I need to talk about expired listings because I'm watching agents do the same dumb thing every single morning and it's making me a little crazy.
Here's the scene. It's 9:01 AM. The MLS just refreshed. An agent grabs their expired listing spreadsheet, starts dialing. They're the 14th person to call that seller today. The seller picks up, hears "Hi, I noticed your home didn't sell" for the fourteenth time, and hangs up. Sometimes they yell first. Can you blame them?
That's the old way. And it was always kind of terrible, but at least it used to produce results because fewer agents were doing it. Now? Every brokerage teaches the same cold call script. Every coaching program (not mine) hands out the same expired listing dialogue. The sellers are drowning in calls from agents they've never heard of, reading scripts that all sound identical.
There's a better approach. And it doesn't start at 9 AM on the day a listing expires. It starts weeks or months before.
The Real Problem With Cold Calling Expired Listings
I'm not going to pretend cold calling has never worked. It has. I know agents who built early careers on it. But cold calling as a primary strategy is dying for a reason that should be obvious: people don't answer their phones anymore.
Think about your own behavior. When's the last time you picked up a call from a number you didn't recognize? Probably never. You let it go to voicemail. Maybe you Google the number. Maybe you block it. Your sellers do the exact same thing.
And even when they DO pick up... you're a stranger. You have zero credibility. You're starting from negative trust because 13 other strangers already annoyed them today. That's not a sales conversation. That's damage control.
The agents winning expired listings in 2026 aren't the ones with the best cold call scripts. They're the ones the seller already recognizes when the listing fails.
Known Before You're Needed
This is the whole concept. You should be a familiar face in your target zip codes BEFORE a listing expires. Not after. Before.
How? Through the same system you're already building (or should be building). Video content about your local market. Retargeting ads running in your farm area. Community presence at events and sponsorships. Email newsletters with actual market data. A marketing presence that makes you the obvious choice when someone needs an agent.
When a seller's listing expires and they've been seeing your face on Facebook, watched your video about why homes sit on the market too long, gotten your neighborhood market report in the mail... you're not a cold caller. You're that agent they keep seeing everywhere. Totally different conversation.
I had an agent in my coaching program, Jamie, who picked up 3 expired listings in one month last fall. Not one of those sellers came from a cold call. All three said some version of "I've been seeing your videos" or "my neighbor told me about you." That's what happens when you build a system instead of relying on a phone and a script.
The Multi-Touch Expired Listing System
OK so here's what I actually teach. And I want to be clear. This isn't a replacement for your digital marketing or your content or your ads. This layers ON TOP of everything else. Your Facebook ads, your retargeting, your video content, your community events... all of that is the foundation. The expired listing system is a targeted play that takes advantage of the authority you've already built.
Touch 1: Targeted Video Content (Ongoing)
Create video content specifically about pricing mistakes, why homes don't sell, and what sellers should look for in their next agent. This isn't content you make AFTER a listing expires. It's content you're putting out regularly so it's already out there when someone needs it.
Titles like "3 Reasons Your Home Sat on the Market Too Long" or "What Your Agent Should Have Done Differently" perform well because sellers with failed listings are Googling exactly these questions. And when they find YOUR video answering their question... you just became the expert.
This is the same principle behind How Krista Sold 144 Homes Last Year. Content creates authority. Authority creates trust. Trust wins the appointment.
Touch 2: Direct Mail With a Market Analysis (Day 1)
The day a listing expires, send a physical mail piece. Not a generic postcard that says "Sorry your home didn't sell, call me!" That's what the other 30 agents are sending.
Send a personalized comparative market analysis for their property. An actual analysis showing current comps, pricing strategy recommendations, and market absorption rates for their neighborhood. Include a cover letter that references something specific about their listing. Maybe the photos could have been better. Maybe the price was above recent comps. Show that you actually looked at their property.
