A first-time investor told me on a call that texting strangers at all made them nervous. Another operator I spoke with had already been sued under the TCPA. If your question is "is it legal to text motivated sellers?", you are asking the right thing, and anyone who gives you a quick yes is selling something.
This guide walks through the rules that actually apply, from the statute, the FCC's rules and orders, court opinions, and state laws, all checked on September 17, 2026. I run a wholesale operation and ForesightCRM is our product, so I will also say what our software enforces by default and, just as plainly, what no software can do for you.
Is it legal to text motivated sellers? The short answer
Each layer has its own trigger, and passing one does not mean you pass the others.
| Layer | Where it comes from | What a violation can cost |
|---|---|---|
| Autodialer consent | 47 U.S.C. 227(b) | $500 per violation, up to 3 times if willful or knowing |
| National Do Not Call registry | 47 U.S.C. 227(c) and 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(2) | Up to $500 per violation after more than one call in 12 months, up to 3 times if willful |
| Calling hours, 8am to 9pm | 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1) | Same private action as Do Not Call |
| Your own do-not-call list | 47 CFR 64.1200(d) | Same private action as Do Not Call |
| State telemarketing laws | Florida, Oklahoma, Maryland, and others | Varies by state, see below |
| Carrier rules | CTIA guidelines and 10DLC registration | Not law: rejected campaigns and blocked or filtered texts |
The damages in 47 U.S.C. 227 are what make this expensive: $500 per autodialer violation, up to $500 per Do Not Call violation once someone gets more than one call in 12 months from the same entity, and up to triple either amount if the violation was willful or knowing. Those amounts add up across a list.
Texts are calls, and Duguid did not end the risk
In Facebook v. Duguid, the Court held that a device is an autodialer only if it can store or produce numbers using a random or sequential number generator. In a footnote, it said neither side disputed that the TCPA covers texts, citing Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez (2016), and assumed so without deciding. The FCC was more direct in its 2023 texting order, saying the Commission and courts have long held that text messages are calls under the TCPA.
Three things kept the risk alive after Duguid:
- Do Not Call rules do not care about equipment. The federal rule in 47 CFR 64.1200(c) bars telephone solicitations to numbers on the national registry. There is no autodialer element.
- States wrote their own tests. Florida requires written consent for sales calls that use an "automated system for the selection and dialing" of numbers, and Oklahoma and Maryland say "selection or dialing." None of them uses Duguid's test.
- Courts stopped deferring to the FCC. In McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, decided June 20, 2025, the Supreme Court held that district courts are not bound by the FCC's reading of the statute. That cuts both ways, as the next section shows.
Do Not Call, calling hours, and the "we buy houses" question
The rule defines a telephone solicitation as a call or message "for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services" (47 CFR 64.1200(f)(15)). Investors argue that offering to buy a house encourages the homeowner to buy nothing. At least one trial court agreed. In Coffey v. Fast Easy Offer, a federal trial court in Arizona dismissed a proposed class action over home-buying calls and texts because they did not expressly encourage buying services.
On June 4, 2026, the Ninth Circuit reversed that dismissal in a published opinion. The homeowner alleged that one purpose of the outreach was to steer people to paid real estate brokerage services, and the court held that was enough to plead a telephone solicitation. The ruling rests on that services allegation, so it does not settle whether a pure offer to buy is a solicitation. A federal court in Georgia reached a similar result in March 2026 in Bramlett v. RES 360, where the complaint alleged the buyer charged fees for services bundled into the purchase.
Whether texts count under the Do Not Call rule is contested too. The FCC codified that the registry covers texts effective March 26, 2024, but on July 14, 2026, the Seventh Circuit held in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services that a text is not a "telephone call" for the private lawsuit provision in section 227(c)(5), and said it was not bound by the FCC. That court covers Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and its opinion lists other circuits that have treated texts as calls under the autodialer section, which it said is a different provision.
None of that is a safe bet to build on. If you do text, the rule's safe harbor for a Do Not Call violation that results from error expects written procedures, trained staff, your own do-not-call list, and a registry download no more than 31 days old. Separate from the registry, 64.1200(d) requires telemarketers to honor a do-not-call request within 10 business days and keep it for 5 years.
Part of the work is paperwork: written procedures and your own do-not-call list, kept current. Illustrative scene, not a ForesightCRM screenshot.
Consent revocation and the one-to-one rule
The revocation rule is at 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(10), and the FCC announced its April 11, 2025 effective date in the Federal Register. Other words count too if a reasonable person would understand them as a request to stop. It covers consent for autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts, and consent you rely on to reach a number on the Do Not Call registry.
The revoke-all piece has been pushed back twice. The FCC's January 6, 2026 order moved it to January 31, 2027. On September 9, 2026, the FCC released a draft order for its September 30 meeting that would narrow that requirement and let callers designate an exclusive way to revoke. As of today it is a draft, not a rule.
The one-to-one consent rule would have required comparison shopping sites to collect consent for one seller at a time, starting January 27, 2025. The Eleventh Circuit vacated it on January 24, 2025, and the FCC removed the language effective August 29, 2025. If you buy leads, that does not mean the consent covers you, so ask your attorney how it was collected.
