About one in five U.S. sellers cut their asking price in the four weeks ending September 20, and in the Dallas metro it was more than one in four, according to Redfin. Markets don’t cut prices. Sellers do, usually after six quiet weeks and one uncomfortable phone call.
I’ve been buying houses in this state for years, from suburban ranch homes and older duplexes to probate properties with four decades of mail stacked on the kitchen counter. Sellers who call me frustrated almost never blame the market. They blame the silence, and silence is one of the clearest signs of a bad realtor. Unanswered email. Listing photos shot at noon on somebody’s phone. A sign in the yard and nothing behind it.
Your property is probably fine. Your representation might not be.
How Many Real Estate Agents Should You Interview Before Hiring One?
Choose wrong and you don’t lose a week. You lose a season, a price band, and the urgency your house had while it was still fresh on the MLS.
Texas gives you plenty of rope. The typical Texas home took 99 days to sell in the third quarter of 2026, two days longer than a year earlier, according to Texas REALTORS. Plan on more than three months before the wire hits your account. Sign with the wrong broker in March and your spring is gone.
Two interviews is the floor, and three is better if you have the time. Past five you’re stalling, and stalling costs you the same money a weak agent does.
What should those talks compare? Charm won’t help you. Every real estate agent in Texas is likable for forty-five minutes, so you need a test that cuts past it. Ask each one to walk you through the three closest comparable sales and explain, out loud, why your house lands above or below each one. One agent will cite school zoning, roof age, and insurance history. Another will say the market’s hot and hand you a folder.
That gap tells you everything.
I also push sellers to interview at least one agent who doesn’t live in their immediate neighborhood. Local knowledge matters, and so does an outside read on whether your price is wishful thinking. Friends and neighbors sometimes shade their numbers to win the listing. Then they spend ninety days walking you back down to reality, and I’ve watched that happen more than once.
Ask every agent you interview how many listings they’re carrying right now. Twenty-five active sellers and a two-person team means your calls go to voicemail in October.
What Questions Should You Ask a Real Estate Agent Before Signing?
Grilling somebody feels rude when that person coaches your kid’s rec team. Sellers should ask the blunt questions anyway. Real estate brokers who are good at this job welcome the scrutiny, while the ones who bristle just told you how they’ll handle a tough inspection negotiation.
Start with the relationship itself, because Texas has its own rules. At the first real conversation, a Texas agent has to give you the Information About Brokerage Services form from the Texas Real Estate Commission. A listing agent working as your agent for owner must put your interests above everyone else’s, including the broker’s own. That changes if the same brokerage also represents the buyer. The broker then acts as an intermediary, which takes written consent from both sides and means treating each party impartially. Plenty of sellers sign that form without reading a line of it.
So ask directly whether they’ll represent you alone or end up as an intermediary. Then ask what changes if the same brokerage brings the buyer.
Before you sign any legal contract, I’d also want answers on a few practical points. What’s the written marketing plan beyond the MLS, Zillow, and Realtor.com, and who photographs the property, and when? How often will you hear from them, and will it come by phone, text, or email? And how close have their listings sold to asking price over the last year?
That last one separates storytellers from operators, because an agent with real negotiation skills can quote it from memory.
Most sellers skip this one: what happens if you’re forty days in with no offers? A strong answer commits to a specific trigger, a price adjustment schedule, and a plan to reshoot the photos. A weak answer is “we’ll see where we are.”
Commission is negotiable, and after the 2024 industry settlement, buyer compensation is negotiable too. Talk about money out loud before anyone signs anything.
What Makes a Real Estate Agent “BAD” in the First Place?
“Is my agent bad, or is my house just hard to sell?”
I hear that question constantly, and the answer usually shows up in the first two weeks. A bad realtor usually isn’t a villain. Most are overcommitted, undertrained, or chasing a listing count instead of results for the sellers already on their roster. A license proves somebody passed an exam, and it doesn’t prove they can price a 1978 brick ranch with a 2009 roof in a neighborhood where insurance quotes keep climbing.
Overpricing to win the listing is the costliest habit in the business. An agent tells you the house is worth more than the data supports, and you sign. I’ve seen what comes next dozens of times, and ninety days later the price has been chopped twice, and buyers treat the listing like spoiled milk.
A few years back I sat with a widow in Oak Cliff whose agent had told her the kitchen had to be redone before anyone would make an offer. The contractor’s estimate came back on a Saturday morning, and it was more than the kitchen was worth to the sale. She didn’t have the cash to front it anyway, so she sold as-is, kept the patio furniture she loved, and moved near her daughter without touching a cabinet.
