10 Signs You Have a Bad Real Estate Agent

You hired a real estate agent to help you buy or sell a home. It’s one of the biggest financial decisions of your life, and now your agent is ignoring you or pressuring you to settle for something less than what you want. Not cool.

If you’re seeing these red flags from your agent, you’re not being hard to please. These are real problems—not something to brush off. Let’s talk about the signs of a bad agent and how to know when it’s time to find someone new.

What Are the Top Red Flags of a Bad Real Estate Agent?

Common red flags of a bad real estate agent include poor communication, lack of full-time experience, and high-pressure tactics to close a deal. Here’s the full list:

• Poor communication
• Lack of leadership
• Pressure tactics
• Unprofessional behavior
• No progress on buying or selling a home
• Limited full-time experience
• Real estate as a side gig
• Poor marketing plan
• Offers but no sale
• Low-priority treatment

Bad Agent vs. Good Agent

Let's dig a little deeper into the signs of a bad agent. If one or more of these apply to your agent, it might be time to get a new one.

Poor Communication

One of the most common issues home buyers have with their real estate agent is not being able to get in touch with them. The buyers call. They text. They email. What do they hear back? Crickets.

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This isn’t just something to gloss over, guys—it’s a really big problem! It’s super important to move quickly when you find a home you like, especially if you’re in a hot housing market. Poor communication from your agent can delay the process and ruin opportunities to buy the house you really want. Don’t settle for an agent who ignores you.

Lack of Leadership

A weak agent avoids conflict and offers wishy-washy advice. You need an agent with a strong backbone because buying a house is a huge decision. You need to find an agent who’ll give you honest advice based on their research and experience even when they know you may not like what they have to say. An agent who isn’t willing to offer the strong guidance you need may not have what it takes to negotiate a good deal on your new home—or they just may not be cut out for the job.

Pressure Tactics

An agent who pressures you into a home you're not sure about—or one that’s out of your budget—is working for their commission, not for you. Even though you want your agent to be a strong leader, you don’t want them to be so strong-willed that they forget who’s the boss. Spoiler alert: That’s you. You’re in charge during the buying or selling process, not the agent. Someone who forgets that and pressures you to buy a home you aren’t sure about (or one with a mortgage more than 25% of your take-home pay) is more interested in their commission than in helping you.

Unprofessional Behavior

You want your agent to have confidence in their abilities, but that doesn’t give them a license to be a jerk. No matter how many questions you have or how basic they may be, your agent should be patient enough to answer every single one of them. Plus, when your agent is negotiating, they’re representing you. You don’t want the person who represents you to be arrogant or condescending, right? Let me make this really simple: You don’t have to put up with an agent who’s just plain rude.

No Progress on Buying or Selling a Home

If it’s been months since you started working with your agent and you aren’t any closer to buying or selling than when you started, that’s a big problem. Now, if you’re being overly critical of the homes your agent is showing you or you aren’t willing to budge even a little on your asking price or the features you want, then this could be your fault. But if your agent keeps showing you homes you’ve already said aren’t right for you or your house isn’t getting any offers, they’re wasting your time.

Limited Full-Time Experience

An inexperienced agent often doesn’t have the industry contacts or know-how they need to handle the buying or selling process. Misfiling paperwork, misunderstanding the fine print, or missing a deadline can easily mess up your home sale, and these things are more likely when you’re dealing with an agent who’s just getting started. Plus, you need an experienced negotiator—both for the sale price and any repairs that may come up after the home inspection.

You simply can’t fake experience in the real estate world. Look for an agent who’s worked full time in real estate for at least two years and has closed 50 or more homes. Anything less than that, and you’re taking a risk with one of the biggest financial decisions of your life.

Real Estate as a Side Gig

A part-time agent can’t give you the time and attention you deserve. Buying or selling a home is a huge deal with big-time dollar signs attached. So why in the world would you put something so important involving that much money in the hands of someone who’s only focused on it as a side project?

You need an agent who’s highly motivated to earn their commission—one whose main source of income comes from helping people buy and sell homes. If an agent is doing real estate as a side gig, that means getting deals done isn’t what feeds their family. And that means the buying or selling process isn’t their priority and they won’t get you the best bang for your buck.

