Real estate agents should follow up with past clients a minimum of 12 times per year through a mix of automated touchpoints and personal contact. The most effective cadence combines monthly value-driven content with quarterly personal check-ins and annual milestone recognition.

Most agents dramatically under-contact their past clients. The fear of being annoying leads to being forgotten, which is worse.

Quick Read Summary

• Minimum 12 touchpoints per year: Monthly contact keeps you top of mind without being intrusive
• Mix automated and personal contact: Emails and mailers can be systematized; phone calls and personal notes should be intentional
• Past clients are your highest-value audience: They already trust you, and they're the primary source of referrals and repeat business
• The fear of "bothering" past clients is usually unfounded: People forget about you faster than you think. Consistent contact is expected, not annoying.
• Systems make consistent follow-up possible: Manual follow-up with 50+ past clients is unsustainable. You need infrastructure.

Why Most Agents Don't Follow Up Enough

The data on past client follow-up is brutal. Studies consistently show that most agents lose contact with past clients within 1-2 years after closing. By year three, the relationship has functionally dissolved.

This happens because agents assume past clients will remember them when the time comes. They won't. The average homeowner moves every 8-10 years. In that gap, they encounter dozens of other agents through marketing, open houses, and their own network. If you're not maintaining presence, someone else is filling that space.

The other barrier is the awkwardness factor. Agents don't know what to say beyond "thinking of you, let me know if you need anything." That message feels hollow after the third time, so they stop sending it.

The solution isn't finding better things to say occasionally. It's building a system that maintains contact consistently with content that's actually worth receiving.

The 12-Touch Annual Framework

Here's a concrete framework for past client follow-up that maintains presence without requiring you to personally craft each interaction.

Monthly (12x per year): Value-driven automated touchpoints

These are emails or mailers that deliver something useful, not just a reminder that you exist. Market updates for their neighborhood. Seasonal home maintenance tips. Local event roundups. Content they'd actually want to receive.

Quarterly (4x per year): Personal check-ins

A phone call, text, or personal email that isn't automated. These don't need to be long. "Hey, just thinking about you and wanted to see how you're settling in" is enough. The personal contact reinforces the relationship that automation maintains.

Annually (1-2x per year): Milestone recognition

Home anniversary acknowledgment. Birthday recognition if you have that data. Holiday cards. These are expected touchpoints that feel personal even when systematized.

Event-triggered: Responsive contact

When something relevant happens, reach out. They mention a job change on LinkedIn. Their neighborhood makes the news. Interest rates shift significantly. These opportunistic touchpoints show you're paying attention.

The 12-touch minimum comes from adding these up: 12 monthly automated touchpoints, overlapping with quarterly personal contact and annual milestones. Some months have multiple touchpoints. That's fine. You're not over-contacting.

What Counts as a Meaningful Touchpoint

Not all contact is equal. A meaningful touchpoint creates value or reinforces the relationship. A weak touchpoint just reminds them you exist without giving them a reason to care.

Strong touchpoints:

• Market update specific to their neighborhood with actual data
• Home maintenance content relevant to the season
• Local recommendations (restaurants, services, events) tailored to their area
• Personal check-in with genuine interest in their life
• Referral for a service they need (contractor, landscaper, etc.)
• Home anniversary acknowledgment with neighborhood value update
• Invitation to a client appreciation event

Weak touchpoints:

• Generic "just checking in" with no substance
• Mass holiday card with no personalization
• "Let me know if you need anything" emails
• Social media likes without actual engagement
• Newsletters that aren't relevant to their situation

The difference is whether the touchpoint serves them or just serves your visibility goal. When you provide value, contact is welcome. When you're just reminding them you want referrals, contact feels transactional.

How to Tier Your Past Client Follow-Up

Not every past client deserves the same level of attention. Tiering your follow-up ensures you're investing appropriately.

Tier 1: High-value past clients (Top 20%)

These are past clients most likely to refer, most connected in the community, or most likely to transact again soon. They get the full 12-touch framework plus additional personal attention. You know their family situations. You remember their preferences. You treat them like the valuable relationships they are.

Tier 2: Standard past clients (Middle 60%)

These are good clients without exceptional referral potential or immediate transaction likelihood. They get the automated monthly touchpoints plus quarterly personal check-ins. You maintain presence without over-investing individual time.

