Texas Just Made Cold Calling & SMS For Wholesalers Almost Impossible | Flipping Mastery Weekend Edition

Welcome to the Wholesale Hotline Podcast Weekend Edition (Flipping Mastery Edition), where Jerry teaches how to master the art of house flipping, wholesaling, and new construction development. Show notes -- in this episode we'll cover: Straightforward, step-by-step training on making six and seven figures from real estate deals. Insider tactics for finding motivated sellers, analyzing deals, and raising private money. Learn how to flip houses virtually from anywhere—even with zero experience. Whether you're a beginner or scaling up, Jerry gives you the blueprint to build real wealth through real estate. Please give us a rating and let us know how we are doing! ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ☎️ Welcome to Wholesale Hotline & Flipping Mastery Breakout! ☎️ Jerry Norton went from digging holes for minimum wage in his mid 20's to becoming a millionaire by the age of 30. Today he's the nation's leading expert on flipping houses and has taught thousands of people how to live their dream lifestyle through real estate. **NOTE: To Download any of Jerry's FREE training, tools, or resources… Click on the link provided and enter your email. The download is automatically emailed to you. If you don’t see it, check your junk/spam folder, in case your email provider put it there. If you still don't see it, contact our support at: [email protected] or 888) 958-3028. ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 💲 USE THIS LINK FOR DISCOUNTS AND FREEBIES TO USE IN YOUR BUSINESS: 💲 Make $10,000 Finding Deals:b https://flippingmastery.com/10kpod Get 100% funding for your deals! https://flippingmastery.com/fspod Mentoring Program: https://flippingmastery.com/ftpod FREE 8 Week Training Program: https://flippingmastery.com/8wpod Get Paid $8700 To Find Vacant Lots For Jerry: https://flippingmastery.com/lfpod FREE 30 Day Quickstart Kit https://flippingmastery.com/qkpod FREE Virtual Wholesaling Kit: https://flippingmastery.com/vfpod FREE On-Market Deal Finder Tool: https://flippingmastery.com/dcpod FREE Wholesaler Contracts: https://flippingmastery.com/wcpod FREE Comp Tool: https://flippingmastery.com/compod FREE Funding Kit: https://flippingmastery.com/fkpod FREE Agent Offer Sheet & Scripts: https://flippingmastery.com/aspod FREE Cash Buyer Scripts: https://flippingmastery.com/cbspod FREE Best Selling Wholesaling Ebook: https://flippingmastery.com/ebookpod FREE Best Selling Fix and Flip Ebook: https://flippingmastery.com/ebpod FREE Rehab Checklist: https://flippingmastery.com/rehabpod ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 🔌 PLUG IN & SUBSCRIBE 🔌 SUBSCRIBE: Jerry Norton and Flipping Mastery TV FACEBOOK: http://www. Facebook.com/flippingmastery INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/flippingmastery/ ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ 🤝 #SQUADUP & GET MORE DEALS DONE in the Wholesale Hotline LIVE Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/759418414582645 🤝 ‼️‼️Pro tip: Make a post with your market & what you need help with‼️‼️

• 0:03Speaker 00

  Hey, it's Jerry Norton. Welcome to the Wholesale Hotline Podcast and the Flipping Mastery Breakout. We want to know how we're doing, so please leave a comment and give us a rating.

• 0:17Speaker 00

  The state of Texas just passed a new law effective immediately, which directly impacts wholesalers who cold-call and do SMS marketing. Now, if you're a wholesaler in Texas, you better pay close attention to this because the fines and penalties are huge. 5,000 for offense. Get all the details coming up. SB 140 was recently passed into law in Texas and is effective September 1st, 2025. This law directly affects cold-calling and texting sellers in real estate because the law treats calls and texts as the same now under the Texas Telephone Solicitation Act, or TTSA. Let's break down how this law impacts you as an investor or a wholesaler, and what you can and can't do, and be sure to stay to the end

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  because I'm going to give you a free compliance checklist. First of all, you have to understand that cold-calling property owners in Texas, whether you're offering to buy their house, wholesale a contract, or offer any kind of services, is legally considered telemarketing. This applies even if you're not selling a product because Texas views an offer to buy a house as intent to secure a business opportunity. Since you're soliciting a homeowner to secure a property at a discount, you fall under the scope of TTSA. And the updated law that just passed explicitly added SMS and MMS to the same rules as cold-calling. Now, keep in mind, you can still cold-call and text, but now you're under heavy scrutiny and regulation. First, you have to be registered and bonded.

