There are few transactions in a person’s life more important to get right than the purchase or sale of your home, so choosing a reputable estate agent is vital. Whether you’re buying or selling, here are 29 warning signs to watch out for so you can tell the good from the bad.

When putting your home on the market get an opinion on how much it's worth from multiple agents. If most valuations are similar and one is way off, be cautious. Too high a figure and they might be planning to reduce the value later, potentially pricing your home out of the market and cutting the number of potential viewings. Too low and they might be desperate for a sale and therefore not giving you a fair chance to get what your property is really worth.

If your home is worth £200,000 ($273k) but everything else they’re selling is worth £700,000 ($957k) question why they’re taking on your property. Will they be as incentivised to push your home to buyers if their commission will be much higher on all their other properties?

With a transaction as important as buying or selling a house, you’d expect your agent to be on top of things and providing you with regular updates. That’s not to say agents aren’t allowed a holiday or a weekend, but if yours is never getting back to you after initially being keen, you can question how committed they are to selling your property.

A good estate agent will charge you a commission if they successfully sell your home. Be wary if they mention any other charges, for example fees for taking photos of your home or costs for putting it on a property website such as Rightmove or Zillow.

Read through your contract carefully: if there is anything unexpected in there, discuss it with your estate agent. For example, if they have inserted clauses saying you will pay them even if they don’t sell your home, or that you must go through their in-house mortgage advisor, that should be a big red flag.

If an estate agent is a member of a trade body such as The Property Ombudsman or safeagent in the UK then they will have agreed to adhere to a certain code of conduct and keep up to date with any relevant changes to legislation. Even if yours says he or she is part of a particular body, check on the relevant organisation’s website to be sure, as rogue agents have been known to fraudulently pretend they're members.

An agent may try to convince you to go with them by telling you about other similar properties they have sold in the area within the last few months. You can ask to see proof that they have made these sales, and if they’re reluctant to show you, it’s fair enough to wonder whether they were ever telling the truth.

Just as you would with a builder, babysitter or new employee, check your agent’s references to make sure previous sellers or buyers have been happy with their services. Local internet forums are a good way to gauge opinion about which agents in your area are best and be sure to speak to any neighbours who've recently bought or sold too.

Because there are no formal entry requirements to qualify as an estate agent in the UK, you can’t assume your agent has been doing this for years and has plenty of sales under his or her belt. Make sure this is their full-time job rather than something they're doing on the side. 

If your agent is constantly cancelling, forgetting calls or turning up late to viewings, it’s incredibly frustrating. Your home is the most important purchase or sale of your life so if it seems like they aren't taking it seriously, you’re well within your rights to find another.

You’re going to be talking to your agent a lot over the coming months, so the first few times you speak to them have to go the right way. For example, when buying, if they don’t ask you questions about what your ideal home looks like or how often you’d like to view homes, but do focus on money and how serious you are about buying, you might find the chemistry isn’t right for you.

Be wary of agents who try to cram in as many viewings as possible without really listening to your requirements. For example, if you’re selling, each viewing will involve tidying up and making arrangements to be out of the house, so only serious buyers should come through the door. If your agent is constantly bringing people round to your two-bed, even though the buyers want three beds and a small garden, you can question whether they’re just trying to reach viewing targets.

It’s important to trust your estate agent. If you’re doubtful that they’re telling the truth, it’s a big red flag. This could come in the form of telling you there’s been an offer on your home when there hasn’t, to make you have faith in them and the property market. Or when you’re buying, telling you other buyers have put higher offers in to make you raise yours.

It’s not uncommon for top estate agents to come to your home, all smiles and big valuations, and then fob you off to one of their juniors or assistants once the paperwork is all signed, so they can go out and get new business. Make sure you make it clear from the beginning that you’d like to deal with the same person all the way through to avoid this happening.

