How Often Should Realtors Contact Past Clients?

How often should realtors contact past clients?

At minimum once a month, through a mix of automated value like a market update or seasonal note, and periodic personal touches like a call, a note, or a milestone message. Most agents under-contact out of fear of being annoying, when the real risk is being forgotten. The exact number matters less than never letting contact go silent for more than about a month.

Contact frequency, in this context, is the rhythm of scheduled touches an agent keeps up with a client after closing. It's measured in touches per year. It keeps the agent top-of-mind for repeat business and referrals, and it's distinct from reactive contact, which only happens when a client reaches out first.

Is there an official number, 12 touches, 33 touches, something else?

No single research body publishes a scientifically validated optimal number. What exists is an industry convention. It ranges from a practical monthly minimum of roughly 12 touches a year up to Gary Keller's named 33-touch program from The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. Both ends are coaching methodology and common practice, worth treating as exactly that.

What do those touches actually look like?

Touches split into three rough types, and a working cadence uses all three rather than leaning on just one.

• Automated: a monthly market update, a seasonal email, something that goes out on a schedule without requiring a decision each time.
• Semi-personal: a quarterly check-in, a holiday card, something with the client's name on it but not written fresh each time.
• Personal or milestone: a home-anniversary call, a handwritten note, an occasional in-person visit, the touches that take real time and land the hardest because of it.

The breakdown above is a light version of the full picture. A complete weekly touch plan lays out the full cadence across an entire sphere, past clients included alongside every other contact worth staying close to.

Touch frequency at a glance

Convention	Approximate frequency	Source	Character
Monthly-minimum convention	~12 touches a year	Common CRM and coaching-blog practice	Baseline, mostly automated
The 33-touch program	~33 touches a year	Gary Keller, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent	Named coaching methodology, mixed types

Is it possible to contact past clients too often?

Rarely in practice. Most agents dramatically under-contact, and the far more common failure mode is silence, as long as the touches carry real value rather than being pure sales pitches. A client who gets a useful market note once a month is unlikely to file a complaint about it. The client who's gone silent for a year is usually the one who forgot they had an agent at all.

I hear the fear of bothering someone constantly, and it almost always has the risk backwards. A client who gets one relevant message a month remembers an agent who cared enough to check in. A client who hears nothing for a year has usually already forgotten who sold them their house by the time they need one again. The bothering worry protects against a problem that almost never happens, while the far more common problem, being forgotten, happens constantly and goes unnoticed until a client hires someone else without a second thought.

The stakes behind that forgetting are real. In 2025, 87% of home sellers said they would use their agent again or recommend them. And 66% found their agent through a referral or a past working relationship, according to Virginia REALTORS' summary of NAR's 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. That willingness only turns into a real referral or repeat closing if the client still remembers the agent. That's what a consistent touch cadence protects.

Does the exact number even matter?

Less than it feels like it should. Agents fixate on finding the "right" number, 12 or 33 or something in between, because it feels like a problem they can solve once and move on from. The actual discipline is different: never letting the gap between touches get long enough that the client stops expecting to hear from you. A consistent monthly rhythm run for years beats a perfect 33-touch calendar abandoned by March.

The more interesting question, to me, is whether an agent can keep a promise to themselves for longer than a month. Agents who ask me for the right touch count are usually looking for a system to install once. What actually moves the number is a habit they keep showing up for, long after the novelty of a new plan has worn off.

FAQ

Should past-client touches be personal or automated?

Both. A working cadence mixes automated value, like a market update, with periodic personal touches, like a call or a handwritten note, rather than relying on only one type.

How is this different from following up with a new lead?

A past client already trusts you and has been through a transaction with you. The touches reinforce an existing relationship rather than trying to establish one from nothing, so the tone and pacing look different from new-lead follow-up.

What happens if I've gone quiet with past clients for a year or more?

Start again with a real, no-agenda check-in rather than jumping straight to an ask. A relationship that's gone quiet can usually be reopened; it just needs the first message to feel like genuine interest, the kind a client can tell apart from a sales pitch dressed up as a check-in.

Does this apply to every past client the same way, or should top clients get more?

Most agents weight it. A client who's referred business before or has a home anniversary coming up often earns a more personal touch than someone tagged lower on a relationship-strength scale, even while everyone stays inside the baseline monthly cadence.

What's a realistic way to start if I have no system right now?

Pick one automated monthly touch and commit to it before adding anything else. A simple monthly market note sent consistently for six months does more than an ambitious 33-touch plan that gets abandoned in week three.

Contact frequency is a number, but the number only matters against the size of the list it's spread across. Run your numbers through the sphere calculator and see how many past clients and sphere contacts you're actually working with before you build a cadence around them.