On the other hand, if someone’s livelihood depends on real estate, they’ll be highly motivated to serve you with excellence and help you reach your goal as quickly as possible. That’s what you’re looking for!

Poor Marketing Plan

If your agent’s strategy is a yard sign and one photo online (that they took with their phone), you’re leaving money on the table. Your agent’s job is to attract as many potential customers as possible to view your home. These days, that requires a lot more than putting a sign in your yard and posting a photo on their website. In the real estate industry, people call that strategy “post and pray.” I’m a big believer in the power of prayer, but I also believe in marketing.

Ask to see your agent’s marketing plan for your home and make sure you understand the why behind their decisions. They may have some good reasons, but they still need to explain those reasons to you.

Offers but No Sale

Getting offers is great when you’re selling a home, but remember: It all comes down to the sale. If you’ve had several offers come in but your agent hasn’t closed the deal on any of them, that’s a problem.

Maybe your agent is a poor negotiator or has a subpar marketing plan. Whatever the reason, your agent’s failure to close the deal is hurting you.

Low-Priority Treatment

Some agents steer clients toward pricier homes (to boost their commission) or don’t pay attention to buyers with smaller budgets because they’re focused on a bigger payday.

If your agent treats you as a “lesser” client because you’re selling a smaller home or have a small budget, that’s not okay! Here’s what to watch for: lack of communication, showing up late for appointments, little patience for answering questions, or even pressure to decrease your asking price without giving any evidence to support that recommendation.

What Should You Do if You Have a Bad Real Estate Agent?

If you’ve been reading through this list of warning signs and nodding along, or if little lightbulbs are going off in your head, it may be time to hire a different agent.

But before you go burning bridges, try having a calm and polite (but firm) conversation with your agent about your concerns and the issues you’ve noticed. Then, if some time passes and they’re just not coming around—or if your agent ignores you entirely—it’s time to let them go.

How Do You Fire a Real Estate Agent?

You have to be really careful when you’re moving on from a real estate agent because agents will usually have you sign an exclusive contract with a defined expiration date.

If you’ve talked to your agent about your concerns and they’re being stubborn about breaking the contract, talk to the agent’s broker and ask them to let you out of the contract. They’ll probably say yes because they don’t want to get a bad reputation in the community.

If that doesn’t work, it may be time to get a lawyer involved. But if that’s too expensive or impractical (or if nothing else works), you may just have to wait out the contract. If your agent has any integrity at all, it shouldn’t come to this.

Audra, a member of THE Ramsey Baby Steps Community on Facebook, once had to fire her agent and doesn’t regret it.

“We dropped our REALTOR® because she wasn’t willing to research properties 30 miles from her ‘normal area,’” Audra said. “I told her I didn’t think she was a good fit for us if she was unable to find a home in the area we wanted. . . . This will be the largest purchase most people make. Nothing wrong with getting what you want, and they need to earn that lofty commission.”

If you decide it’s time for a change, you can start interviewing potential replacements and ask them these nine questions to make sure you wind up with a rock-solid agent this time around.

How Do You Interview a New Agent After Firing a Bad One?

To avoid hiring another bad agent, make sure you interview several agents and ask them about their full-time experience and communication style. You really don’t want to make the same mistake twice. Before you sign anything with a new agent, ask these questions:

• How many homes have you closed in your career? (You’re looking for about 50 or more.)
• Is real estate your full-time job, and how long have you been doing it? (Two years full time is your minimum.)
• What’s your communication process? How often will you update me, and how quickly do you respond to clients?

If an agent can’t answer these questions directly or gets defensive, keep looking!

How Do You Avoid Hiring a Bad Real Estate Agent?

One of the best ways to avoid hiring a bad agent is to get referrals for good agents.

Our team at Ramsey has made it really easy to get a referral for an awesome buyer’s or seller’s agent. All you need to do is get in touch with one of the RamseyTrusted® agents in your area.

RamseyTrusted agents are pros our team personally finds, vets and coaches to get you the best of the best—we wouldn’t endorse them otherwise! They have the heart of a teacher, which means they’ll make sure you understand exactly what’s happening every step of the way (along with honoring your financial goals first). So, if you need an agent upgrade, what are you waiting for? Find a RamseyTrusted agent near you today!