Beyond federal law: state rules, foreclosure laws, and carriers
Florida, Oklahoma, and Maryland
All from the state sources linked below the table, checked September 17, 2026. Other states have their own versions, so this is not a complete list.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
| Rule | Federal | Florida | Oklahoma | Maryland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hours | 8am to 9pm, recipient's location | 8am to 8pm, recipient's time zone | 8am to 8pm, recipient's time zone | No solicitations between 8pm and 8am |
| Frequency cap | Not in 47 CFR 64.1200 | 3 per 24 hours, same subject | 3 per 24 hours, same subject | 3 per 24 hours, same subject |
| Automated dialing | Autodialer means a random or sequential number generator | Written consent for automated "selection and dialing" | Written consent for automated "selection or dialing" | Written consent for automated "selection or dialing" |
| Texts | FCC rule applies Do Not Call to texts; the Seventh Circuit bars private Do Not Call suits over texts | "Telephonic sales call" includes text messages | Consent definition names text messages | Consent definition names text messages |
| Private damages | $500 autodialer, up to $500 Do Not Call, up to 3 times | $500 or actual, up to 3 times; text claims need a STOP reply and 15 days first | $500 or actual, up to 3 times | Enforced as an unfair or deceptive trade practice |
| In effect | Do Not Call text rule since March 26, 2024 | 2023 amendments since May 25, 2023 | Since November 1, 2022 | Since January 1, 2024 |
Florida splits its rules across two statutes. The Telephone Solicitation Act, section 501.059, covers calls, texts, and voicemails that solicit a sale of consumer goods or services, with $500 damages. Its 2023 amendment added the STOP-then-15-days step before a text lawsuit, which is a condition on suing, not a grace period. The hours and three-per-day cap are in section 501.616.
Oklahoma's Telephone Solicitation Act took effect November 1, 2022, and as enacted it exempts licensed real estate agents acting within their license. Maryland's Stop the Spam Calls Act took effect January 1, 2024, with its hours and frequency limits in Commercial Law 14-4502.
Homeowners in foreclosure
Some states also regulate what you offer homeowners in foreclosure and how you contract with them. California is a clear example. Its foreclosure consultant law covers anyone who offers, for compensation, to stop or postpone a sale or save a home from foreclosure, with some exceptions such as attorneys. Its home equity sales law covers buyers of an owner-occupied home with a recorded notice of default, and section 1695.4 gives the seller a right to cancel until midnight of the fifth business day after signing, or 8am on the sale date, whichever comes first.
In some states, what you offer a homeowner in foreclosure and how you contract with them are regulated too. Illustrative scene, not a ForesightCRM screenshot.
Carrier rules are a separate layer
Carrier rules are not law, but they decide whether your texts get delivered. CTIA's Messaging Principles say businesses should get consent before texting, get express written consent for marketing, honor plain-language opt-outs, and not text from rented, sold, or shared opt-in lists. Twilio's current campaign guide lists a cold "I want to buy your house" text as a sample message that does not work. We cover registration in our 10DLC guide and filtering in why real estate texting numbers get burned.
What Foresight enforces by default: guardrails, not a legal shield
ForesightCRM is our product. Here is what it does by default, checked against our code on September 17, 2026. None of it makes a text legal, and none of it replaces your attorney.
- A STOP line on cold first texts. Every cold first text carries "Reply STOP to opt out." Leads who raised their hand, like form fills and people who texted in, are exempt, and cold-list labels are blocked from that exemption.
- Plain-English opt-outs count. STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, QUIT, END, and similar keywords are honored, and so are requests like "take me off your list," "stop contacting me," and "I do not wish to be contacted." A seller who writes "please stop this foreclosure" is not treated as opting out.
- Cold texts wait for your own registration. Cold first texts are blocked until your organization's own carrier registration is approved. Calling, data, skip tracing, and the pipeline work before that.
- 8am to 8pm, recipient-local. Cadence texts send only between 8am and 8pm in the recipient's time zone. Florida and Oklahoma leads, spotted from the property state or the phone's area code, are held to that window even for an instant reply to someone who just texted in.
- New senders ramp. An account with no sending history starts at a low daily ceiling for cold first texts and earns more room as its messages deliver.
- The AI steps back when you step in. When someone on your team texts in a thread, the AI texting agent pauses and stays paused through a long quiet period, 120 hours by default.
Note the 8pm cutoff. The federal rule for telephone solicitations runs to 9pm, so our 8pm default is a product policy stricter than the federal rule, in line with the hours in the Florida, Oklahoma, and Maryland statutes. It is not "the law," and it does not answer the consent, Do Not Call, or solicitation questions above. Software also cannot tell you whether a specific seller agreed to hear from you or whether your list was scrubbed the way the safe harbor expects.
Bottom line: is it legal to text motivated sellers?
So, is it legal to text motivated sellers? It depends on facts only you and a lawyer can pin down: whether the number is on the Do Not Call registry, whether you have consent you can prove, how your texts are sent, where the seller lives, and whether your message is a solicitation under rules courts are still fighting over. The damages run per violation, so small mistakes multiply.
If you have that advice in hand and want a system that enforces the mechanical side by default, start the 14-day trial. A card starts the trial, and nothing is charged until the trial ends. If you already have a CRM, see /texting and compare options in our texting software roundup.
ForesightCRM is our product. Foresight claims are from our product code as of September 17, 2026. Legal rules are from the federal statute, eCFR, FCC orders, Federal Register notices, court opinions, and state codes linked above, and carrier guidance is from CTIA and Twilio, all checked on September 17, 2026. This is not legal advice. If something has changed, tell us and we will correct it.