases, Realtor.com profile. Just keep in mind though that an agent could have a lot more sales than what's listed on any one of those websites or each of them combined.
Only Picking Agents Willing to Lie for Them to Others, Failing to Realize the Liability Inherent in That
I've had at least 1 client who asked me to lie on their behalf in writing to another agent. In doing so, they were asking me to violate my personal moral code, the legal code, & the REALTOR® code of ethics. I've also had at least one prospective client ask me to lie to their tenant.
Top Reasons Why Sellers Pick a Less Honest Agent
1. Dishonest Agents Are Less Likely to Point Out Negatives of Homes
Agents who care more about winning a listing than the seller netting the most money will frequently ignore those elements of a home that they may know full well would be best to change in order for the home to sell for the highest net price. If the dishonest agent mentions anything about what the sellers should do differently, they'll often wait until after the seller has made a decision or even after the seller has signed a listing agreement.
Unless a seller is selling as is, in a listing presentation, I often share some tips with sellers in advance regarding what they should do to the home. It's one of the ways that I establish rapport with sellers who choose to work with me and often sellers are on a tight timeline where if I were to wait until after a listing agreement was signed, it would be too late for certain things.
In an article by Investopedia, they share the following as the beginning to their 7th of 8 reasons why to pick an agent over a for sale by owner sale:
"7. You Ignore Your Home’s Flaws
Agents are experts in what makes homes sell. They can walk through your home with you and point out changes you need to make to attract buyers and get the best offers. They can see flaws you’re oblivious to because you see them every day—or because you simply don’t view them as flaws."
Related: Should You Sell As Is?
2. Getting Caught Up in Emotions Rather than Logic
Many agents omit facts intentionally in order to play on prospective customers emotions. It works particularly well with prospective clients who are Myers Briggs "Feelers" & who aren't careful to watch out for the tendency to be tricked based on feeling. A feeler isn't inherently unintelligent or something. My wife is a feeler, while remaining highly intelligent. That said, feelers need to pay especially careful attention to the facts, using their enhanced powers of intuition to really probe deep with their agents rather than letting the agent just put on a show, being sure to ask the right questions of their prospective agent.
With sellers, honest agents are more likely to point out suggested cost-effective cleaning & repairs during a listing appointment, less likely to inflate your home valuation above other agents & much more prone to point out negatives about your home that would be cost-effective to take care of. Dishonest agents can seem to "like" you & your home more than an honest agent who will have a more balanced approach.
A wise seller asks for the past 5 listings of each potential agent and sees who seems more "enthusiastic" based on the volume of detail & positive elements expressed in the listings themselves, from words to photographic elements. The seller also checks the agent's sales on a place like Zillow or Homes.com to see if the agent cherry-picked properties to send them rather than the last 5.
Related:
What to Look for in a Listing Agent for Your Home or Other Real Estate
3. Dishonest Agents Are Less Likely to Point Out Disclosure Requirements, Increasing Seller Liability
A dishonest agent is less likely than an honest one to point out the need to disclose material latent defects. Doing so would make them lose some emotional points, so if they opt to do so, they're more likely to do it after sellers make a decision or sign a listing presentation.
An honest agent knows that in some cases, material adverse facts can be corrected prior to listing where no disclosure will be necessary. If looking to list soon, it's important that sellers know about disclosure requirements early on in the game.
If a listing agent doesn't inform a seller about disclosure requirements, and a buyer makes an offer not contingent on home inspection or finds an issue after closing, and goes after the seller, it's typically time for the seller to speak to an attorney. If a court finds that the seller didn't know something and that the listing agent purposefully didn't mention it, that agent's license is at stake & may be liable for damages to the buyer themselves.
4. Less Honest Agents Are More Likely to Inflate Perception of Value, Especially If The Seller Has a High Opinion of Value
Did you know that sellers are biased towards picking the agent the tells them that their home is worth the most, or telling them that they agree with what the seller thinks a home is worth if the seller states their opinion first? That's right. Agents know it too, and dishonest agents are more likely to inflate value because of it when performing a comparative market analysis. Even if a seller is only interviewing 1 agent, and even if the agent states that they are willing to list for whatever price the seller wants to list for, I've had at least one occasion where the fact that I wouldn't theoretically agree with the seller's price, with a suggested list price far below what they felt it was worth, be the only stated reason why they stated that they no longer wanted to work with me after I had been helping them for a long time to prepare their home to list while they were not in town.
If you're a seller, it's best to not even tell a prospective agent what you think a home is worth until they tell you what they think it's worth, why they think that, and you have time to then process that, research it further, and come back to them with why you think it's a different number based on what they've said that likely includes information that's new to you.
Dishonest Agents are Less Likely to Suggest a Pre-Listing Appraisal or Otherwise Recommend 3rd Party Experts
A dishonest agent is less likely to suggest that someone else should be involved to be an expert in an area where the agent "should be an expert themselves", or so sellers think. That's true of unpaid experts, and perhaps especially for experts who would require payment from the agent or from the seller.
There are niche scenarios where even my dad, who has sold over 4,000 houses in a career that began in the 70's, has suggested a pre-listing appraisal. However, if a listing agent suggests that a pre-listing appraisal is needed, another agent may come along and tell them it's not needed and that the agent who suggests it isn't experienced enough, but that they are, even if agent number 2 has less experience than the agent who made the initial suggestion. Even if the disparaging agent is more experienced, they could still easily be in over their heads and gambling with a seller's money to get the listing. Because of the critical importance of optimized pricing, there are absolutely scenarios where getting a 2nd opinion comparative market analysis &/or an appraisal are warranted.
