TCPA Compliance for Real Estate Texting: What You Actually Need to Know

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) governs how businesses can contact consumers via phone and text. For real estate agents, it's the law that determines when you can and can't send assisted text messages — and the penalties for getting it wrong are steep.

The Basics

TCPA requires "prior express consent" before sending marketing texts. For real estate agents using Follow Up Boss, this generally means:

• The lead submitted their phone number through a form (Zillow, your website, an open house sign-in)
• The form included language indicating they may receive texts
• You're texting them about what they inquired about (not unrelated marketing)

FUB action plan texts to leads who submitted their number through a lead source generally fall within consent parameters. But there are important limits.

Quiet Hours: The Non-Negotiable Rule

You cannot send assisted texts before 8:00 AM or after 9:00 PM in the recipient's time zone. Not your time zone — theirs.

This trips up a lot of agents. If you're in California and your lead is in New York, a text sent at 6:30 PM Pacific arrives at 9:30 PM Eastern — a violation.

Any texting assistant worth using should enforce quiet hours automatically. If your tool doesn't block sends outside these windows, you're exposed.

Opt-Out Requirements

Recipients must be able to stop receiving texts by replying "STOP" or similar keywords. FUB handles this natively for texts sent through its platform. If you're using a third-party texting service with separate numbers, make sure opt-out handling is properly configured.

The Penalty Math

TCPA violations carry penalties of $500 per unsolicited message, and up to $1,500 per message if the violation is deemed willful. Send 100 texts outside quiet hours? That's potentially $50,000-$150,000 in liability.

Class action lawsuits against real estate companies for TCPA violations are not hypothetical — they happen regularly. The cost of compliance is zero. The cost of non-compliance can be catastrophic.

What Good Compliance Looks Like

For a FUB agent using texting assistant, compliance means:

• Automatic quiet hour enforcement — no texts before 8 AM or after 9 PM in the lead's timezone
• Configurable send windows — many agents tighten this to 9 AM - 7 PM for better etiquette
• Respect for opt-outs — handled by FUB when texting from your own number
• Holiday holds — no assisted texts on major holidays
• Consent documentation — your lead sources should capture clear opt-in consent

Don't Overthink It, But Don't Ignore It

TCPA compliance isn't complicated when you have the right tools. The key is making sure your texting assistant has compliance guardrails baked in — not bolted on as an afterthought. If your tool lets you accidentally send a text at 10 PM, that's a tool problem, not a you problem. Choose tools that make compliance the default.