Stay up to date on compliance
The real estate sales world is evolving, and the tools agents use to build their pipelines are getting more sophisticated, but nothing will ever be as effective as the cold call.
Everybody hates it, yet everybody has to do it to develop lists of potential sellers, gain listings, and close deals. Even the nation’s top agents had to pick up the phone and make cold calls at some point in their real estate career.
Aside from feeling like a menial task, cold calling can also carry a heavy risk factor if you’re not in compliance with state and federal laws. Laws that agents are often unaware of! So before you open your contacts list and call everybody you’ve ever met, make sure you’ve set yourself up to maximize your success and mitigate your risks!
Buy a Federal DNC Registry subscription.
Before you begin mining your contacts and combing through curated lists for sellers in your local area, purchase a subscription with the Federal Do Not Call Registry. You can get up to five lists from five different area codes and scrub against them to ensure you don’t call somebody you’re legally obligated not to contact.
Calling somebody on a DNC list may sound like a minor annoyance at worst, but there are lawyers out there who make their living off of civil suits filed against agents who have cold-called people without their consent. As of 2020, litigators have made it a billion-dollar industry!
Look up any of the major brokerages on Pacer, and you’ll see thousands of open cases against agents who called somebody on the Federal DNC.
Don’t be one of them.
Stay updated with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Supreme Court’s recent rulings with Facebook.
Without diving into the dense legal language (we’re not lawyers), these two federal decisions prevent you from using any type of automated dialing system. Even if your system has the capacity to dial multiple numbers at once or automatically dial one number, you’re taking on a tremendous amount of risk.
If you get caught using any type of automated technology when you or your ISAs are making cold calls, you’re subject to investigation and fines of up to $1,500. Avoid investigation and penalties by having a real human being dial numbers or clicking to call. As soon as software becomes a part of your cold calling, your risk increases.
Understand the difference between a one-party state and a two-party state.
Recording calls and trainings is commonplace in the real estate world. In a one-party state, it’s seamless because only one side of the conversation, the agent, has to consent to being recorded.
But in two-party states, both sides, the agent and the person being cold-called must consent. Hundreds of lawyers prey on agents who obviously fail to know whether or not they’re recording in a two-party state.
Err on the safe side by using clear language and call scripts when you’re cold calling, so the person on the other side of the phone can opt-in or out of the call if they aren’t comfortable being recorded. The blunt transparency won’t just mitigate your risk; it may soften the stigma your potential clients have about agents who make cold calls.
If you’re going to build a successful real estate business, cold calling will be a tool you have to use every day. We’ve met too many agents who are caught up in legal suits because they failed to cold call in compliance with the law.
At Phone Animal, we bear the regulatory burden for you. All of our ISAs and dialing systems are 100% compliant with regulations, so you can contact our lists of warm leads without worrying about one call ruining your career down the road.
Mitigate your risk and increase your listings by scheduling a demo with us today!