Physical mail stands out right now because everyone else moved to digital only. And according to NAR's 2025 data, 91% of sellers used an agent, with agent-assisted sales hitting a median of $425,000 compared to $360,000 for FSBO. Sellers know they need an agent. They just need to trust the RIGHT one.
Touch 3: Retargeting Ads in Their Zip Code (Ongoing)
If you're running retargeting ads in your farm area (and you should be), every homeowner in that zip code is already seeing your content. When their listing expires, they don't just get your mail piece. They're also seeing your face in their Facebook feed, their Instagram stories, on YouTube pre-roll. You're everywhere. Not in an annoying way. In an "oh, I keep seeing that agent" way.
This is where everything compounds. Your ads, your content, your mail, your community presence... it all hits at once. The seller feels like you're the obvious choice because everywhere they look, there you are.
Touch 4: "Why Your Home Didn't Sell" Lead Magnet
Create a guide. Call it something like "7 Reasons Homes Don't Sell (And What to Do About It)." Make it genuinely useful. Talk about pricing mistakes, bad photography, wrong timing, weak marketing, limited showing availability, poor staging. Give real examples.
Put this behind a landing page. Run a small ad budget targeting homeowners in your farm area. When a listing expires and that seller sees your guide in their feed, they download it because it speaks directly to their frustration.
Now you have their contact info. Now your speed-to-lead system kicks in. Automated follow-up. Personalized email. Maybe a text. But you're not cold calling a stranger. You're following up with someone who raised their hand and asked for your help.
Completely different energy.
Touch 5: Personalized Video CMA (Day 2-3)
This is the one that separates you from everyone. Record a quick video (3-4 minutes) walking through your CMA for their specific property. Screen share the comps. Point out what you'd do differently on pricing. Mention the neighborhood by name. Talk about their actual street.
Send it via email or even a DM if you can find them on social media. Nobody else is doing this. Nobody. While 47 agents left voicemails with the same script, you sent a personalized video showing you already did the work.
Most agents I coach who try this get a response rate above 40%. Compare that to cold calling where, in my experience, you're lucky to get anyone to even pick up the phone.
Why This Works Better Than the Old Way
The old way (grab a list, start dialing, read a script, hope for the best) is a volume game against dozens of other agents playing the same volume game. It's like showing up to a buffet where 50 people arrived before you. There's nothing left on the table.
This system flips it. Instead of chasing sellers, you're attracting them. Instead of starting at zero trust, you start with months of accumulated visibility. Instead of competing against every agent in your MLS, you're the only one who showed up with a personalized video and a real market analysis.
The contrast isn't between this approach and running ads or building a referral network. All of those things work together. Your referral systems, your past client outreach, your content strategy... they all feed the expired listing system because they all build the same thing: authority in your market.
When you're known before you're needed, every expired listing in your zip code is a warm lead. Not cold. Warm.
The 3 Things You Need to Start This Week
You don't need to build the whole system overnight. Start with these three moves.
First, record one video about why homes don't sell. Just one. Post it to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. Let it sit there and work for you. When's the last time you made a piece of content specifically for frustrated sellers? Probably never. Fix that.
Second, create your "Why Your Home Didn't Sell" guide. It doesn't have to be fancy. 6 to 8 pages. Real information. Put it on a landing page with a simple form. You now have a lead magnet that directly targets expired listing sellers.
Third, set up a process for sending personalized CMAs to expired listings in your farm area. This could be as simple as pulling 5 new expireds every Monday, running comps, and mailing your analysis with a cover letter. Takes maybe 2 hours a week once you have a template.
Everything else (the retargeting, the video CMAs, the automated follow-up) you can add over time. But those three things will put you so far ahead of the cold-call crowd that it won't even be a fair fight.
Systems beat hustle. Every time. You're not a commodity. Stop competing like one.
If you want to see how this fits into the full lead generation system I teach, that's where everything connects. And if you're ready to build the whole machine... Get the Level Up Training. I'll walk you through every layer.