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A tough call
National do-not-call list could affect your prospecting.
You soon will be frozen out of many cold-calling opportunities if the federal do-not-call rules go into effect on Oct. 1, 2003, as intended. The Texas Association of REALTORS® is pushing to get these rules changed. TAR, working this same issue from the state level, has sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, contacted legislators, and encouraged the Texas attorney general to assert that the Texas Legislature has already addressed this issue, and that state law should govern telemarketing behavior in Texas.
The FCC broadened the reach of the federal rules beyond the Federal Trade Commission’s scope to include not only interstate calls but also calls made within a state. Under the rules, you may not call a phone number listed on the national do-not-call registry unless you have an established business relationship with that person or that consumer has given you written permission to call. Violators of the new rule could be fined up to $11,000 per incident.
Texas telemarketing rules contain an exemption for licensed professionals, but the federal law supersedes all less-restrictive state do-not-call rules. (State laws can be more strict than the national rules.)
To comply with the federal rules, you will have to obtain the national do-not-call registry, which is free for up to five area codes. You may continue to call people who have not listed their numbers on the registry. You also may call a customer for 18 months after a business transaction with that person and may call people for three months after they make an inquiry or application with you. People who fall under those exceptions may still specifically request that you do not call them.
Texas plans to maintain its do-not-call list separately from the national registry. So, licensed real estate professionals may still call someone in Texas if that phone number is not listed on the national list, subject to the following limitations: you may make calls only between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays; calls may not be made by automatic caller; transactions may not be completed over the telephone; callers must identify themselves, their company, and the purpose of the call first; callers must honor individual do-not-call requests.
The new federal rules also contain a provision requiring express written permission before faxing advertisements to a customer.
During the first 10 days of the do-not-call list’s existence, consumers had registered nearly 20 million phone numbers. You can find more specifics about the rule online from the FTC (www.ftc.gov) and the FCC (www.fcc.gov) as well as an article from NAR at www.realtor.org/letterlw.nsf/pages/0703fccrules.
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