How to Work Expired Listings in Ontario Without Breaking the Rules

You contact an expired listing in Ontario only after the representation agreement is actually over, and you do it by a channel the law allows. A phone call, a letter, or a knock on the door can be a lawful first contact. A marketing email or text cannot, unless you already have CASL consent. The old listing photos are not yours. The seller is not a lead because a status flipped in the MLS.

Done this way, expired listings are ordinary seller conversations with people who just had a bad three months. Done the other way, they are a CASL complaint and a RECO complaint waiting on the same afternoon. The rules below are the guardrails. They are not a script for pressure.

What does "expired" have to mean before you call?

Look at the status and the agreement end date. Expired means the listing term ended. Cancelled can mean the seller and the brokerage ended it early. Suspended means it is paused and may still be that brokerage's client. Conditionally sold means there is an agreement. Those are not invitations.

If another registrant still represents the seller, you do not solicit the listing. TRESA's conduct rules exist so clients are not worked by two brokerages at once. When in doubt, ask your broker before you dial. "The board showed it as expired" is a weak sentence if the agreement was extended that morning.

Also check whether you already know these people. A past client whose listing expired is a different file from a stranger. Your notes should say which one it is before anyone drafts a message.

Which channels are actually allowed?

The full consent rules are in CASL compliance for realtors. The part that matters here is short. You cannot email someone because their house did not sell. A single referral email is a narrow exemption with identification and an unsubscribe, and it dies if they do not reply. It is not a loophole for a mail merge.

Phone calls have their own regime. The National Do Not Call List applies to telemarketing. A one-to-one call about a specific property is not the same thing as a dialer running a farm list. If your brokerage uses a dialer, ask the broker whether this campaign is registered and scrubbed. Do not guess. And if the person says "do not call again," that instruction ends the campaign for them.

What do you say when they pick up?

They have already heard a pitch. Lead with the evidence, not with your production.

1. You noticed the agreement ended. You are not calling to criticise the other agent.
2. You looked at what sold nearby while they were listed, and at the price they were asking. One sentence on the gap, if there is a gap you can support.
3. You have a range you can show them, in person, with the comparables. If they are done trying, you will not call again.

Then stop. A seller who just came off the market is allowed to be finished. The follow-up, if they invite one, uses the same restraint as following up without being pushy. One useful thing, an easy way out, no daily check-in.

If they want a meeting, it is a listing presentation, not a rescue. The structure is in how to run a listing presentation. The pricing has to explain the expired price, or you will repeat it. Use how to price a home. Show them the expired asking price as a comparable that failed. That is respectful and specific.

Do not say the other agent "did nothing." You rarely know that, and disparaging another registrant is a conduct problem as well as a bad look. Say what the market did. Leave the personality out.

What do you never lift from the old listing?

• Photographs, floor plans, virtual tours, and copy. They are someone else's work. Commission your own or walk away from the image.
• Private remarks, alarm codes, and tenant phone numbers. Those were for the cooperating brokerage during the listing, not a permanent licence.
• The seller's email, dropped into a newsletter. One conversation they agreed to is not a subscription.

Your own marketing of the new listing, once you have a written agreement, still has to follow RECO advertising rules. "Back on the market" is fine if it is true. "Was badly listed" is not a headline you need.

How do you keep a record?

Write down the date, the status you relied on, the channel, and what they said. If they said no, the next person on your team should see the no. A second call from a teammate the next morning is how a polite no becomes a complaint.

Keep the expired list small enough that each contact is a property you actually looked at. A hundred automated postcards can be lawful if they are paper and honest. A hundred emails are not. Volume is not the strategy. A reason for the last price, and a calendar that respects a no, is the strategy.

What do the do-not-call rules add, even when a call is allowed?

A call to a stranger about listing their home is a call to promote your service. The CRTC treats that kind of call as telemarketing. CASL is not the only rule in the room once you pick up the phone.

The CRTC's rules, as published for telemarketers, are specific enough to plan a week around:

• Register with the National Do Not Call List before you make unsolicited calls. Registration is required even when you think an exemption applies. If the calls are not exempt, you also subscribe, and the copy of the list you scrub against has to have been obtained no more than 31 days earlier.
• Keep your own internal do-not-call list. Someone who says "do not call again" goes on it. The CRTC's compliance guidance says to process that request within 14 days. Faster is the professional version. The next agent on your team does not get a second attempt.
• Calling hours are 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends, local time to the person you are calling. A Sunday evening "just following up" can be outside the window.
• Say who you are and why you are calling at the start. A script that hides the brokerage until they are interested is a compliance problem and a bad introduction.

Some calls are exempt from the National DNCL rules and are still not a free-for-all. The CRTC describes an existing business relationship as a purchase, lease, or rental in the last 18 months, a written contract that is still in effect or that expired within the last 18 months, or an inquiry or application in the last six months. A past client can fall inside that. A stranger does not become a past client because their listing expired on a board you can see. Exempt from the list does not cancel the hours, the identification, or your internal do-not-call list.

A referral is not consent. The CRTC notes that one person cannot consent on behalf of the person they referred, and that the National DNCL still applies to a solicitation of that referred person. "Your neighbour said I should call" is a reason they might pick up. It is not a scrubbed number.

If your brokerage uses a dialer, a lead-gen service, or a list someone sold you, stop and ask the broker of record who is registered and who subscribed. The CRTC says the client of a lead generator is still responsible for calls made on its behalf. "The vendor handles compliance" is not a sentence that survives a complaint.

A letter is the cleaner first contact when you do not want a telemarketing file at all. One page. Your name and brokerage. One sentence on their last asking price against what actually sold nearby, if you have looked. An offer to meet. A way to say no that you will honour. No copy of their old brochure, no photos you do not own, and no line that the last agent failed them.

Write the channel next to the date in the file: call, letter, or door. If it was a call, note that you checked the status was actually expired, that you identified yourself, and what they asked you to do next. That note is what stops a teammate from "trying once more" on Tuesday. The sellers who hire you later are usually the ones who were allowed to end the first conversation.

Expired means the agreement ended. It does not mean the seller opted in to your list.

Treat the file that way and you can still be the agent they call in March. Treat it as a download and you will be the name they report.