September 2003 President's Perspective

National Do Not Call Registry

Compliance required October 1, 2003
Bob Miller, 2003 President

We’ve all heard and read information regarding the telemarketing rules for the new “Do Not Call” Registry. The original ‘face-to-face’ exception (meaning that face-to-face meeting is necessary to consummate the sale) has been removed and it doesn’t look likely that we’ll be able to get it back again.

So, as much as we’d hoped that we could forestall their affect on the real estate industry, it appears that we all will have to adhere to these new rules beginning October 1, 2003.

Here’s a few facts about the National Do Not Call List:

Two federal agencies; the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with two laws and two sets of rules have teamed up to enforce the National Do Not Call List rules.
The FTC enforces the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act (Rule 310) and the FCC has the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
The general exemption for the real estate business was removed in the last moments of working out these enforcement rules.
The National Do Not Call list will be enforced on interstate (State-to-State) as well as intrastate (In-State) calls.

According to the FTC, the “term telemarketer means the person or entity that initiates a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services, which is transmitted to any person.”

Based on this definition, you would be be ‘telemarketing’ if you call a referral, FSBO or expired listing and:

mention your services,
mention anything about a property,
encourage the purchase, rental or investment in your services or a property.

The FTC web site states the fines are $11,000 per incident; the FCC also has fines starting at $500 and up into the millions for multiple offenses.

The final rules have been published in the Federal Registry, they will take effect October 1, 2003 unless...

These agencies change their minds and allow a real estate exemption that they recently decided to remove, neither of which is likely or politically popular.
A federal court case prompts a federal judge to place an injunction on the National Do Not Call rules, also not very politically popular.
Literally, an Act of Congress could pass a law stopping the National Do Not Call rules - again, not very politically popular.

As of 8/6/03, almost 1.6 million Ohioans had registered their phone numbers with the Do-Not-Call List. On the positive side, that leaves over 1.9 million numbers left which you can call!

For more information, visit www.ftc.gov/donotcall.