A telemarketer or seller may call a consumer with whom it has an established business relationship for up to 18 months after the consumer’s last purchase, delivery, or payment – even if the consumer’s number is on the National Do Not Call Registry. In addition, a company may call a consumer for up to three months after the consumer makes an inquiry or submits an application to the company. These rules ease the burden of Do Not Call on the practice of real estate by allowing agents to call buyers and seller who have done business with the agent’s company. They do not, however, help when calling buyers or sellers who have not done business with your company.

There is a tradition in real estate of cold calling sellers with expired listings and FSBOs. These practices were immediately called into question when the Do Not Call Registry was implemented in January of 2005. As a result, the National Association of REALTORS® petitioned the FCC for clarification regarding expired listings and FSBOs.

On February 18, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an Order addressing issues raised by NAR. According to the FCC, a real estate professional representing a potential buyer may call a FSBO so long as the purpose of the call is to discuss the potential sale of the property to the buyer. An agent may not cold call a FSBO on the Do Not Call Registry List for the purpose of soliciting a listing. The FCC also declined to exempt from the Do Not Call Registry rules any calls to expired listings. These rules are simple applications of the established business relationship exception.