Compliance guide
Is real estate cold calling legal? The rules for investors and agents
Yes, cold calling homeowners is legal in the U.S. when you follow the rules. This guide covers the Do Not Call registry, calling hours, caller ID, autodialers and AI voices, texts, whether an investor’s call to buy a house counts as telemarketing, and the state laws that add to it all.
The short answer
Legal, with rules that matter
A real estate investor or agent can cold call homeowners when the calls follow federal and state telemarketing rules. In practice that means: no calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry or on your own do-not-call list, calls only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the owner’s time zone (narrower in some states), an honest caller ID and introduction, and no prerecorded, artificial or AI voices without the owner’s written consent.
The rest of this page explains each rule and where it comes from. It is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. Rules change and states differ, so have an attorney review your campaign before you dial.
The federal rules
The federal rules at a glance
Two sets of rules cover sales calls: the FCC’s rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).
| Rule | What it means for you | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Do Not Call Registry | No telephone solicitations to numbers on the national registry. Check your list against a copy of the registry no more than 31 days old. | TCPA (47 CFR 64.1200(c)); TSR (16 CFR 310.4) |
| Your own do-not-call list | When someone asks not to be called, record it, honor it within 10 business days at most, and keep honoring it for five years. | TCPA (47 CFR 64.1200(d)) |
| Calling hours | Only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., local time where the person you are calling is. | TCPA (47 CFR 64.1200(c)); TSR (16 CFR 310.4(c)) |
| Caller ID | Send a caller ID number, and a name when your carrier allows it, that the person can call back. | TSR (16 CFR 310.4(a)) |
| Say who you are | Give your name, the business you are calling for, and a phone number or address where that business can be reached. | TCPA (47 CFR 64.1200(d)) |
| Recorded and AI voices | Sales calls with a prerecorded or artificial voice, or to a cell phone with an autodialer, need the person’s prior express written consent. Since 2024 the FCC treats AI-generated voices as artificial voices. | TCPA (47 CFR 64.1200(a)); FCC ruling, February 2024 |
| Dropped calls on a dialer | A call is “abandoned” if no live person comes on within two seconds of the greeting. Keep abandoned calls at or under 3% of answered calls per campaign, measured over 30 days. | TCPA (47 CFR 64.1200(a)); TSR (16 CFR 310.4(b)) |
| Texts | A text counts as a call. The do-not-call rules apply to marketing texts, and texting at scale needs the recipient’s opt-in. | TCPA and FCC rules |
For investors
Does calling to buy a house count as telemarketing?
The federal do-not-call rules apply to “telephone solicitations”: calls made to encourage someone to buy, rent or invest in property, goods or services. An investor calling to buy a house is not selling the owner anything, and some federal courts have held that an offer to buy property is not a telephone solicitation.
That is not the end of it. The question keeps coming back in lawsuits, a call that offers any service along the way (a free valuation, help with a listing) can change the answer, and state laws define a sales call in their own words. Defending a lawsuit costs money even when you win.
The safe practice is to treat seller calls like telemarketing: scrub the registry, keep the hours, and honor every request to stop. That is how we run our cold calling campaigns: lists are scrubbed against the national registry before they are dialed, and calls keep to the owner’s local calling window.
For agents
Agent prospecting calls are telephone solicitations
An agent who calls an owner to offer listing services is selling a service, so the do-not-call rules apply in full. Expired listings and FSBOs are not exempt: a sign in the yard or a listing that ran out is not permission to call a number on the registry.
Agents can still prospect by phone. Scrub every list, call only numbers that are not on the registry or your own do-not-call list, and reach the rest by mail or in person. Our expired listing scripts are written for these calls, and our ISA service makes them for you.
State laws
State rules add to the federal ones
Many states have their own telemarketing laws on top of the federal rules, and where they are stricter, you follow them. Three common ways they differ:
- Shorter calling hours and call limits. Florida’s Telephone Solicitation Act allows sales calls only from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and limits calls to the same person about the same subject to three in 24 hours.
- State do-not-call lists. Some states keep their own lists alongside the national registry, so a national scrub alone may not be enough.
- Registration. Some states, Texas among them, require telemarketers to register before calling, with exemptions that may or may not fit your campaign.
Our state pages note the main local rules for the markets we call. Before you call a new state, have an attorney confirm what applies there.
The stakes
What a violation can cost
Under the TCPA, a person who gets an unlawful call can sue for $500 per call, or up to $1,500 per call when the violation was willful or knowing. For do-not-call violations, the right to sue starts once someone gets more than one unlawful call from the same caller within 12 months. The FTC and state attorneys general can also bring their own cases.
Per-call damages add up fast on a dialer that places thousands of calls a day, which is why the habits in the checklist below matter more than any script.
Checklist
A compliance checklist for calling homeowners
- Scrub every list against the national Do Not Call Registry, using a copy no more than 31 days old, and against any state list that applies.
- Keep your own do-not-call list. Add anyone who asks to stop, honor it within 10 business days at most, and keep it for five years.
- Call between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. where the owner is, or inside a narrower state window. The owner’s area code may not match where they live now, so go by their address when you can.
- Send a caller ID number that rings back to you or your business.
- Open every call with your name and the business you are calling for.
- Do not use prerecorded messages, ringless voicemail or AI voices on a cold list. They need written consent you do not have.
- If you use a predictive dialer, keep abandoned calls at or under 3% and connect a live person within two seconds of the greeting.
- Text only people who opted in to your texts, and stop at the first request.
- Keep records: when each list was scrubbed, every do-not-call request and the date it was honored.
- Have an attorney review the campaign for each state you call.
Common questions
About cold calling and the law
Is cold calling legal in real estate?
Yes. Investors and agents can cold call homeowners when they follow the federal and state telemarketing rules: no calls to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry or your own do-not-call list, calls only during allowed hours, an honest caller ID and introduction, and no recorded or AI voices without written consent.
Can real estate investors call numbers on the Do Not Call list?
Some courts have held that a call to buy a house is not a telephone solicitation, but the question is still argued in lawsuits and state laws differ. The safe choice is not to call numbers on the registry, and to reach those owners by mail instead.
Can real estate agents cold call expired listings and FSBOs?
Yes, as long as the number is not on the Do Not Call Registry or the agent’s own do-not-call list. An agent offering listing services is making a telephone solicitation, and expired listings and FSBOs are not exempt.
Is it legal to cold call homeowners with an AI voice?
Not on a cold list. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices are artificial voices under the TCPA, so a sales call that uses one needs the person’s prior express written consent.
Is ringless voicemail legal for real estate marketing?
The FCC ruled in 2022 that ringless voicemail messages are calls under the TCPA. A prerecorded sales message dropped into a cell phone’s voicemail therefore needs the same prior express written consent as a robocall.
What hours can you cold call homeowners?
Federal rules allow 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the time zone of the person you are calling. Some states are stricter: Florida, for example, stops sales calls at 8 p.m.
How this page was made: the federal rules above were checked against the current text of 47 CFR 64.1200 and 16 CFR 310.4 in October 2026. This is a plain-English summary for investors and agents, not legal advice, and it does not cover every exception. If you spot something out of date, tell us through the contact page and we will correct it.
Want calls made the right way, for you?
Our callers work from scrubbed lists, inside the owner’s calling window, with every call recorded and reviewed. Book a 15-minute call to see how a campaign would run in your market.