What do I say when an expired seller says the last agent did nothing?
When an expired seller says the last agent did nothing, neither agree nor defend. Acknowledge the frustration once, ask what specifically got in the way, and listen. Their answer tells you what a different plan has to include before you offer one.
Read the transcript
- We were on the market six months.
- The last agent did nothing. No calls, no showings, nothing.
- So why would you be any different?
- Oh, I hear that all the time.
- Honestly, a lot of agents just put a sign in the yard and disappear.
- That's terrible. I'm nothing like that.
- I'll actually work for you.
- After every practice call, your card arrives: what worked, and the one thing to fix.
- The call trains four moves. Acknowledge the frustration once.
- Ask what got in the way, with your reason attached.
- Say what you would do differently, and let the seller judge the difference.
- Reach the reason for the move before you say anything about yourself.
- The seller chose that agent.
- They interviewed, they trusted, they signed.
- A verdict on the agent is a verdict on their judgment.
- Your plan is the verdict.
- Practice it until it sounds like you.
- Each call runs as long as the conversation needs,
- and you can make as many as you want.
- Practice free at 10before10.com/try.
Drafted with AI by the 10before10 team, reviewed and approved by Grant Freer and Gia Freer, licensed Florida real estate brokers. Updated October 26, 2026.
What is really being said
"The last agent did nothing" is usually true in the way the seller means it and rarely true in the way it sounds. The seller means: the phone did not ring, nobody explained why, and the months went by. Whether the agent worked hard and priced it wrong, or barely worked at all, the seller could not see the difference.
What they saw was silence.
Two things are happening when they say it. The first is frustration, and it wants to be heard once. The second is a test, whether they know it or not.
They are handing you an invitation to agree, and how you respond tells them what kind of agent you are. Join in, and you have shown that you will grade a colleague you never met on one side of the story. Defend the agent, and you have taken the other side against the person you are trying to help.
Neither survives the seller reading the call back the next morning.
There is also a plain fact under the line: the seller chose that agent. They interviewed, they trusted, they signed. A verdict on the agent is, quietly, a verdict on their judgment.
That is why it costs more than it seems to.
The useful response is neither agreement nor defense. It is a question about what got in the way, asked with the reason for asking.
What to say
These are examples in plain words, not lines to memorize. Say them the way you actually talk.
"That sounds like a long few months. Can I ask what got in the way? I ask because if it was showings that never came, that is one fix, and if it was showings that came and left, that is a different one, and I would rather not guess."
This acknowledges the frustration once, without agreeing or arguing, then asks the only question that leads anywhere. The reason for asking is said out loud, which is why the seller answers it honestly. Their answer is the beginning of a plan, and you cannot build one without it.
"I was not there, so I am not going to grade your last agent. What I can do is tell you what I would do differently, and you decide whether it is actually different."
This refuses the verdict without lecturing about it, and puts the decision where it belongs. A seller who has been let down is listening for whether you will overpromise the way the last person may have. Saying plainly what you will not do is how they learn what you will.
"Before any of that, is the reason you were moving still there? I ask because if the plan has changed since you listed, the right answer might be to wait, and I would tell you so."
The listing failed; the move may not have. Where they are going, why, and by when is the part of the story that has nothing to do with the last agent, and it is the part that decides what you offer next. If the reason is gone, say so and set a date.
If it is still there, ask for twenty minutes to show them what sold nearby since they listed, or offer to send it, then ask for the meeting where the net sits beside the fee, with two day-and-time choices.
What not to do
Do not agree. "You are right, that is terrible" feels like rapport and costs it. It tells the seller you will say whatever the person in front of you wants to hear, and they will remember that when you tell them their price.
Do not defend. "Well, the market was slow" or "that is a good office" takes the seller's complaint away from them without hearing it. They did not call you to be corrected about their own experience.
Do not pitch before you ask. A marketing plan delivered into a seller's frustration is noise. You do not yet know whether the problem was price, showings, condition, communication, or a move that lost its reason.
Every one of those needs a different plan, and only a question tells you which.
How to practice it
Have a colleague play an expired seller who opens with "the last agent did nothing." Your job is to acknowledge once, ask what got in the way with your reason attached, and reach the reason for the move before you say anything about yourself. Run it five times, changing the real cause: no showings, showings with no offers, a price the seller insisted on, an agent who stopped calling, a move that fell through.
Record it and listen for any sentence that grades the other agent. That is the habit to break, and the one 10before10™'s scorecard listens for.
Honest answers
Related answers
Make one practice call. See your card.
A prospect who sounds real raises this exact moment. Ten minutes, in the browser, no account. The scorecard tells you the one thing to fix.