Top Reasons Why Buyers Pick a Less Honest Agent
Yes Man Agents: Sins of Omission in Search Criteria Optimization
The more that a buyer hears from a buyer's agent that their desired search criteria should be modified from what they had in mind, the more "red flags" it can set off in the mind of the buyer, no matter what information the agent is sharing with them.
That is especially true:
A. if they've purchased homes before and the previous agents they worked with didn't mention any of these issues,
B. If their former buyer's agent(s) hurt the buyer's search with the buyer being completely unaware by not protesting when the buyer provided criteria that would weed out properties that the buyer would actually like due to search dynamics that the buyer couldn't know about unless the buyer's agent told them (i.e. required vs non-required search criteria input by the listing agent)
C. If their previous agents broke the law without the buyer knowing
D. If their previous agent was in a different state where the laws were different,
E. If their last purchase was prior to a change of law
F If their last purchase used an MLS that was different or that changed over time
G. or whether the buyer's agent hurt the buyer's search by not protesting when the buyer provided criteria that would weed out properties that the buyer would actually like due to search dynamics that the buyer couldn't know about unless the buyer's agent told them (i.e. required vs non-required search criteria input by the listing agent).
An honest & experienced buyer's agent helps guide an experienced buyer through those issues that their past agents, who the buyers trusted, never mentioned, whether due to a difference in MLS policy whether due to the fact that their last agent was more of a "yes man" agent who cared more about their relationship with the buyer than the buyer.
Related:
Seemingly Harmless Questions With Major Consequences if Answered Directly
Less Honest Agents Are More Willing to Break the Law
If an agent is less honest, they're more likely to be willing to break the law when it comes to issues outside of search criteria optimization, such as regarding buyer brokerage agreements prior to showings if the buyer's intent is to consider purchasing a home they are seeing & they are seeking to be represented from a buyer's agent perspective and not by the listing agent.
Related:
1. Legality Regarding Buyer Brokerage Form Prior to Showings in VA
Why Should Agents be Honest?
Honesty Means Seller Clients Can Often Net More $
By a listing agent pointing out things like cleaning needs, pest needs, repair needs, staging needs, and once listed, negative feedback that a seller really should take care of, a seller can net more money than if all the agent said was, "Your home looks gorgeous! Buyers are going to love ____, ____, & _____. I'm personally impressed by ____. It's perfect!" It's not inherently wrong to say those things as an agent, but if there's no balance of needed tasks for a home that isn't being sold as is, the agent's likely being dishonest, is uneducated, &/or is inexperienced.
Honesty Means Buyer Clients Have Lower Buyer's Remorse
According to a study, "82% of recent buyers had regrets about their home purchase (Housingwire)". There are some agents out there who will rarely point out negatives in a home. My showing style of pointing out many pros and cons has even been compared to a cross between a home inspector and a real estate agent because a higher volume of pointed out cons than pros by an agent is unusual, while typical with me when my client(s) are the buyers.
At the same time, if I am representing the seller, and the buyer is my customer, my loyalties are the opposite. Instead of finding all the negatives and positives I can, I'm pointing out all the positives, while only disclosing negatives if legally required or if asked directly.
Honesty Means Agents & Sellers Face Lower Liability
Intentional hiding of material adverse facts, i.e. those sellers who hide mold, is one of the most common cases where a buyer who purchases a home with me is advised by me later to consult an attorney and pursue the seller in court after closing. It's a lot easier & less costly to clean up mold well the 1st time rather than do a half-hearted concealing of mold, pay for attorney fees for yourself and a buyer, and then do a full-blown professional cleaning. An agent telling you straight, that you need to do what's right, is important, but not all agents will do that. If an agent knows about it, and says nothing, they could be held liable in court as well.
Honesty is an Indicator of Other Ethical Standards
An agent who is dishonest is more likely to be selfish, unkind, & otherwise have lower ethical standards.
Honesty is Built into the NAR Code of Ethics from the Beginning
Here are some examples quoted:
Article 1
When representing a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or other client as an agent, REALTORS® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their client. This obligation to the client is primary, but it does not relieve REALTORS® of their obligation to treat all parties honestly. When serving a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant or other party in a non-agency capacity, REALTORS® remain obligated to treat all parties honestly. (Amended 1/01)
Standard of Practice 1-3
REALTORS®, in attempting to secure a listing, shall not deliberately mislead the owner as to market value.
Standard of Practice 1-4
REALTORS®, when seeking to become a buyer/tenant representative, shall not mislead buyers or tenants as to savings or other benefits that might be realized through use of the REALTOR®’s services. (Amended 1/93)
Standard of Practice 3-8
REALTORS® shall not misrepresent the availability of access to show or inspect a listed property. (Amended 11/87)
Article 12
REALTORS® shall be honest and truthful in their real estate communications and shall present a true picture in their advertising, marketing, and other representations. REALTORS® shall ensure that their status as real estate professionals is readily apparent in their advertising, marketing, and other representations, and that the recipients of all real estate communications are, or have been, notified that those communications are from a real estate professional. (Amended 1/08)
Standard of Practice 12-1
REALTORS® must not represent that their brokerage services to a client or customer are free or available at no cost to their clients, unless the REALTOR® will receive no financial compensation from any source for those services. (Amended 1/22)
Seller Related:
Buyer Related:
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