• 1:46Speaker 00

  If you're making outbound calls or texts to Texas homeowners, you must register with the Texas Secretary of State using Form 3401. You also must pay a 200 annual fee, and you must provide a $10,000 security deposit or security bond. Now, failure to do this could expose you to penalties, even if you only call one seller, which I'll get to, so keep watching. Now assuming you get registered and bonded, there are strict requirements to stay compliant. First is you have to follow quiet hours. Cold calling and texting sellers can only be made Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Texas time and Sunday 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Calling outside that window is a violation. You also must follow consent and opt-out obligations.

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  One, you need prior express consent if you're using automated dialers or pre-recorded messages. Two, you must clearly identify yourself and your company. Three, you must provide a way to opt out, which means you do not call or text them again. That requires you maintain your own internal do not call or DNC list. Texas residents can also be on the National Do Not Call DNC Registry, which you must scrub against every time you call. Now, there are some exceptions for financial institutions and nonprofits, but most exemptions do not apply to wholesalers. If you're only contacting an existing or former customer, either a seller or a buyer you've done deals with before, you may have an exception.

• 3:12Speaker 00

  But if you're calling strangers from a list, you're regulated. Here's the bottom line for investors and wholesalers in Texas. Cold calling and texting is still allowed, but you must comply with registration, bonding, quiet hours DNC rules, and opt-out obligations. And tax blasting without consent is very risky now. Non-compliance opens you up to lawsuits from sellers, not just regulators, which brings me to the enforcement and penalties. Violating the TTSA rules can be brutal. A $5,000 fine per violation. That means per call or text. So let's see here, 1,000 texts times $5,000 is 5 million in fines. Yikes.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  Also, sellers can sue under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, DTPA, with trouble damages. That means they could be awarded three times for damages if intentional. There could also be class action risk if you're doing volume, cold calling, or text blasting. And trust me, the ambulance chasers in Texas are going to be ready for this one. Needless to say, you better be very careful. Cold calling and text marketing in Texas. Now to keep you safe, I created a Texas cold calling and SMS compliance checklist that I'll give you for free. Now I want to review this with you in a minute, but first, let me share with you my perspective and a few ideas about this new regulation. First, whenever something happens like a regulation that makes wholesaling more difficult,

• 4:38Speaker 00

  it eliminates a lot of competition, providing big opportunities for those that remain. Most wholesalers are lazy and look for the easy way, which is really short sighted because the easier something is, the more people do it, which means there's more competition and less profit. Now, from an economic point of view, that's a good thing. Competition keeps prices low, or in the case of distressed real estate, sellers get higher prices. On the flip side, when you make wholesaling harder, you create less competition, which means the few remaining serious and committed wholesalers can buy at deeper discounts. Wholesalers get a better deal and sellers get a lower price. Like it or not, that's how supply and demand works in a free market.

• 5:22Speaker 00

  Now, this new regulation in Texas is going to cause three things to happen, I believe. First, the virtual cold call wholesalers will leave Texas and look for greener pastures, thus removing competition. Second, the wholesalers who stay in Texas that are willing to go through all the rules and stay compliant are going to get more market share, which means more deals and bigger profits. The third thing this law is going to do is it's going to force many established wholesalers to shift from cold calling and texting to inbound marketing methods such as direct mail, PPC or Google Ads, and pay per lead or PPL. Inbound marketing is more expensive, which again will eliminate a lot of competition. Put simply, wholesaling in Texas just got harder for the newbies

• 6:07Speaker 00

  and provided more opportunity for the established wholesalers with bigger marketing budgets. Hey, I have something to share with you before we get back to the video. I recently signed up for a software called PropWire and I've been getting notifications on my phone when new leads come in. Every morning, PropWire updates their database with new leads. So when you sign up for lead alerts, you get an email or text. Message when new leads hit your market. What I did was I set up a saved search in Phoenix, Arizona for absentee owners with over 70% equity. Then whenever new leads came in that matched that criteria, I skip traced them and have someone on my team cold call them. And since PropWire updates their database every day, I get those leads before other investors. I've also gotten a couple wholesale deals this way and it's awesome.