Good agents know when improvements return nothing, and a bad realtor often doesn’t. If an agent’s advice always costs you money upfront, get a second opinion. For homeowners who’d rather skip repairs and showings altogether, a direct buyer like Investor Home Buyers is a legitimate comparison point.
Bad advice compounds over months. Bad communication compounds over days.
What Is the Most Common Complaint Against Realtors?
Sit at any kitchen table in this state and you’ll hear the same thing. Nobody called me back.
Communication failures start almost every complaint I’ve run into, while fraud and stolen deposits are rare. More often it’s a seller who waited four days for feedback on a Sunday showing and started assuming the worst. Silence turns a small problem into a formal grievance, because people fill empty space with suspicion.
A handful of other issues keep popping up. Square footage gets misrepresented, and property details get copied wrong from the tax roll. Offers arrive late, or get summarized instead of delivered. Disclosure items get glossed over because the agent didn’t want to spook a buyer.
When something crosses from frustrating into unethical, Texas has a real process with teeth. Complaints go to the Texas Real Estate Commission, which investigates signed, written complaints. TREC can impose administrative penalties of up to $5,000 per violation. You have four years to file, counted from the date of the incident.
The process disciplines a license and doesn’t write you a check. Money comes from a civil claim, and that’s a conversation with a real estate attorney, not a state investigator.
Most problems never need any of this, just a seller who puts expectations in writing early and an agent willing to meet them. Tell your agent exactly how often you want to hear from them. Plenty of sellers never do, and then they’re angry about a standard nobody set.
Red Flags to Watch for Before and After Signing a Listing Agreement
That’s where the paperwork starts doing damage, because a listing agreement is a binding legal contract between you and the brokerage. It’s not a handshake with the person who brought cookies.
Length is the first red flag. One-year exclusive terms are still floating around out there. In a market this slow, I’d be comfortable with three to six months and a renewal if things are going well. Anyone who insists on a year while refusing a performance clause is protecting themselves, and you’re on your own.
Read the protection period. That clause says commission is still owed if a buyer who saw the house during the listing comes back after it expires. It’s normal, though the window should be short and the agent should have to give you a written list of names.
Watch for blank spaces, because I’ve reviewed plenty of agreements where the commission split or the expiration date was left empty “to fill in later.” Never sign a document with holes in it.
Once you’ve signed, the red flags change shape. Photos still aren’t up seventy-two hours after the agreement. Nobody installs the lockbox. Showing feedback never arrives. Your listing appears online with the wrong bedroom count or a neighbor’s floor plan.
A subtler sign of a bad realtor is when the suggestions stop. No price conversation, no staging note, no change in strategy at week six. Passive management looks calm, yet it’s really drift, and drift is how a house in Mesquite or Garland sits through an entire selling season. If that’s where you are, see what cash home buyers in Mesquite or a team that says we buy houses in Garland would pay before you sign another listing.
Check whether your agent got your property onto the big portals accurately. Errors there mean errors in the MLS feed, and fixing those is the agent’s job.
What Should You Do If You Have a Bad Real Estate Agent?
A seller once called me in week eleven of a listing after exactly two showings and zero written offers. Her agent had stopped returning texts in week four, and she figured she was stuck until the contract expired.
She wasn’t stuck. She just hadn’t gone to the person who actually holds the paper.
Start by documenting everything, and keep the emotion out of it. Write down dates of calls, save screenshots of unanswered email, and pull the marketing promises from the listing presentation. A one-page timeline turns a vague complaint into something a broker has to address.
Then take it up the chain. Sales associates work under a broker, and that broker is responsible for supervising them. Call the brokerage directly, ask for the managing broker, and request a meeting, since in my experience a lot of these situations get fixed right there. Often the office reassigns you to a stronger agent at no extra cost.
Be specific about what you want, because “better communication” gets you a nod. “A weekly Tuesday call, new photos by Friday, and a price review at day sixty” gets you a plan.
If the brokerage shrugs, ask for a written release from the agreement. I’ll cover how to do that cleanly in the next section.
One honest word about expectations, though. Say your house has sat for four months in a neighborhood where comparable properties close in two. A bad realtor may be part of the problem, and probably isn’t all of it. Price, condition, and insurance costs are weighing on Dallas buyers right now. Fire the agent if you need to, and fix the pricing regardless. If the house itself is the real hurdle, ask a local investor who says we buy houses in any condition what they’d pay.
How Do You Fire a Real Estate Agent the Right Way?
Ending the relationship sounds like one phone call and a polite goodbye. Then you find your signature on a document with the brokerage’s name at the top. The individual agent can’t release you from it, even if they’d like to.
