Why Australians Don’t Trust Real Estate Agents — And What We’re Doing About It

Most people who decide to sell their home don’t call an agent straight away.

They think about it for months. Sometimes longer. They research quietly, weigh up their options, and try to figure out who they can trust before they speak to anyone.

That caution is not irrational. It is a rational response to an industry that has a serious and measurable trust problem.

Understanding what sellers are actually feeling — and when — is the first step toward doing things differently.

The Trust Problem Is Real, and the Numbers Prove It, Who Can I Trust To Sell My Home

In the 2025 Ethics Index, published by the Governance Institute of Australia, real estate agents recorded a net trust rating of minus 22 per cent. That placed agents last among the ten mainstream professions surveyed — below politicians, below lawyers, and below used car salespeople. It was also a four-point decline from the year before.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos across a sample of 1,000 Australians aged 18 to 65. It is not an opinion poll. It is one of the most consistent longitudinal measures of professional trust in the country.

This is the environment every seller is navigating when they begin thinking about selling their home.

The distrust is not vague. Research into vendor concerns identifies specific, recurring fears that sellers carry at different stages of the decision-making process.

What Sellers Are Feeling at Each Stage

Twelve Months Out — The Quiet Research Phase

At twelve months out, most sellers haven’t told anyone they’re thinking of moving. They’re watching the market, reading articles, and forming early impressions of which agents they might one day consider.

At this stage the dominant concern is not process — it is credibility. Sellers are asking: who actually knows what they’re doing? They are building a mental shortlist based on what they read, what they observe, and how agents present themselves publicly.

Research by Cloutly’s vendor survey found that 65 per cent of vendors said an agent’s reputation and testimonials were the most important factor in deciding who to list with, and 45 per cent first found their eventual agent through online research. The shortlisting process begins long before any conversation takes place.

The fear at twelve months is diffuse but real: who do I trust, and how will I find out?

Six Months Out — The Risk Assessment Phase

By six months out, the decision to sell is becoming more concrete. Sellers are moving from passive research to active evaluation.

This is where specific fears take shape.

A YouGov Galaxy study reported by Real Estate Business found that unfulfilled agent promises is the primary consumer pain point at 67 per cent, followed by a lack of transparency throughout the process at 41 per cent.

At this stage sellers are asking harder questions. They want to know what an agent actually does for their fee, whether the promises made at a listing presentation will be kept once the agreement is signed, and whether they will have any recourse if they don’t.

The fear of being locked into a non-performing agent is acute here. Sellers have heard stories — and often have personal experience — of signing an agency agreement only to find themselves trapped in a 90-day contract with an agent who has moved on to the next listing.

Three to Six Months Out — The Decision Stage

As the timeline compresses, the fears become more specific and more urgent.

The fear of being conditioned down on price is one of the most consistently reported concerns in Australian vendor research. Sellers worry that agents quote high to win the listing, then apply steady pressure to reduce expectations once the campaign is underway.

Alongside this sits the fear of losing money without knowing how. Sellers sense the transaction is complex but cannot identify where value leaks. The mechanics of what can go wrong — and when — are not well understood by most vendors.

The 2025 State of Real Estate Report by Securexchange identified transparency, negotiation skill, and integrity as the top three qualities clients expect from agents — yet many sellers don’t know how to evaluate whether an agent actually has these skills before signing.

Fear of market timing runs alongside these concerns. What if prices rise after they sell? What if they move too early and leave money behind? The closer the decision gets, the more acute this anxiety becomes.

And beneath all of it sits something less often discussed — the emotional dimension of selling. Many sellers carry real attachment to their property and real uncertainty about what comes next. Change is unsettling, and that emotional undercurrent runs beneath every practical question they are asking.

Why the Industry Has Failed to Fix This

The trust gap in Australian real estate is not simply the result of a few bad actors. It reflects structural problems in how the industry operates.

Training programs across the industry tend to focus on prospecting, lead generation, database growth, and personal productivity. These are activities that help agents grow their business.

The skills that most directly determine outcomes for sellers — negotiation strategy and marketing campaign design — receive far less formal attention. Many agents develop these skills through experience alone rather than structured training.

This matters because the consequences are significant. A poorly prepared campaign weakens buyer competition. A poorly managed negotiation leaves money on the table. And sellers who don’t know what good looks like often can’t tell the difference until after the sale.

What We Do Differently

At Gold Coast Real Estate Agents, we have built our business model around every specific fear that research-stage sellers carry. Not in theory — in practice, with concrete systems and guarantees.

No Lock-In Guarantee

We do not lock sellers into 90-day agreements.

You stay with us because you want to — because we are performing, communicating, and delivering. If we are not, you are free to walk away. That is the standard we hold ourselves to.

This directly addresses one of the most acute fears sellers carry: the fear of being trapped with an agent who won’t perform and can’t be moved.

One Agent. Every Stage. No Exceptions.

The agent you meet is the agent who handles your transaction from start to finish.

That means the same person conducts your open homes, attends your building and pest inspection, is present at the valuation, manages every buyer conversation, and negotiates the final price on your behalf.

This matters because of what we call transactional leakage — the gradual loss of negotiating power and sale price that occurs when critical stages of the transaction are delegated to people who weren’t present at the beginning and don’t fully understand the strategy.

If your current agent doesn’t know what transactional leakage is, there is a reasonable chance they are contributing to it.

Trained Negotiators

Negotiation is not a natural skill — it is a studied one. Every agent at Gold Coast Real Estate Agents undergoes extensive negotiation training, both internal and through external specialist programs. We do not rely on agents learning through trial and error with your property.

The difference between a trained negotiator and an untrained one is not abstract. Research has found that the majority of buyers would have paid more for the property they purchased — but were simply never asked in the right way, at the right moment, with the right structure behind the question.

Trained Marketers

Marketing is not advertising. Advertising places a property in front of buyers. Marketing determines who sees it, when they see it, how competitive the environment feels, and how well the seller’s negotiating position is protected throughout the campaign.

Our agents are trained in campaign design, buyer targeting, and the strategic use of marketing to build competition rather than simply generate enquiry.

ELEVATE — Our Proprietary AI Marketing Platform

Most property marketing is passive. A listing goes live on a portal, and the campaign waits for buyers who are already searching in a specific suburb to find it.

ELEVATE — Enhanced Listing Exposure Via AI Targeted Engagement — is our proprietary platform designed to change that.

Rather than waiting for buyers to arrive at a portal and scroll through results, ELEVATE makes property listings readable and discoverable by AI search systems and targets buyers earlier in their decision-making process — at the top of the funnel, before they have committed to a specific suburb or property type.

This means your property reaches buyers who are still forming their criteria, not just those who have already decided exactly what they want and where. It is a structural advantage in how properties are marketed, built on technology we have developed ourselves.

The Questions Every Seller Should Ask

Before signing with any agent, sellers should ask:

• Will you personally manage every stage of my campaign?
• Who will conduct my open homes?
• Will you attend the building and pest inspection?
• Will you attend the valuation?
• What formal negotiation training have you completed?
• How does your marketing strategy create competition between buyers?
• What are the terms of your agency agreement, and am I locked in if you underperform?

The answers will tell you more than any listing presentation.

The Bottom Line

The trust problem in Australian real estate is real, it is measured, and it is getting worse. Sellers carry legitimate fears — about agents who overpromise, campaigns that underdeliver, and transactions that quietly lose value at stages most sellers never see.

Understanding those fears, and building systems that directly address them, is not a marketing position. It is how we run every campaign.

If you are thinking about selling and want to understand exactly how we work — and what we guarantee — we would welcome the conversation.