• 6:52Speaker 00

  And the best part is lead alerts are just the tip of the iceberg. PropWire has over 157 million properties in their database, including vacant houses, pre-foreclosures, absentee owners, REOs, probate, tire landlords, and more. And it's 100% free to search properties and download an unlimited number of leads. Let me repeat that. You can search and download an unlimited number of properties for free. There's no catch, seriously. They don't even require a credit card to start an account. To claim your free account today, just go to joinpropwire.com. Okay, let's review this Texas cold calling and SMS compliance checklist that I created. And at the end, I'm going to tell you how you can download this for free. Okay, step one is to register and bond.

• 7:36Speaker 00

  File Form 3401 with the Texas Secretary of State, pay the $200 annual registration fee, and secure a $10,000 surety bond. Keep your registration active and renewed yearly. Step number two, build your internal do not call list, or DNC list. Create and maintain an internal DNC list of sellers who opt out. Immediately honor opt out requests, verbal or written. Retain opt out records for at least five years. Step three is to scrub against the national and state DNC. And before calling, scrub your list against the national do not call registry and the Texas DNC, which is a state-specific list maintained by the Public Utility Commission, and document when and how you scrubbed your list.

• 8:21Speaker 00

  Step four, follow quiet hours. Again, only call or text during Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. And Sunday, 12:00 to 9:00 p.m. Texas time. Program your dialer or your CRM to block calls outside those hours. Step five is proper caller identification. Always state Your first and last name, your business name, and that you're calling about buying their property. Provide a callback number that connects to a live person. Step six is the consent rules, text and auto dialers. If sending SMS, get prior express written consent. And that consent language must include clear agreement to receive text, message and data rate disclosure, and opt-out instructions like reply stop to unsubscribe.

• 9:05Speaker 00

  And you must keep consent forms and screenshots for legal defense. Okay, step seven is record keeping. Keep a log of all the calls and texts that you sent, the consent records, DNC scrubs, opt-outs, and store this for four to five years in case of an audit or a lawsuit. Step eight is to train your team. Train your VAs, your cold callers, your acquisition managers on DNC compliance, opt-out handling, and proper disclosures, and have them sign a compliance acknowledgement form. Okay, step nine is to monitor and audit. Run monthly audits or call logs and text campaigns. You need to run the monthly audits of all your call logs and your text campaigns. Randomly review calls for compliance, and be sure to update your processes if new state or federal rules drop.

• 9:48Speaker 00

  And step 10 is risk management. Get errors and omissions E and O insurance that covers telemarketing claims. Consider using call tracking software to document consent and compliance. And finally, be ready for private lawsuits under the Texas DTPA. Each violation can be $5,000 and trouble damages if intentional. So be very, very careful. Okay, now let me tell you how to get this checklist for free. I track and maintain all of the laws and regulations that get passed in wholesale real estate. And I have a report that you can download for free if you go to wholesale regulations.com. And I added this checklist onto that report so you can get it there. Now remember, this law just applies to Texas. So on a better note, in a recent court case, the Arizona Federal District Court ruled

• 10:32Speaker 00

  that contacting homeowners to make offers to buy properties does not violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or TCPA laws because we're not offering to sell services, we're offering to buy properties. Thanks for listening to this podcast. To get more free tips, check out my YouTube channel. Just search Flipping Mastery TV on YouTube, where I have over a thousand videos teaching you how to make more money with real estate. On my channel, I also give away free stuff like my Quick Start Kit, with everything you need to flip your first house in the next 30 days. Or my deal finding software called Data Cruncher, which finds discounted houses in any zip code in a matter of seconds. You can get those for free at myquickstartkit.com

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  and mydatacrusher.com.