Texting homeowners and the law: what the buyer of a lead is responsible for

This is not legal advice, and that matters here

The rules around calling and texting consumers are federal, state and sometimes local, they change, and they carry real penalties. What follows is what a careful operator should know exists, so that he or she can ask a lawyer the right questions. It is not a substitute for that conversation.

The federal baseline: TCPA and the Do Not Call registry

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act governs automated calls and texts to consumers, and the national Do Not Call registry covers telemarketing calls to numbers on it. Whether a given message counts as telemarketing, whether a given system counts as automated, and what consent looks like are exactly the questions courts argue about — which is why an operator should treat the strict reading as the safe one.

A private right of action means a homeowner can sue directly. Some people do this as a business; lists sold with a litigator scrub exist because of them. Removing known litigators before contact is basic hygiene, not paranoia.

State rules sit on top

Many states have their own telemarketing statutes with their own quiet hours, registration requirements and consent standards, and several are stricter than the federal baseline. The state that matters is the one the seller is in, not the one you are in. If you buy leads in more than one state, you have more than one rulebook.

Quiet hours, opt-outs and records

Three habits cover most of the practical ground. Do not contact anyone outside the hours allowed in his or her state, measured in his or her time zone. Honour an opt-out immediately and completely — “stop” means stop, however the seller phrases it. Keep a record of what was sent, when, and what the seller said back, because the record is what protects you if a complaint ever arrives.

A lead that comes with the seller’s side of the conversation is also a lead that comes with evidence of how that conversation went. Keep it.

What buying a lead does and does not do

Buying a lead gives you a phone number and a conversation. It does not give you consent that travels with the number, and it does not make the seller of the lead responsible for your call. Ask any lead source how its lists are screened, what it does with opt-outs, and whether its own outreach follows the rules — then assume that your contact is your contact, and act accordingly.