Cold Texting Expired Listings: Timing, Consent, and What to Send
How to work expired listings without tripping the TCPA. Why an expired MLS record is not consent, why the first forty-eight hours are the worst time to send anything, the protection period and Article 16 problems agents miss, and the messages that get answered.
An expired listing is a seller who tried, hired a professional, and still did not sell. That makes them one of the most motivated seller populations in real estate, and one of the most thoroughly worked. Every agent in the market has the same list on the same morning.
This post covers cold texting expired listings specifically: the consent question, the timing problem that is unique to expireds, the two ethics traps that do not apply to other prospecting, and what to actually send.
Informational only, not legal advice. TCPA, state SMS statutes and NAR standards all apply here, they change, and they apply differently by state. Confirm with your broker and a qualified attorney before running any campaign.
The consent question, briefly
The analysis is the same one that governs cold texting for sale by owners, and it lands in the same place, so I will not repeat it in full.
The short version: an expired MLS listing is not consent. The seller gave their number to their listing brokerage, under a listing agreement, for the purpose of selling that house with that brokerage. That agreement has now ended, and it was never yours. Nothing in that chain produced prior express written consent for you to send marketing texts.
If anything, expireds are slightly worse than FSBOs on this point. A for sale by owner published a number to the public and invited contact about the property. An expired seller published a number to their agent. You obtained it from a data feed. The seller may not know their contact information circulates this way at all, and their reaction when a stranger texts them within hours of expiration reflects that.
Everything else carries over unchanged: marketing texts sent with an autodialer generally require prior express written consent, and the FCC’s one-to-one rule was vacated by the Eleventh Circuit in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC in January 2025, which did not loosen the underlying requirement. The autodialer question itself has largely settled in favor of the narrow reading from Facebook v. Duguid, which is exactly why it is the wrong thing to anchor on. The rules that still bite are the Do Not Call Registry, the separate requirement that you keep your own internal do-not-call list and written policy, and state statutes, none of which care what dialing technology you used. Whether a private plaintiff can sue over a text to a registry number is currently the subject of a federal circuit split. The FSBO post works through all of it.
The same structural conclusion applies too: manual call first, text only after a real conversation. For expireds it matters more, not less, because the volume of competing outreach is higher.
Two ethics traps specific to expireds
These do not come up with FSBOs, and both are easy to trip with clean intentions.
The listing may not actually be expired
MLS status changes lag. A listing showing expired in your feed this morning may have been relisted with the same brokerage yesterday, or renewed, or moved to a new agreement that has not propagated. NAR Article 16 bars conduct inconsistent with the exclusive representation agreements other brokers hold. Soliciting a seller who has already signed a new agreement puts you on the wrong side of it, and “my data said expired” is not much of an answer.
Verify current status before every send, not once when you pulled the list.
The protection period
Most listing agreements carry a protection or safeguard clause: for some window after expiration, the former listing brokerage still has a claim to commission if the seller sells to a buyer that brokerage introduced. Windows and terms vary by agreement and by state.
This does not stop you from contacting the seller. It does mean a deal you write during that window can carry an obligation nobody discussed, and the seller usually does not know the clause exists. Raise it early rather than discovering it at closing, and have your broker look at the specific agreement.
The timing problem, which is the real difference
FSBOs get hammered from the day the sign goes up. Expireds get hammered harder, and in a much tighter window.
A listing expires at midnight. By breakfast it is in every prospecting platform in the market. The seller’s phone starts before they have finished absorbing that the sale failed, and it does not stop for several days. Dozens of agents, most opening with a variation of the same two messages, all of them arriving at a moment when the seller feels like they failed publicly.
This produces a timing paradox that most expired training gets wrong. Day one is when the lead is most valuable and when your message is least likely to be read. You are competing against the largest possible volume of identical outreach, aimed at someone who is annoyed, embarrassed and not yet ready to make a decision.
