Listing Expired in Katy, TX? Here's What to Do Next
An expired listing means a Texas listing agreement reached its end date without a sale, returning full control of the property to the homeowner. Mohebbi Realty Group advises Katy, TX homeowners to review pricing, photos, and showing feedback before relisting. Most expired listings in Greater Houston trace back to price, condition, or exposure.
TL;DR
A listing expires when the term written into the Texas listing agreement ends without a closed sale, and the homeowner is free to relist with any brokerage the following day.
Greater Houston single-family homes spent an average of 53 days on the market in July 2026, up from 50 days a year earlier, according to the Houston Association of REALTORS®.
Active single-family listings in Greater Houston reached 40,750 in July 2026 — the highest level HAR has ever recorded — pushing months of inventory to 5.5 months.
Redfin reported that 6.7% of Houston-area listings were pulled off the market in April 2026, compared with 5.8% nationally.
Texas Real Estate Commission Rule 535.153 permits another brokerage to discuss a listing with a homeowner while a current listing is still active, provided the new listing does not begin until the existing one expires.
Paragraph 5E of the Texas REALTORS® Residential Listing Agreement (TXR-1101) creates a protection period after a listing ends, and the terms of that paragraph determine whether a prior broker is owed compensation.
Bobby Mohebbi, Leader of the Mohebbi Realty Group will prepare their “Expired Listing Analysis Sheet” to figure out what went wrong and how to correct it going forward.
Key Takeaways
Decide whether the problem was price, condition, or exposure before choosing a new agent. All three have different fixes, and picking the wrong one repeats the same 90 days.
Read Paragraph 5E of the expired agreement and check whether the prior broker sent a written protection-period notice within 10 days. That single document determines what a homeowner may owe.
Do not relist with identical photos, price, and remarks. Buyers in Katy, TX who passed on the home the first time will scroll past the same listing again.
What does it mean when a real estate listing expires in Texas?
A listing expires when the end date written into the listing agreement passes without the property going under contract and closing. The listing agreement between a homeowner and a broker is a fixed-term contract, and Texas listing agreements state a specific beginning date and ending date. When that end date arrives, the agreement terminates on its own — no signature, no notice, and no cancellation fee is required.
At that moment the MLS status changes to "Expired," the property is removed from active search results on HAR.com, Zillow, and Realtor.com, and the homeowner regains the right to sign with any brokerage. An expired listing is a contract status, not a judgment about the home.
Is an expired listing different from a withdrawn or terminated listing?
Yes — four different MLS statuses describe a home that came off the market without selling, and they carry different consequences. The distinction matters because a withdrawn or temporarily-off-market home is usually still under contract with the original broker, while an expired home is not.
Homeowners frequently describe a withdrawn listing as "expired." Before doing anything else, check the actual end date on the signed agreement.
Why do listings expire in Katy, TX and Greater Houston?
Listings expire because the asking price, the property's presentation, or the marketing exposure did not match what buyers in that specific submarket were willing to act on. Greater Houston has become a materially different market than it was three years ago, and pricing assumptions carried over from 2022 are the single most common cause of an expired term.
The current numbers explain a great deal:
Inventory is at a record high. HAR recorded 40,750 active single-family listings in July 2026, up 3.4% year over year and the highest figure in the association's history.
Months of supply reached 5.5. Nationally, NAR reported 4.6 months. Greater Houston buyers have more to compare against than the national average buyer does.
Time on market lengthened. Average days on market rose to 53 in July 2026 from 50 a year earlier.
Prices moved sideways, not up. The July 2026 median single-family price was $340,000, up 0.6% year over year — effectively flat.
Sellers are pulling listings. Redfin measured a 6.7% delisting rate for Houston in April 2026, above the 5.8% national figure.
A price that would have drawn four offers in 2022 now sits behind dozens of comparable homes. In the HAR Katy–Southwest market area, active listings were up 13.1% year over year at roughly 4.1 months of inventory — a balanced market, which means the home has to compete on merit rather than on scarcity.
