In today's real estate investing landscape, effective communication with homeowners is essential. However, the misuse of SMS marketing can quickly land your messages in the spam folder, costing your business opportunities and damaging your reputation.

10DLC serves as a valuable tool for mobile carriers (such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) in combating spam messages. It mandates that all businesses sending text messages must register their business and specify their use case.

This approach is increasingly crucial for real estate investors to adopt, as it exclusively sends text messages to sellers who have willingly opted in to receive communications from your business. It's important to note that 10DLC is only applicable to local area code phone numbers and does not extend to toll-free numbers.

If you're capturing leads through your website, ensure that you incorporate an opt-in checkbox on all forms across your site. Lead forms on REsimpli Websites come with a built-in option for “opt-in”. For leads obtained through phone calls, it's advisable to inform the lead that the call is being recorded and seek their permission during the call to send them follow-up text messages related to their property.

Engaging in cold SMS outreach, where you contact property owners without any prior connection to your real estate business, can be intrusive and potentially detrimental to your company's reputation. Rather than resorting to cold outreach, focus on providing value to your leads, building connections, and creating informative real estate content.

In the initial message you send to a prospective seller, ensure you clearly identify yourself and provide opt-out instructions to comply with delivery and legal requirements.

Additionally, when incorporating opt-out language, it's essential to use a widely accepted keyword, such as "STOP." In the United States and Canada, the standard format is, for example, "Reply STOP to unsubscribe." Utilizing alternative phrases like "text 2 to opt out" is non-compliant and may lead to filtering.

Adhere to best practices by only sending messages to mobile users who have given explicit consent (opted in) to receive communications from your business. Let’s look at a few examples of best practices below:

Furthermore, avoid sending messages containing short URLs or special characters, as these are common in spam texts. Moreover, your messages should clearly indicate the sender's identity and provide instructions for opting out. It is best to do this at least once per month.

Take a look at this list of 180+ common SMS spam words that you may want to consider avoiding. Be mindful that some of these words may only be deemed ‘spam worthy’ in a particular context.