Tier 3: Low-engagement past clients (Bottom 20%)

These are past clients who moved out of area, rarely engage, or showed minimal connection during the transaction. They get the automated monthly touchpoints only. If they re-engage, upgrade them. Until then, maintain basic contact without personal time investment.

Tiering isn't about writing people off. It's about allocating your limited personal attention to the highest-return relationships while systems maintain presence everywhere.

What to Actually Say in Past Client Follow-Up

The content question is what stops most agents. Here's what to actually send across the year.

Monthly market updates (4-6x per year): "Your neighborhood update: [Neighborhood] saw 12 sales last month with a median price of $X, up 4% from last year. Here's what that means for your equity..."

Seasonal maintenance content (4x per year): "Spring home maintenance checklist: Five things to check this month to protect your investment..."

Local content (2-4x per year): "New in [Area]: Three restaurant openings worth trying this month..."

Personal check-ins (4x per year): "Hey [Name], just wanted to check in and see how things are going. It's been [X months] since you moved in. How's the [specific thing you remember about their home or situation]?"

Home anniversary (1x per year): "Happy home anniversary! One year ago you closed on [Address]. Your neighborhood has appreciated approximately X% since then. If you ever want an updated market analysis, just let me know."

The key is having the content ready before you need it. Building this library in the moment is unsustainable. Having it pre-built means you're executing, not creating.

Building a Past Client Follow-Up System

Consistent follow-up with past clients is a systems problem, not a motivation problem. You can't manually remember to contact 50, 100, or 200+ past clients at the right intervals. You need infrastructure.

Required components:

• A contact database with past client information, transaction dates, and tier classifications
• Email automation that deploys monthly content without manual intervention
• A calendar system that prompts personal touchpoints at the right intervals
• A content library with pre-built touchpoint content ready to deploy

The Vault includes complete past client nurture systems with the email sequences, content calendars, and touchpoint frameworks already built. You're not creating the infrastructure from scratch. You're plugging your client information into proven systems that execute consistently.

The math on systems:

Manual follow-up with 100 past clients at 12 touchpoints per year is 1,200 individual actions. Even at 5 minutes each, that's 100 hours annually just on past client follow-up.

Systematized follow-up automates the majority of those touchpoints, leaving you time for the personal contact that actually requires you.

FAQ

Is 12 touchpoints per year too many for past clients?

No. Research on customer retention consistently shows that 12+ annual touchpoints outperform lower-frequency contact for referral generation and repeat business. The key is ensuring each touchpoint provides value. Twelve valuable contacts per year isn't too many. Twelve empty "just checking in" messages would be.

Should I follow up differently with buyers vs. sellers?

Slightly. Buyers who stayed in the area have more referral potential and may transact again when they outgrow the home. Sellers who left your market have limited referral potential for local business but may know others who are relocating to your area. Adjust your content accordingly.

What if a past client never responds to my follow-up?

Continue automated touchpoints regardless. Silence doesn't mean they're not receiving your content or thinking of you. Many past clients will refer you without ever responding to an email. Stop personal check-ins if there's no engagement after 2-3 attempts, but keep them on automated nurture.

How do I follow up with past clients from years ago that I've lost touch with?

Re-engage with a home anniversary message or market update for their neighborhood. Acknowledge the gap naturally: "I realized I hadn't reached out in a while and wanted to reconnect with a quick update on your neighborhood..." Don't over-apologize. Just restart contact.

Should past client follow-up be automated or personal?

Both. The monthly value-driven touchpoints should be automated because you can't manually maintain that consistency at scale. The quarterly personal check-ins should be genuinely personal because automation can't replicate human connection. The system handles the volume. You handle the relationships.

When should I remove a past client from my follow-up list?

When they explicitly ask to be removed, when contact information becomes invalid, or when they've sold and moved to a market you don't serve and have no referral connection to your area. Otherwise, keep them on the list. The cost of continued contact is minimal.

Ready to build a past client system that runs without constant manual effort?

The Vault includes complete past client nurture campaigns with email sequences, content frameworks, and touchpoint schedules already built. Stop losing relationships to inconsistent follow-up.

Get The Vault →