Cold Calling - Ethical? Legal?

Question

If I am looking to contact people who's homes are going into foreclosure before the foreclosure happens, what is the ethics or legality of finding their name through public records and reaching out to them?

What is the best way to go about this? Is there sites for finding peoples contact information with only having access to their name or current address?

Jason Zundel · Answer

Jared, This is a very complicated area of law, with both state and federal rules that may apply. I would encourage you to reach out to a local attorney before diving too deep just to make sure you are on the right side. That being said, most federal laws, especially the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) are going to apply when you are mass advertising or
if you’re using an auto-dialer, pre-recorded voice, or artificial voice to call consumer. Those will usually require some sort of consent, either written or oral depending on the details. The rules on those also apply to most outreach that is classified as marketing rather than informational or administrative. Although the FCC does not always define whether rules apply to voice calls or texts, it has repeatedly found that the term is broad enough to include both phone calls and text messages, so better be careful when using such. Now, if you're not using such methods, but rather individually looking up information from a public database and calling directly based on such, you are less likely to run into legal issues. If you go that route, make sure you are first checking the Do Not Call Registry (that will apply regardless of how or why you are contacting should the recipient want to complain) and don't call again if they make that request.

Note: This information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. No attorney-client, fiduciary, or professional relationship is established through this communication.

Scott Johnson · Answer

Write letters, do mailers or knock on doors (figure out if you need a peddlers permit in your city). Nothing ethically awkward about that 😉

Cold calling is targeted because the emotional and physical barrier to entry is so low so people go nuts calling people. Then you get into the do not call list, etc.

Jared Stong · Answer

@Jason Zundel thanks for this advice. I'm looking to call people personally and have a conversation with them to find a win-win scenario for both of us. I don't plan on doing mass calls or automated voice stuff. But thank you for giving me some things to think about

Jared Stong · Answer

@Scott Johnson I like the letters and mailers idea. I for sure don't want to end up on the do not call list

Scott Johnson · Answer

The hard road often becomes easy and the easy road often becomes hard.

Account Closed · Answer

@Jared Stong my team used to do this too! we doorknocked pre-foreclosures and cold called just on a single line dialer, and we never ran into issues. usually when you skiptrace a list, you'll see who is DNC. and then you just don't call those people. where we ran into issues was text blasting. the legislation is constantly changing around text blasts so we found that doorknocking and calling gave us more successes and less headaches.

Nick Perret Efferson · Answer

Hi Jared,

Any luck here?

I just started doing this a month ago. As an agent, I cold call tax-delinquent owners to acquire business. Selling their home is not the only option I provide, I offer resources as well, like setting up payment plans with the city or using a HELOC. I have found that 99% get defensive if I mention that I saw they are back in taxes.

I have been doing the same in Milwaukee for the last few weeks and just finished my first week of followups. Had one interested in help out of probably 50 calls. I just refined my script and will attempt this week.

I also focus on areas that have recently seen a hike in property taxes.

Youssef Riad · Answer

Hey Jared—good question. It’s definitely legal to use public records to reach out to pre-foreclosure leads, but there’s a fine line on the ethical side. Some people might appreciate the help, others might see it as predatory depending on how it’s approached.

Best bet is to be respectful and transparent in your messaging. Keep it empathetic—don’t come off like a vulture circling. As for tools, check out websites like PropStream, BeenVerified, or TruePeopleSearch to find contact info using name + address. Just make sure you’re complying with DNC (Do Not Call) lists too—those fines aren’t cheap.

Hope that helps!Note: This information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. No attorney-client, fiduciary, or professional relationship is established through this communication.

Pedro Andrade · Answer

I am not giving legal/moral advise here, but yes there are companies out there that will sell you all the data you need and there are tools you can use to reach out and follow up with prospects

Jared Stong · Answer

@Chris Seveney yeah I definitely want to avoid legal trouble! Thank you

Cold Calling - Ethical? Legal?

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