Three windows actually exist:
Day 1 to 3. Maximum competition, minimum receptivity. If you work this window, a manual call is the only thing with a real chance, and your differentiator has to be that you are not running the standard script.
Day 14 to 45. The phone has gone quiet. Most agents contacted them once, got nothing, and moved to the next batch. The seller has now had time to think, and is often actively wondering what went wrong. This is the most underworked window in expired prospecting and the one I would spend effort on.
Day 60 and beyond. They either relisted, gave up, or are quietly reconsidering. Low competition, and a genuine check-in works because it is so obviously not a blast.
If you only work day one, you are competing hardest for attention at the exact moment attention is unavailable.
What does not work
The failures mirror FSBO prospecting, with a few that hit harder here.
Trashing the previous agent. “Your last agent clearly did not market the property properly.” Agents use this thinking it positions them as better. It does the opposite. The seller chose that agent, which makes this an attack on their judgment, and it tells them exactly how you will talk about them later. It is also the single most predictable expired opener in existence.
Claiming you have a buyer you do not have. Same as with FSBOs, worse here. Expired sellers have just spent months hearing about buyer interest that did not materialize. Another unverifiable buyer claim lands on an already exhausted nerve, and when it cannot be produced you have confirmed their read on agents generally.
Manufactured urgency. “The window to relist before the market shifts is closing.” They just lived through a listing that did not sell. Invented deadlines from a stranger do not move someone who has been through that.
Mass blasts. Practically, expired sellers can identify a bulk message immediately because they are receiving several that morning. Legally, bulk automated marketing texts to people with no written consent is the fact pattern that produces claims.
Concealing who you are. An unidentified message from an unknown number, hours after a private business arrangement ended, is closer to alarming than intriguing. Lead with your name and brokerage.
Assuming they failed. “I noticed your home did not sell.” Technically accurate, and it opens by naming the thing they feel worst about. There is always a way to reference the situation without leading with the failure.
What to send
After a real conversation, not before.
The honest check-in, day 14 or later:
“Hi [Name], this is [Agent] with [Brokerage], following up on our call about [address]. Have you decided yet whether you are relisting, or taking a break for now? Either answer is useful, I just do not want to keep bothering you if you are set.”
Giving someone permission to close the conversation is what makes them answer it.
The specific observation:
“Hi [Name], [Agent] with [Brokerage]. We spoke about [address]. I went back through the listing history and had one thought about the [photos / pricing timeline / days on market pattern]. Want me to send it? No obligation, it is yours either way.”
This only works if you actually did the work and have something specific. A generic version reads worse than sending nothing.
The later re-approach, day 60 and beyond:
“Hi [Name], [Agent] again. Not chasing you. If you decide to put [address] back on at some point, I would be glad to walk through what I would do differently. Reply STOP to opt out.”
In every message: your name and brokerage in the first line, a reference to the specific property, one question, no criticism of the previous agent, and working opt-out language you honor immediately.
Where this fits
Expireds are cold prospecting. They are not database reactivation, the consent posture is different, and the two should not run on the same system or the same rules.
If your expireds are not fresh, and you are looking at a CRM full of expired leads you worked once eighteen months ago and never came back to, that is a different job with different economics. Reactivating old Vulcan7 leads covers aged expireds specifically.
Klosed works the other side of this line: your own opted-in database, past clients, expired inquiries, open-house signups, contacts who already gave you permission. Cold expired outreach stays manual, identified and phone-first.
Related reading
- Cold Texting For Sale By Owners, the same consent framework worked through in full, for the other cold seller list
- How to Reactivate Old Vulcan7 Leads, for expireds that have been sitting in the CRM for a year or more
- TCPA-Compliant Texting for Real Estate Agents, the underlying compliance framework
- Can Real Estate Agents Legally Text Old Leads?, consent rules for aged contacts
Logan Bates, Founder, Klosed. Informational only, not legal advice. TCPA, state SMS regulations and NAR standards apply and change. Consult a qualified attorney and your broker.