Call Compliance a Challenge for Real Estate Agents.

It can become confusing and time-consuming for a single real estate agent to adequately comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Do-Not-Call Laws. What's more, the amount of misinformation on call prohibitions available to associates can be costly and downright scary. Let's take a look at one agent's challenges and solutions.

Do-Not-Call TCPA single agent struggles.

We reached into our email bag to find our most challenging individual agent inquiry for your perusal.

Dear Bob:

I need to get on the phone with my database after 16 years full-time in real estate. I know for a fact that not doing so is costing me money. I follow-up with every lead but have been stopping from calling after 3 months unless they contact me and we're working towards helping them buy or sell a home.

My broker only provides the DNC list for one area code. And with it being a pdf, it's pretty easy with Adobe to use the search bar field and find a phone number from a list of probably 4,000 for it.

My broker tells me I can only call people who have made an inquiry in the past 3 months or bought/sold a home with me in the past 18 months and I need to be looking-up ever single phone number which would mean having to subscribe (and pay) for numerous DNC lists.

As you know, Florida is a destination and I get lots of internet inquiries and calls off For Sale signs from all kinds of phone numbers and area codes. So just having access to the DNC for 239 is not really doing much for me.

I'm not looking to scrub a huge list and have been looking for a very easy online tool where I can enter a phone number, find out if I can call or not and print or archive that in case there is an issue down the line.

Is there such a thing as a one stop shop to look up any phone number manually online across the national and statewide levels?

If so, I would be VERY interested.
Thank You,

5 Critical Call Compliance takeaways:

"And with the DNC list being a PDF it's not that difficult to look up numbers..." Issuing a PDF of DNC numbers to your agents and employees is a bad idea. It provides no data trail. No proof your people are in fact checking numbers. Agents will have a tendency not to check if they know you can't oversee their work!
"My broker tells me I can only call people who have made an inquiry in the past three months or bought/sold a home with me in the past 18 months..." You are welcome to ask the prospect at the end of three months if they would like to continue conversations. If the answer is yes, write that down in your CRM program and your three months (or whatever the state limitation is) starts over again.
"My broker only provides one area code to check... having access to only one is not doing much for me..." The first five area codes can be registered for free with the National Do-Not-Call list at www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov Just furnishing one to your agents is needlessly limiting their reach.
"I get lots of internet inquiries and calls off For Sale signs from all kinds of phone numbers and area codes..." If they call you or fill out an internet inquiry, that's an exception to the Do-Not-Call Laws. Just find out what the legal callback timeframe is in your particular state, and make sure you communicate within the time limit. It usually varies from 30 to 90 days.
"I just want to check and archive numbers incase there is an issue down the line... Is there a one stop shop that does that?" Absolutely. And not only is archiving important but making sure that data is available in the timeframe and format the FTC, FCC, State AG's and predatory attorneys will want it. This can all be done by a competent Do-Not-Call Law Compliance Company.

Inaccurate call compliance information is readily available to real estate agents - especially through their own general internet chatrooms. Sentences beginning with: "A guy told me... I heard... Is it true that... I've never had a problem doing this..." are red flags for bad information.

The truth is, a simple Do-Not-Call number checking tool alone, or as part of your intranet, can properly archive number identity requests in real time. This is the easiest way to keep you safe from running afoul of the DNC and TCPA laws. It'll show you have a consistently compliant method to your calling patterns. It'll also save you time and money when the bad guys come looking to prosecute.

For more information on TCPA call protection solutions, just call my personal line at 561-317-3001 or email me here - Bob

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