What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing in real estate involves sending text messages to property owners (to find motivated sellers) or to investors (to market deals). Text messages have significantly higher open and response rates than email or voicemail — 98% open rate versus 20% for email — making SMS one of the most effective direct response channels available to wholesalers and investors.
Two uses in wholesaling
Acquisition SMS: Texting property owners to find motivated sellers. Similar to cold calling but with higher response rates and the ability to run conversations in parallel. A single person can manage dozens of text conversations simultaneously.
Disposition SMS: Texting investors on your buyer list about new deals. SMS deal alerts get immediate attention and faster responses than email blasts. Many wholesalers send a text alert with a link to the full marketing package.
TCPA compliance
SMS marketing is heavily regulated under the TCPA. Key requirements: obtain prior express written consent before sending marketing messages, include opt-out instructions in every message ("Reply STOP to unsubscribe"), honor opt-out requests immediately, do not text numbers on the DNC registry without an established business relationship, and maintain records of consent.
Violations can result in $500-$1,500 per unsolicited message. TCPA litigators actively target real estate investors, so compliance is not optional. Always scrub your lists against DNC databases and maintain consent records.
Tools and platforms
Popular SMS tools for real estate: Launch Control, REI Reply, Batch Leads (integrated with skip tracing), and general platforms like Twilio. Look for features like: DNC scrubbing, drip sequences, keyword triggers, conversation threading, and compliance tools.