The Agent’s Guide to Real Estate Text Messaging

If you’re a real estate agent who likes to follow up via text messaging (SMS), it’s important to understand the potential risks that come with it. Educating yourself on the “Do’s and Don’ts” of SMS follow-up will help you stay compliant with telemarketing/communication texting laws. We want to make sure you know what to expect before you send your first text message!

3 Important Points for Real Estate Text Messaging

Here’s a quick summary of the most important SMS rules you should know (and follow) if you’re going to text clients, contacts, or leads:

• Don’t text without consent. You should only text people you have an established relationship with, or who have given you express permission (written, verbal, or otherwise) to send them a follow-up message. Don’t use SMS as a way to find new clients!

• Understand the Three Types of Messaging. Know the difference between conversational, informational, and promotional text messages and how they can (and should) be used by real estate agents. 

• Follow “Person-to-Person (P2P) Traffic Limit” Guidelines. P2P traffic limit guidelines will keep you and your number from getting flagged by service providers. Be mindful of the frequency, balance, repetition, and sender/recipient deliverables whenever you text. 

The rest of this blog goes into more detail about these points, so check out the other sections if you need further clarification. For a full, in-depth understanding of these best practices, check out this PDF from the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) on how to use SMS in your business.

Don’t Text Without Consent

It may not feel like a big deal, but texting people about business without their consent is against the law. Fines and penalties are a real possibility for any agent who texts without permission, so it’s important that you understand the three types of consent for sending texts. (We’ll go into more detail on how they apply to texting in the next section.) 

• Implied Consent is given when someone else starts the text conversation by sending the first message to you. In this case, you’re good to reply with relevant information and maintain conversational two-way communication. 

• Express Consent means you need express permission over text, on a form, on a website, in writing, or verbally before you can send them informational messages such as welcome texts, reminders, updates, or other non-promotional alerts. 

• Express Written Consent means you need written permission on a signed form, an online field or checkbox, or directly in writing before you can send them promotional messages such as calls-to-action or other sales-related texts. 

Now, if you only plan to send follow-up texts (without any promotional offers), you only need to worry about express consent. That being said, it’s important to be clear about your SMS intentions any time someone gives you their number. Don’t bury or hide your intentions in the fine print. Be clear and upfront about why you’ll be texting them. 

And if anyone ever asks you to stop texting them… STOP! You don’t want your number blocked or reported as spam. 

The Three Types Of Messaging:

As we mentioned in the last section, the type of consent you need depends on the kind of message you’re going to send. According to the CTIA, these are the three different types of business messaging and the level of consent you need to message them:

• Conversational Messaging is when someone else reaches out to you first and you reply to continue the conversation. A good example is an online chat box or an inbound text from a referral. Since this type of messaging is started by someone else, it’s consensual by nature, and no additional permission is expected to carry on with the conversation. (Just make sure you get permission if you’d like to follow up with future business-related texts!)

• Informational Messaging is when a lead or contact gives you their number with the intent to receive messages containing useful information, appointment follow-ups, relevant reminders, or other informational notifications. For this type of messaging, you must receive express consent verbally, in writing, over text, or through a website or online form. 

Informational Messaging is a great way to follow up after a phone call, conversation, or open house, so this is likely where most of your texts will fall as a real estate agent. “Do you mind if I send you some more information via text?” is a great way to get someone’s permission to follow up in the future. 

• Promotional Messaging is when you actively promote or market your business or services over text. For this type of messaging, you must receive express written consent through a signed form, a checkbox on a website, or another form of written permission that can be tracked and managed.

If you have legitimate promotional or sales needs, Promotional Messaging is the way to go. Just be careful and follow the CTIA guidelines and best practices if you’re going to run a promotional messaging campaign. Otherwise, we recommend sticking with informational messaging. 

Remember… consent is key for all forms of text messaging, so make sure you have your bases covered before you send any message! 

Person to Person (P2P) Traffic Limit Guidelines

Now that you understand the different types of text messaging and how to safely send them, let’s go over some “traffic guidelines” to make sure you don’t overdo it. We’re going to focus on P2P (Person-to-Person) traffic limits rather than A2P (Application-to-Person) limits, because you (a person) will be sending texts to a client (another person) to follow up.

The list below outlines “typical texting behavior” for individual consumers (or leads). In other words, if you follow these as guidelines when you text, service providers will recognize you as a human (not a computer application) and won’t flag your number:

• Messages per Minute: Don’t send more than 15-60 messages per minute. Phones don’t typically receive texts that fast, and unless you’re trying to overwhelm or annoy your leads, you should be fine if you stay under the “60-per-minute” rule.

• Messages Per Day: You should keep your total messages with clients under 1,000 per day. For most agents, this shouldn’t be an issue. Again, you don’t want to overwhelm or annoy them, and 1,000 messages per day is a LOT.

• Unique Sender: Don’t send messages from lots of different numbers. Sending from multiple numbers will look and feel “spammy” really quickly. Pick your phone number and stick with it!

• Unique Recipients: If you’re going to send the same message to several people at once, make sure you send it to 100 contacts or less. If the exact same message goes out to more than 100 people, you could get flagged for spam.

• Balance (1:1 Ratio): Try to only send out one message for every message you receive. And if you need to send two or three to get your point across, don’t worry – this guideline is simply meant to prevent annoying text blasts and spamming. As long as you keep the conversation genuine and concise, you’ll be fine. 

• Repetition: Don’t send out the exact same text 25 or more times to the same person. If you do, you risk being flagged as A2P instead of P2P. A2P has its own set of rules and regulations that make it much more difficult to connect with homeowners.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “These rules seem a little bit over the top! Why would I ever send more than 1,000 messages a day or spam someone with repeat messages?” then you’re already off to a good start. These rules typically apply to A2P text services, but they’re important for you to know so you don’t accidentally text like a computer program. 

Ready, Set, Text!

Now that you understand the rules and regulations surrounding SMS in real estate, it’ll be easier than ever to be safe and compliant while you follow up with your leads! We also encourage you to look up any other local, state, or federal laws that may impact your follow-up messaging. Just remember – always get permission, text respectfully, and don’t act like a computer. And if you haven’t read our blog post on how to start (or improve) your follow-up game, check it out here.

Good luck out there! And Happy Texting!

About REDX

REDX offers real estate professionals a complete all-in-one prospecting platform for generating listing appointments. The platform includes seller leads, a dialer with up to three lines, and a lead management tool for simple follow-up. REDX maintains the position that all agents should be compliant with state and federal telecom laws – learn more here. Call (800) 731-7339 option 1 to learn more about prospecting FSBOs, Expireds, FRBOs, Pre Foreclosures, GeoLeads, and our Power Dialer – or visit www.redx.com