When a listing expires, give the home a real break before it comes back

By Liv Saville, Head of Growth at Worthington

Market knowledge·October 1, 2026·6 min read

A 2025 study in the Journal of Housing Economics found that homes relisted within a week of coming off the market went on to have longer total marketing periods, while gaps of one to six months shortened them. My view is that when a listing expires, the agent should plan a real pause with real changes behind it, and stay close to the seller while the home is off the market.

In 670,000 home sales, the length of the break shaped how a relisting went

In Relisting, Agent Switching, and Sale Outcomes in the Housing Market, published in the Journal of Housing Economics in 2025, Darren Hayunga and William Swymer looked at what happens when a single-family home doesn't sell during its first listing contract and is listed again, either with the same agent or a different one. They worked with more than 670,000 sales from 2000 to 2019, including nearly 45,000 relistings, and measured transaction prices and marketing durations.

They found that relisting outcomes depended on three things: the phase the housing market was in, the length of the off-market gap between listings, and whether the first listing had expired or been cancelled.

On timing, short off-market gaps of 0 to 7 days led to longer total marketing periods, and longer gaps of 31 to 180 days reduced total marketing durations. On price, relistings during the peak phase of the market (May 2005 to March 2006) had positive price effects, and other periods showed largely discounts. When a listing expired and the seller changed agents, the change in representation brought modest price gains, which the authors note contrasts with earlier findings.

Their overall conclusion is that relisting is a strategic action shaped by timing and listing history, and they caution against reading it as a uniform signal of failure.

The market reads a quick relist as the same home

The authors offer an explanation for each timing result. They write that the longer marketing periods after short gaps suggest the market is sceptical of superficial resets. For the longer gaps, they say the shorter durations are consistent with a new buyer pool or with renovations to the home. Those are the authors' readings of their own results, and I've only read the published abstract, since I couldn't get to the full paper. I can't tell you how they measured a renovation, or what happened to homes that came back after 8 to 30 days, because the abstract doesn't say.

My reading is that a home which disappears and reappears a few days later looks to the market like the same home, and the authors' explanation suggests the market treats it that way. A home that comes back after a month or more has either met new buyers or had something done to it, and either one gives it a fresh start.

The abstract I read doesn't name the market the data came from, and as the abstract describes it, the study measured prices and marketing durations, with nothing on how sellers felt about their agent. Applying the finding to how you handle an expired listing and the seller behind it is my own reading.

Plan the pause with your seller before the listing runs out

Agents I've spoken to have said the conversation about an expired listing is one of the hardest they have with a seller. My view is that it goes better when it happens before the expiry date, with a plan already on the table.

Start that conversation two or three weeks out. If the home hasn't sold, explain that a relist a few days after expiry is the option this study links to a longer overall time on the market, and that a break of a month or more is the one it links to a shorter one. Let the seller decide with that information in front of them.

Use the break for changes a buyer would notice. The authors connect the longer gaps to renovations, so in my view the pause should carry the repairs, staging, photography or pricing work you and the seller agree on. Write the list down together and give each item a date before the home comes back.

Don't promise a price recovery. The study found price effects varied with the market phase, with gains in the 2005 to 2006 peak and largely discounts in other periods. Be honest with the seller about which kind of market they're relisting into.

If a seller comes to you after their listing expired with another agent, the authors found modest price gains when representation changed after an expiry. My advice is to treat that as a reason to take the listing seriously and to make no promises off the back of it, since the gains were modest and the abstract doesn't say what drove them.

The weeks off the market are when the seller decides who relists it

In my reading, the off-market gap is also a relationship gap. The study covered relistings with a different agent as well as with the same one, which tells me some sellers do move on at that point, and the weeks of the pause are exactly when an agent can fall silent. A seller who hears from you during the break, with progress on the repairs and a word on what's selling nearby, has a reason to relist with you.

This is the kind of follow-up that slips when you're working live deals. Worthington keeps a record of every client, turns a note flagged as a reminder into a follow-up task, and drafts check-ins in your own voice for you to review and send. He also knows when to say nothing, which matters with a seller who has just had a disappointing few months.

The weeks after an expiry feel like the moment to act fast, and this study gives you good grounds to slow down and spend that time on the home and on the seller who owns it.

Worthington draws on research like this to shape a nurturing strategy for each of your clients. Join the waitlist