What are the most common fixable causes?
List price set above the closed comparable sales, rather than above active competitor asking prices
Photography shot on a cloudy day, or shot before decluttering
Showing restrictions that limited access to evenings and weekends only
An MLS remarks section under 200 characters with no mention of recent updates, floor plan, or lot features
No response to the first 14 days of feedback, which is when the most motivated buyers view a new listing
A floor plan or condition issue the marketing never addressed directly
Does a seller still owe a commission after a listing expires?
Sometimes — it depends entirely on the protection period written into the expired agreement. Texas REALTORS® Residential Real Estate Listing Agreement — Exclusive Right to Sell (TXR-1101) defines a "protection period" that begins the day after the listing ends and runs for a negotiated number of days.
Two conditions in that paragraph do the real work:
Written notice within 10 days. The broker may send the seller written notice naming the specific people whose attention was called to the property during the listing term. If no notice arrives, the protection period generally has nothing to attach to.
Relisting with another broker. The TXR-1101 protection period paragraph provides that it does not apply if the property is exclusively listed with another broker who is a member of Texas REALTORS® after the listing ends.
A homeowner should read the signed agreement rather than rely on a summary, and questions about contractual obligations belong with a Texas real estate attorney. Mohebbi Realty Group does not provide legal or tax advice.
Can a seller list with a different brokerage after a listing expires?
Yes. Once a listing agreement reaches its end date, the homeowner may sign with any brokerage without penalty or permission from the previous broker. This is also why the phone rings.
Texas Real Estate Commission Rule 535.153 states that Section 1101.652(b)(22) of the Texas Real Estate License Act does not prohibit a license holder from soliciting a listing from an owner while the property is subject to an exclusive listing with another broker, provided the new listing does not commence until after the current listing expires. Agents contacting a homeowner about an expired or soon-to-expire listing are operating within TREC rules, and a homeowner is under no obligation to any of them.
How should a Katy, TX homeowner prepare a home before relisting?
Rebuild the listing from scratch rather than reactivating the old one. A relisted home that looks identical to the version buyers already declined will be treated as the same product at a lower price.
A useful sequence:
Pull the showing and feedback history from the previous listing. Ten showings with no offers is a price signal. Two showings in 60 days is an exposure or price signal.
Commission a fresh comparative market analysis using closed sales from the last 90 days in the same subdivision and price band. Start with the home valuation tool, then confirm with an in-person walkthrough.
Run the net proceeds math before setting a number. The net proceeds calculator shows what a given price actually produces after payoff, commissions, title, and prorated taxes.
Address the two or three items buyers named. Carpet, dated fixtures, and deferred exterior maintenance are cheaper to fix than a $15,000 price reduction.
Reshoot photography and rewrite MLS remarks. New photos, a new floor plan, twilight exterior shots, and a full remarks section change how the listing reads.
Reset the launch. Review the seller marketing process and the step-by-step seller path before the new go-live date.
Does days on market reset when a home is relisted?
Cumulative days on market rules vary by MLS, and Houston-area listing history remains visible to buyer agents and on consumer portals regardless of how a new listing displays. Plan the relist assuming buyers will see the price history, because most of them will.
How do fair housing rules affect a relisting?
Every marketing decision on a relisted home must describe the property, never the people expected to buy it. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits statements that indicate a preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability, and that prohibition applies to MLS remarks, flyers, social posts, and video scripts.
Practical application when rewriting a listing that already failed once:
Describe square footage, lot size, floor plan, school district boundaries as factual attribution, and finishes — not who the home would "suit"
Avoid phrases like "perfect for families," "walking distance," "safe area," or "exclusive community"
Report school and demographic information by pointing to the official source rather than characterizing it
Keep showing availability and offer review criteria uniform for every prospective buyer
Mohebbi Realty Group markets all properties in compliance with the Fair Housing Act and the Texas Real Estate Commission's advertising rules.
