"Real estate agents have two tasks:" 1) get a listing and 2) make a sale. Realtors IMO care little about anything but the bottom line. Most abide by some ethical standard, but really don't care that the kitchen needs about $20k to update or that the house is too small or too large for the buyer. Some realtors are just plain snakes and will sell a property out from under the unsuspecting. Note that the "steals" usually wind up in the portfolios of the real estate 'professionals'.