An expired listing is one where the listing agreement ran out of time. A withdrawn listing is one that was pulled from the MLS while the agreement kept running. A canceled listing is one where the seller and broker ended the agreement early, on purpose, before the clock did.
Those are three different situations, and for an agent deciding whether to pick up the phone they are three different answers. Only one of them is what most people mean by “an expired.” Another one is still somebody else’s client. The lead feeds that sell you “expireds” frequently blend all three, which is how careful agents end up soliciting a listing that is still exclusively held by another broker without ever knowing they did it.
The status names themselves vary by MLS. You will see Withdrawn, Temporarily Off Market, Hold, Canceled, Terminated, Released, and a few local inventions. The names do not matter. What matters is a single question underneath each one: is there still a listing agreement in force?
Expired: the agreement ended because time ran out
The seller signed for a term, usually three to twelve months, and the term ended without a sale. Nobody decided anything. The calendar did.
The agreement is over. The seller is no longer represented for the purpose of listing the property, and the previous broker’s exclusive right has lapsed. From an ethics standpoint you may solicit this seller. From a legal standpoint you may call them only if the number clears the Do-Not-Call gate, which the expiration itself does nothing to open. I covered that in the expired listing script, and it applies here in full.
Two cautions. Some sellers relist with the same broker within a day or two, at which point they are exclusively represented again and back off limits. And some listing agreements carry automatic renewal language. Both are reasons to check current status on the morning you call rather than trusting a pull from last week.
Withdrawn: off the market, still under contract
This is the one that gets agents into trouble.
A withdrawn listing has been removed from active MLS marketing. The seller may be traveling, renovating, dealing with a family matter, or waiting out a slow month. What has not happened is any change to the listing agreement. The seller is still a client of the listing broker. The exclusive right to sell is still in force. If a buyer walked up tomorrow, the listing broker would still be owed the commission.
Which means the Code of Ethics is unambiguous about it. Article 16 says REALTORS “shall not engage in any practice or take any action inconsistent with exclusive representation or exclusive brokerage relationship agreements that other REALTORS have with clients.” Standard of Practice 16-4 makes it concrete: “REALTORS shall not solicit a listing which is currently listed exclusively with another broker” (2026 Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice). Standard 16-13 adds that dealings concerning an exclusively listed property go through the client’s broker, not the client, unless the client initiates.
So calling a withdrawn seller to offer your services is soliciting an exclusively listed property. That is an Article 16 complaint waiting to be filed, and depending on your state and the facts it can also be the basis of an interference claim by the listing broker. The fact that the house is not showing on a portal does not change any of that. The listing agreement is not published on the portal either.
There is one narrow door. Standard 16-4 continues: if the listing broker, when asked, refuses to disclose the expiration date and nature of the listing, you may contact the owner to secure that information. Note what that permits. It permits a question about the expiration date. It does not permit a pitch.
And if the withdrawn seller calls you, Standard 16-6 lets you discuss the terms on which you might work together in the future. You still cannot ask them to breach the agreement they have.
Canceled: the agreement was ended early, by agreement
A canceled listing means the seller and broker terminated the listing agreement before its term. Sometimes the relationship failed. Sometimes the seller’s plans changed. Quite often the seller canceled specifically so they could sign with a different broker, in which case a new listing appears within days and you are looking at a seller who is exclusively represented again.
If the cancellation is real and no new agreement exists, the seller is in the same position as an expired: free to be solicited, subject to the same Do-Not-Call gate. The emotional position is different, though. An expired seller feels let down by the market or the agent. A canceled seller made an active decision, and if they fired the agent they have opinions. If they canceled to switch, they are gone. Either way, the conversation you have with a canceled seller is not the conversation you have with an expired one, and a script that assumes disappointment will land wrong on someone who feels decisive.
Some MLSs also require a signed release for a cancellation, which is a useful signal that the termination is genuine rather than a pause dressed up in a different status.
The table you actually need
| Status | Listing agreement | Seller still represented? | May you solicit? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expired | Ended, term ran out | No, unless relisted or auto-renewed | Yes, subject to Do-Not-Call and calling-hour rules |
| Withdrawn | Still in force | Yes | No. Article 16 and SOP 16-4 apply |
| Canceled | Terminated early by agreement | No, unless already relisted | Yes, subject to the same rules, if the cancellation is genuine |
The middle row is the one to memorize.
Why your expired feed does not protect you
Lead data is sold by volume, and a feed labeled “expireds” is often built from every listing that left active status for any reason other than closing. Expired, withdrawn, canceled and temporarily-off-market records arrive in one file with one label. The vendor is not lying, exactly. They are using the word the way buyers of the feed use it, loosely.
The result is that a diligent agent scrubs the file against the Do-Not-Call Registry, confirms calling hours, checks the internal suppression list, and then dials a withdrawn seller who is still under an exclusive agreement with a broker two miles away. Every compliance box was ticked. The ethics violation happened anyway, because the status check was the one step the process skipped.
The fix is not complicated. Before a record goes into a calling list, its current MLS status is confirmed, that morning, in the MLS. Not in the feed. Withdrawn and off-market records get filtered out or held separately. Canceled records are checked for a relisting. Only records whose agreement has actually ended go into the block. The expired listing prospecting hub treats new and old expireds as separate campaigns for exactly this reason: the list has to be built from status, not from a vendor’s label.
If your platform can carry a status field per record and hold anything that is not clearly expired or canceled, use it. If it cannot, the check happens by hand before the list is imported. Either way it happens before the first dial, because after the first dial is too late.
When you cannot tell
Sometimes the MLS shows a status you have not seen, or a record that went withdrawn three months ago with no further activity, and it is not obvious whether an agreement still exists.
Do not guess in your own favor. Call the listing broker, identify yourself, and ask whether the property is currently listed and when the agreement expires. That is the conversation Standard 16-4 contemplates. Most brokers will tell you. If one refuses, you have the narrow permission to ask the owner the same factual question, and nothing more. Keep a note of who you asked and what they said. It costs two minutes and it is the difference between prospecting and interfering.
None of this is legal advice. Your state license law, your MLS rules and your broker’s policies may add restrictions on top of the Code, and the RealDialer compliance guide covers the controls that sit underneath all of it.
Frequently asked questions
Can a seller with a withdrawn listing hire a different agent?
Not while the agreement is in force. They would need to cancel or wait for expiration first. If they contact you and ask, you may explain what you would offer once they are free, but you may not encourage them to break the existing agreement.
How do I know if an expired listing has already been relisted?
Check the MLS for the property address on the morning you intend to call, not the day the feed arrived. A relisting can happen within hours, and a relisted property is exclusively represented again.
Is it safe to call a listing marked Temporarily Off Market?
Treat it exactly like withdrawn. The name varies by MLS but the meaning is the same: off active marketing, agreement still in force, seller still represented.