Is My Listing Agent Doing a Good Job? How to Tell

Four weeks in, the showings slowed down, nobody has written an offer, and you are starting to wonder whether the person you hired is the reason. That is a fair question and most sellers are too polite to ask it out loud. The trouble is that the feeling of being neglected and the fact of being neglected look identical from the kitchen table. So here is how to separate the two, using numbers you can check yourself, plus a script for the conversation if the answer turns out to be the uncomfortable one.

The three things worth measuring

Start with activity, not effort. Effort is invisible and arguable. Activity leaves a record. Ask for the number of showings your home has had, the listing's online view count, and the same two numbers for comparable homes that sold near you in the last 60 days. Showings well below that local pace almost always point at price or photos. Plenty of showings and no offers points at the house itself, or at what buyers are finding once they walk in.

Second, look at whether information is flowing back to you. A listing agent who is working the file collects showing feedback, chases the agents who do not reply, and tells you what buyers actually said, including the parts you did not want to hear. If you have been getting silence and then a cheerful text on Friday saying things are going great, that is the gap worth naming.

Third, ask yourself whether you have received a written recommendation since the listing went live. Markets move, and the plan you agreed to in week one is rarely the right plan in week five. A good agent comes back with something specific in writing: adjust the price by this amount, reshoot these four rooms, offer this concession, or hold the line for these reasons. No recommendation at all, four or five weeks in, is the clearest signal on this list.

Those three together tell you one more thing. If your agent recommended a price you declined, the slow result is evidence the advice was right rather than evidence of neglect. Our walkthrough of what a listing agent marketing plan should contain is a fair yardstick against what you were promised.

What normal looks like in this market

Sixty days on market is an ordinary outcome right now, not a verdict on anybody. The October 2026 STAT release from ARMLS, which reports September data, put the median sales price in Arizona at 450,000 dollars, flat against a year earlier, with months of supply at 4.45. Even the fastest moving markets in the Valley were not quick: Chandler averaged 66.5 days and Gilbert 65.6 days. Buyers have choices and very little urgency, so a listing sitting for two months is the market behaving normally.

Financing is part of why. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30 year fixed at 7.24 percent on October 29, 2026, down from 7.32 percent the week before but up from 6.17 percent a year earlier. At that level the buyer looking at your house is payment sensitive and comparison shopping, and a seller paid rate buydown sometimes moves a decision that another price cut would not. If you are buying next, knowing what our loan programs cost before you negotiate is worth an hour of your time.

So hold your own numbers against that backdrop. Twenty days with no showings in a Phoenix neighborhood where comparable homes are getting six a week is a real problem. Forty five days, steady traffic, two near offers and a written price recommendation sitting in your inbox is a functioning listing and an unmade decision.

Estimate what you would walk away with

A five point check you can run this week

Pull up your own listing the way a buyer would. Search it on a phone, on the big portals, not in the agent dashboard. Count the photos, read the first two lines of the description, and look at what the lead image actually shows. If the lead image is a driveway or a dim living room, that is fixable this week and it is costing you showings right now.

Check that the facts are right. Square footage, bedroom count, school district, lot size, HOA dues, year built. Errors here are common and they quietly filter your home out of searches it belongs in. One wrong number can remove you from every price per square foot search.

Ask for the showing and feedback log. Not a summary, the actual log. Dates, agent names, whether feedback was requested, what came back. An agent doing the work has this and will send it without drama.

Count the communications. Write down every time you heard from your agent in the last three weeks and who started it. A pattern where you initiate everything is the most common seller complaint, and it is usually accurate.

Ask one direct question: what would you do differently if this were your house? The quality of that answer tells you more than the rest of the check combined. You are looking for something specific and slightly uncomfortable, not reassurance.

How to raise it without blowing up the listing

Have the conversation before you decide anything, and have it on a call rather than by text. Say what you have observed, give the numbers you collected, and ask for a written plan for the next 30 days with dates on it. Most reasonable agents respond well to that, and a few respond by admitting the listing slipped down the priority list, which is its own useful answer.

If the plan does not arrive, or it arrives and nothing changes, your next call is the designated broker at the brokerage rather than the Arizona Department of Real Estate. You contracted with the brokerage, not with the individual, so that broker has the authority to reassign the listing or release you. Ask what cancellation requires before you threaten it. Our guide to getting out of a listing agreement covers the mechanics, including protection periods that can follow you to the next agent.

And if you do end up starting over, run a real interview rather than hiring the next person who calls. The questions in our guide to choosing a listing agent are built for exactly this situation, where you already know what you did not get the first time.

Where this has limits

I am a mortgage broker, not a real estate agent, and I am not your lawyer. I see the financing side of these transactions, which is a useful vantage point and a partial one. Brokerage policies differ, so the paperwork you signed governs, and anything that worries you is worth a read by a real estate attorney.

Two honest caveats. Most slow listings in a 4.45 month supply market are priced wrong rather than marketed wrong, and changing agents without changing the number usually produces the same result with a new name on the sign. And performance is hard to judge from one listing. A large social following and real production are different things, and not every agent is the right fit for every seller. Nobody, including us, can promise you the highest price or the fastest sale.

If you would rather restart the whole sequence properly, our step by step guide to selling a house lays out the order things should happen in, from pricing through closing.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my listing agent is doing a good job?

Measure three things. Compare your showing count to what similar homes nearby are getting, check whether showing feedback is being collected and passed to you in writing, and look at whether you have received a specific written recommendation since the listing went live. All three happening with no sale usually means a price problem. None of them happening is an agent problem.

How many days on market is normal before I should worry?

Longer than most sellers expect right now. The October 2026 STAT release from ARMLS reported months of supply at 4.45, and even the fastest moving markets averaged roughly 66 days, with Chandler at 66.5 and Gilbert at 65.6. Two months without a sale is ordinary in that environment rather than a sign of failure.

My house has had no showings in three weeks. Is that the agent's fault?

Not necessarily, but it is worth investigating immediately. No showings almost always means price or presentation rather than effort, because buyers filter on price first and photos second. Pull up your own listing on a phone, check the lead photo and the listed facts for errors, and ask for the showing log before you conclude anything.

Can I fire my listing agent if I am unhappy?

Sometimes, and it depends on the agreement rather than on how you feel. You contracted with the brokerage, so the designated broker is the person with authority to cancel or reassign the listing. Ask what cancellation requires and whether marketing costs get billed back, and read the protection period clause, which can mean you still owe compensation on buyers that brokerage introduced.

Should I change agents or change the price?

Change the price first in most cases. If your agent has been communicating, collecting feedback and has already recommended an adjustment you declined, the slow result is evidence the advice was right rather than evidence of neglect. Change agents when communication has broken down, the listing has errors nobody fixed, or no written plan exists after a month.

Who do I complain to about a listing agent in Arizona?

Start with the designated broker at the brokerage, because that is who holds your agreement and who can reassign or release the listing. The state real estate department handles license complaints, which is a different matter from a listing that is underperforming. Most problems get solved at the broker level, faster than any formal process.