Termination and cancellation aren’t the same thing, either. Canceling may end the marketing while leaving your commission obligation alive for any buyer already introduced. You want a written, signed release. It should spell out whether the protection period survives and which buyer names, if any, are still covered.
Send your request in writing to the managing broker, and keep it factual and short. List what was promised, what happened, and what you’re asking for. Brokers release unhappy sellers more often than you’d guess, because a bitter client leaving reviews hurts more than one lost listing.
Don’t simply stop answering the phone and relist elsewhere. Two brokerages claiming commission on the same closing creates a mess that holds up your proceeds at the title company.
If the broker refuses and you believe license law was broken, your complaint has to be in writing. You can file it through TREC’s online portal or mail it to the commission in Austin. Attach whatever documentation you have.
Some sellers reach this point and decide they’re done with listings entirely. That’s a fair call, and selling directly to a buyer like Investor Home Buyers removes the agency relationship, the showings, and the commission math in one move. Other sellers switch agents and do fine, and both paths beat waiting out a contract with somebody who quit on you.
How Does a Good Agent Help You Handle Inspections?
The statewide median home price in Texas was $333,628 in the third quarter of 2026, down 0.4 percent from a year earlier, according to Texas REALTORS. Even at that price point, sales fall apart over inspection reports. Price rarely kills a transaction here. Surprises do, and they usually land on the seller. A good listing agent sees them coming, while a bad realtor waits for the buyer’s report.
Order your own inspection before listing, since a pre-listing inspection costs a few hundred dollars and buys you the one thing sellers never have during negotiations, which is time. You find the failed wax ring, the double-tapped breaker, and the soft spot under the water heater. Then you decide what to fix, what to disclose, and what to price in. Nobody is standing in your kitchen with a repair addendum and a seven-day deadline.
Homes here come with their own landmines. Foundation movement on North Texas clay soil worries buyers more than almost anything. An older roof in hail country can push a buyer’s insurance costs up whether it leaks or not. Get a foundation evaluation and a roof inspection before listing, because buyers will want both. Knowing those results early lets you market the house instead of defending it.
Disclose what you know. Section 5.008 of the Texas Property Code requires most sellers of a single-family home to give the buyer a written Seller’s Disclosure Notice covering known defects. Hiding a previous foundation repair or a recurring plumbing backup won’t save the sale. It just moves the fight to after closing, where it gets expensive.
When a buyer’s inspector shows up, be reasonable about the real items and firm about the cosmetic ones. Inspection reports list everything, down to loose cabinet knobs and missing outlet covers. Respond to safety, structure, water, and systems, and decline the rest politely and in writing.
If the repair list is genuinely long, honest math matters more than pride. Sometimes repairs, holding costs, and a second price reduction add up to less than a straight cash offer would have netted you in two weeks. Sometimes they don’t. Run both numbers before you commit to either one. If the cash side wins, you can sell your home for cash and leave the repair list with the buyer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Fire My Real Estate Agent in Texas Without Paying Anything?
Often, yes, because the listing agreement is with the brokerage, so the managing broker has the authority to release you. Many brokers grant a written release when a seller is unhappy, especially early in the term. Get it in writing, and confirm whether any protection period or named buyers survive the cancellation.
How Long Does a Texas Listing Agreement Usually Last?
Terms vary from brokerage to brokerage, and the length is negotiable up front. Your agreement should state the expiration date plainly. If yours doesn’t, or you can’t find a signed copy, ask the brokerage for one right away.
What Is a Protection Period and Why Does It Matter?
It’s a window after the listing ends when the brokerage still earns commission if the home sells to someone it introduced. The agreement sets the length, so read that number closely. If you relist with a new agent and a prior prospect circles back, you could owe two commissions. A written release naming excluded buyers prevents that.
Does TREC Help Me Get Out of a Contract?
No, TREC handles license discipline, not contract disputes. A complaint can address misconduct like misrepresentation, though it won’t cancel your agreement or refund money. Contract issues go to the broker first, then to an attorney.
Is Selling to a Cash Buyer a Good Alternative to Switching Agents?
It depends on your situation. If the house needs work, the listing has gone stale, or you need a firm closing date, a direct cash sale takes showings, repairs, and commission off the table. If the home is in solid shape and simply had a bad realtor behind it, a competent new agent may net you more.
Maybe you’re in that spot and want to see a straightforward offer before deciding anything. Investor Home Buyers is happy to put a number in front of you with no obligation attached. Take it, compare it to what a new listing might bring, or sit on it for a week. You’ve already had one bad experience with pressure. I’m not interested in giving you another. Got questions before you decide? You can contact us anytime, and I’ll walk you through how it works.
Helpful Texas Blog Articles