What does relisting look like across Katy, Fulshear, Cypress, and Richmond?
Relisting strategy changes by community, because inventory and buyer competition differ sharply within a 20-mile radius of Katy, TX.
Cinco Ranch, Katy, TX — A mature master-planned community where resale homes compete primarily with other resales. Condition and updates carry more weight here than in newer sections.
Cane Island and Elyson, Katy, TX — Active builder inventory sits inside the same community. A resale listed at builder pricing without builder incentives will sit. Mohebbi Realty Group tracks current incentives across 40+ builders in Greater Houston, which is the number a resale actually has to beat.
Cross Creek Ranch, Fulshear, TX — Larger price bands and a wider spread between sections. Comparable selection has to be section-specific, not community-wide.
Bridgeland, Cypress, TX — Ongoing new-section releases mean resale sellers are pricing against both closed resales and current builder base pricing.
The same 2,600-square-foot home carries a different relist strategy in Fulshear than in Cypress. Community-level detail is available across our Katy and Greater Houston area guides.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a residential listing agreement last in Texas? The term is negotiated between the seller and the broker and written into the agreement — there is no state-mandated length. Six months is common in Greater Houston, though three-month and twelve-month terms are both used. The beginning and ending dates appear in Paragraph 3 of the Texas REALTORS® Residential Listing Agreement (TXR-1101).
Can a homeowner relist immediately after a listing expires, or is a waiting period required? No waiting period is required by Texas law or by the MLS. A homeowner may sign a new listing agreement the day after the previous one ends. Whether relisting immediately is the right strategy depends on whether the underlying issue — price, condition, or exposure — has actually been corrected.
Do other agents have the right to contact a homeowner whose listing expired? Yes. Once a listing expires, the homeowner is not represented, and license holders may lawfully solicit the listing. TREC Rule 535.153 also permits agents to solicit a listing that begins after a current exclusive listing expires. Homeowners who prefer not to be contacted can register with the National Do Not Call Registry, though prior business relationships and written consent create exceptions.
Does a seller have to lower the price to relist a home in Katy, TX? Not automatically. Price is one of three variables, alongside condition and exposure, and a home that received heavy showing traffic without offers is signaling something different than a home that received almost no showings. A current comparative market analysis using closed sales from the past 90 days determines whether the prior price was actually above market.
What happens to the previous listing's photos and marketing after expiration? Photography commissioned by the previous broker is generally the property of that broker or the photographer, not the seller, unless the agreement says otherwise. Plan on new photography for a relist. That is usually the correct decision regardless of ownership, since repeating the images buyers already passed on undercuts the relaunch.
About the Author
Bobby Mohebbi — Mohebbi Realty Group, Keller Williams Signature, 920 S Fry Rd, Katy, TX 77450. Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR), Pricing Strategy Advisor (PSA), Veterans Certified Agent (VA), Short Sales & Foreclosure Resource (SFR). RealTrends top 1.5% of agents nationwide. Keller Williams Signature Top Producer and Agent Leadership Council member. Serving Katy, Fulshear, Cypress, Richmond, Sugar Land, and Greater Houston.
Call or text (832) 455-3565 · Bobby@mohebbirealtygroup.com · https://www.mohebbirealtygroup.com
Published August 18, 2026. Last updated August 18, 2026.
Bobby Mohebbi is a licensed Texas real estate sales agent sponsored by Keller Williams Signature, a licensed Texas real estate broker. Mohebbi Realty Group is a team operating under Keller Williams Signature. This article is general information about Texas real estate practice and is not legal, tax, or financial advice; consult a licensed Texas attorney or CPA regarding a specific listing agreement. Market data reflects conditions as of August 2026 and changes monthly. Equal Housing Opportunity. TREC Information About Brokerage Services · TREC Consumer Protection Notice.