Listings
What is expired listing?
An expired listing is a property whose listing agreement ended without a sale. It becomes a prospecting target for other agents, since the owner has demonstrated intent to sell but has not achieved it.
Expireds are attractive prospects because motivation is proven. They are also difficult, because the owner has just had a disappointing experience and is usually being contacted by many agents at once, often within hours.
The reason for failure is almost always price relative to condition and location, but saying so directly rarely works. The more effective approach is diagnostic — what feedback came back from viewings, how the property was presented, where the pricing sat against comparables.
Expired listings are also valuable market data quite apart from prospecting: they mark the ceiling buyers refused, which actives and solds alone do not show.
Related terms
Days on market counts how long a listing has been actively for sale since it was published. It is used both as a market-health indicator and, by buyers, as a signal of negotiating room.
A listing agreement is the contract between a seller and a brokerage that authorises the brokerage to market the property, setting the price, duration, compensation and the extent of exclusivity.
A comparative market analysis is an agent's estimate of a property's likely selling price, built by comparing it against similar nearby properties that have recently sold, are currently listed, or failed to sell.
A FSBO is a property being sold directly by its owner without a listing agent, typically to avoid paying a listing commission.