Why Old Expired Listings are the Most Overlooked Lead Source in Real Estate

Updated May, 2026 – REDX Publishing Team

Co-authored by the REDX Publishing Team and:

Ricky Carruth

Ricky is an award winning real estate agent and industry thought leader. He specializes in cutting through the noise to deliver no-nonsense actionable insights on what really matters in today’s real estate landscape.

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In a low-inventory market, current expired listings dry up fast and every agent is already dialing the few that exist. FSBOs are fielding calls from a dozen agents at once and don’t need help because the market is doing the work for them. Most agents stall out here and call it a tough market.

Real estate coach Ricky Carruth has a different read on the situation. When current expireds disappear, he goes back two years in his data and starts calling the listings everyone else stopped thinking about six months ago. According to REDX MLS tracking data, 65% of expired listings relist within two years, which means there’s a massive pool of property owners who’ve already tried to sell and are likely still thinking about it.

The strategy is simple, the competition is nearly zero, and the conversations are better than almost any other lead source. Here’s how it works.

Key Takeaways

• Old expired listings (6 months to 2 years back) are the least-competed lead source in any low-inventory market — almost no one is calling them.
• The call script is a single question: “I saw your house was for sale. Whatever happened with that?” The seller tells you everything from there.
• According to REDX MLS tracking data, 65% of expired listings relist within two years, so the pool of potential sellers is far larger than what shows up fresh each morning.
• Building five new relationships with property owners every day compounds into market dominance over a 3 to 4 year horizon, regardless of market conditions.

Why Are Old Expired Listings Better Than Current Ones Right Now?

In a hot market, current expireds are scarce and brutally competitive. The few that expire get hit by every agent in the market within hours. Old expireds haven’t heard from an agent in months, which means the competition drops to near zero and the seller isn’t on guard.

The real advantage is conversation quality. When you call a current expired, you’re one of fifteen agents calling that day. When you call an old expired, the homeowner isn’t defensive because nobody has called in a long time. They have a story, and they’ll tell it to you if you ask the right question.

Setting this up in Vortex is straightforward. Pull two years of expired leads into a folder and new expireds populate the bottom of that list every day. You build an ongoing pipeline that grows automatically, with older entries already past the high-competition window. REDX will also alert you if and when any of those contacts relist, so you’re never caught off guard.

What Is the Script for Calling Old Expired Listings?

The script is one sentence: “I saw your house was for sale last year. Whatever happened with that?” That’s the whole open. The homeowner does the rest.

They tell you whether the home sold and they moved, whether the listing fell through, what their current situation is, and what they want to do next. That story is the blueprint. Once you have it, you know exactly how you can help and whether the timing is right. As Ricky puts it, knowing why people want to do something is what puts you in the driver’s seat to actually help them.

This approach works because there’s no pressure implied in that first question.

Sellers who’ve been through a failed listing already know what the process looks like, and many are still turning the idea over in their minds. One honest, low-pressure question is enough to unlock that. For a deeper look at the full expired listing prospecting process, the old expired listing strategy guide covers each stage from first call through signed agreement.

Where Do GeoLeads Fit in This Strategy?

GeoLeads sit at the same level as old expireds in terms of opportunity right now, not below them. The type of conversation is different: GeoLeads start warmer and more relationship-first, building a long-term pipeline in a defined geographic area. Old expired conversations have a built-in context point that makes sellers open up quickly. Both are worth running simultaneously.

The mistake most agents make is picking one lead source and never leaving it. Diversifying your calling week across lead types keeps multiple pipelines active without burning out any single source.

Ricky recommends rotating: one day on old expireds, one day on GeoLeads, one day on past clients and referrals, one day on absentee owners or investors, and one day dedicated to follow-up. Each session has one objective: five new contacts added to your database.

Who Else Is Worth Calling in a Low-Inventory Market?

Absentee owners, investors, and second-home owners are strong candidates when primary homeowner inventory is tight. These sellers don’t face the same obstacle as someone living in their property: they don’t have to find a new place to live before they can list. If equity has risen and they’re considering taking profits, the conversation is completely different from the one you’d have with a primary homeowner.

When prices have moved up significantly, these sellers have a clear financial reason to consider selling that has nothing to do with their personal housing situation. They can list, close, and redeploy that capital without the stress of a contingent purchase. That makes them far more willing to have a serious conversation, even in a market where primary homeowners feel trapped.

What Does “Five New Friends a Day” Actually Mean for Your Business?

Five new property owner contacts per day is the core metric Ricky Carruth uses to measure whether an agent is building a real business.

The math compounds quickly: 5 per day is 25 per week, 100 per month, 1,200 per year. Over four years, that’s 5,000 property owners in your database who know you, hear from you weekly, and have your contact information when they’re ready to list.

The weekly email is what keeps those relationships warm.

Same day, every week, without exception. The agents who combine consistent daily prospecting with a reliable weekly email become the default go-to agent in their market over time, not because they had the best ads or the biggest team, but because they were the only ones still showing up when the seller was finally ready. The close, as Ricky puts it, often happens the other way: sellers start calling you.

This also reframes how you think about your current prospecting sessions. The question isn’t “how many listings will I get this month?” It’s “how many people did I add today?” Those are different problems to work on, and only one of them compounds into a dominant market position.

How to Structure Your Prospecting Week Around This System

Here is a simple weekly structure that puts this into practice across multiple lead sources:

1. Day 1: Old expired listings Work your 2-year lookback folder in Vortex. Goal: five new contacts, five stories collected.
2. Day 2: GeoLeads Target property owners in your defined farm area. Goal: five new contacts, farm database growth.
3. Day 3: Past clients and referrals Warm calls to people who already know you. Goal: five touchpoints, identify anyone ready to move.
4. Day 4: Absentee owners and investors Call property owners who don’t live in the home. Goal: five equity conversations.
5. Day 5: Follow-up Return to anyone from earlier in the week who showed interest. Goal: advance five conversations toward an appointment.

Outside factors like inventory levels, interest rates, and market conditions don’t change what you can control every day. Nothing stops you from making five new connections with property owners, adding them to your database, and sending that weekly email. The market you build in the next 12 months is the one that pays you in the 12 months after that. The agents who understand that relationship between activity and future income are the ones still standing when everyone else is waiting for the market to cooperate.