The State of GA, in Senate Bill 90, prohibited direct mail solicitation of real estate fro GA sellers without bold notices to sellers. When I recently reread the bill, I noticed that it also prohibits cold calling to GA sellers. , which I hadn’t picked up before. However, in the bill, it defined cold calling as VOICE communication so texting is apparently unaffected (see if your attorney agrees)https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20232024/219440
Good catch on this @DirtGuy. I read the bill (with some help from Claude), and I think it’s a little less scary on the calling side than it sounds, but much scarier on the mail side.
I’m not an attorney, but from what I can see, it doesn’t really ban cold calling. It added “real property” to the definition of telephone solicitation in Georgia’s no-call law (46-5-27). So, as I read it, the problem is calling people on the no-call list. Licensed agents and attorneys got carved out, but regular investors didn’t. If you’re calling GA owners, scrub your list first.
You could argue that calling to BUY isn’t “encouraging the purchase” of real estate, since that’s literally what the definition says. Maybe. But a home-buying company won on basically that argument under federal law in Arizona last year, and the 9th Circuit reversed it this year (that one had a brokerage angle to it, but still). I wouldn’t bet my business on it.
You’re right that the Georgia definition says voice, so texts look like they fall outside that one. But the federal TCPA is still sitting there. Courts are split on whether a text counts as a call. The 7th Circuit said no this summer for do-not-call lawsuits, but Georgia’s not in the 7th Circuit, and other courts have gone the other way. i wouldn’t read this as a green light to blast texts.
The part I’d pay the most attention to is the mail. Any unsolicited letter saying you want to buy someone’s property needs the “THIS IS A SOLICITATION…” notice at the top, 2 inches away from everything else, at least 16-point, in a contrasting color, with nothing else on the letter bigger than it. Plus a separate notice on the front of the envelope.
The way SB 90 was written, damages are actual damages or $200 per violation, whichever is greater, and class actions are allowed. Do that math on a 2,000-piece mailer. Ouch.
Again, I’m not a lawyer, so run your letter past one before you mail GA.
Now I’m curious: is anybody here mailing Georgia with all the notices on there? I wonder how badly it’s hurting response rates.