While valuations may go up or down depending on the estate agency, if one agent puts the price significantly lower than others be suspicious: particularly dodgy estate agent tricks include lowering the value of a home so that their friends, or even they themselves, can snap it up for a bargain.

A good estate agent should also be a good listener, so if yours is trying to put pressure on you, don’t allow yourself to be bullied. Whether they’re trying to get you to add money so you don’t lose your dream home or trying to convince you to lower the price of your home to get a sale, only do what you feel comfortable with.

It’s not uncommon for estate agents to accompany you around a viewing and point out things that will need to be fixed, whether a leak, a roof or a bathroom renovation. While it’s good to point out the home’s imperfections, take each figure with a pinch of salt: it can often cost a lot more than they say to get significant work done, so try to negotiate a price with the seller instead of assuming the works will be as cheap as the agent says.

While of course it’s great to get an offer, if your agent is really excited about a particular offer early on, and especially if it’s not as high as you’d like, don’t be afraid to ask why. It has been known for agents to take fees from potential buyers in exchange for not showing the property to anyone else until they’re ready to buy. Make sure your property is on the market and still being shown to buyers until you, and only you, are happy with the offer.

If you’re looking for a new home and the agent is raving about everything from the neighbours and the décor to the neighbourhood and the recent work to the roof, be suspicious. If it sounds too good to be true, do some of your own research into your potential new home rather than taking everything as gospel. 

Most of us prefer dealing with people we like, or who we feel understand us. If your estate agent’s attitude makes you feel uncomfortable, think about whether you’d really want them to represent you in a sale or purchase. If your agent can’t read between the lines to work with buyers and sellers in the delicate process of property transactions, it could cost you, so trust your instincts.

Most reputable estate agents will work with professional photographers to showcase your property in the best possible light. Before deciding to work with an agent, check out their other properties online to make sure the photos and descriptions are of good quality.

If your home has been on the market a while, be wary of tricks such as trying to get you to pay for advertising in local newspapers. From the outset, make sure you know what is included in the final sale fee, whether advertising in their window, in local magazines or newspapers, or online, and question why the agent hasn’t been doing everything they can right from the start.

Beware of agents who try to make money from you using their mortgage brokers: some even say they can’t work with you unless you use their mortgage service. This can not only result in you losing out financially, but is also illegal. There have even been accusations of agents and brokers discussing buyers’ budgets to try to get them to drive up their offers. By all means find out what deals their brokers can offer, but remember the final decision is yours.

Read your contract carefully. If your agent insists on sole selling rights, this means you’ll have to pay the agent fee, even if you find the buyer yourself. It might be better to go with an agent who has more flexible selling terms.

Don’t feel pressured by the estate agent telling you how popular a certain property is. They might book your viewings around other people’s to make a particular property seem like it’s about to sell, or tell you the buyer will never accept a lower offer. Remember that you are in charge and there will always be other properties: don’t be bullied into putting in a higher offer than you want to.

If you have a rush of interest when your property is first listed, but it all slows down after a few days, alarm bells should ring. There have been cases of estate agents hiring 'professional viewers', who are employed to make it seem like your home is hot property and to impress you.

Most potential buyers will work nine to five jobs, so the agent’s availability to work in the evenings and on weekends could greatly impact how quickly you sell your home. If they only work the same hours as most of the rest of the population, are they really going to be able to target potential buyers?

Your neighbourhood is one of the most important factors a buyer will consider before making an offer, so if your estate agent doesn’t know much about the area other than the nearest station, consider going with another one. Your chosen agent should be able to speak with authority about local schools, shops, restaurants and more to be able to confidently sell your property to a buyer.

When buying a new home, you’ll have plenty of questions, from how much the council tax is to why the owners are moving. If the estate agent is unwilling to give any answers, you can assume they either don’t know or are keeping a secret for a reason. In this case, ask to speak to a colleague or even the sellers directly: you don’t want to put in an offer on your dream home only to find you’ve overlooked a major problem.

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