Real estate cold calling is screened, not dead

Cold Calling Remains Viable With Proper Screening

Cold calling remains a viable prospecting method for real estate agents who follow screening rules, according to Darryl Davis, CSP, founder of the POWER AGENT Coaching Program.

Davis, who has trained hundreds of thousands of agents over four decades, said the key change is follow-up after the call. Consumers now screen everything, so a single call rarely lands, but a two-touch sequence can lift response rates roughly fifty percent.

The two-touch approach involves leaving a brief voicemail and then sending a follow-up text message that confirms the missed phone call and invites a polite conversation.

For genuine cold calls to local neighbors, agents should avoid Do Not Call list numbers, except for open house invitations. Those invitations provide a free informational service rather than a solicitation, Davis said, and they help build strong local relationships.

Broker policy always supersedes any coach's legal advice, so agents must carefully check their own individual firm's written rules and restrictions before making all prospecting calls.

Legal Rules and Broker Policies Govern Outreach

The Do Not Call framework prohibits calling people to solicit them, but a For-Sale-By-Owner has published a phone number inviting contact. Responding to that ad is not unsolicited solicitation, and it is real estate related rather than an unrelated sales call.

Agents must respect the line and avoid directly asking for the potential listing on the phone, particularly during a first cold call to an absolute stranger.

Simply building a relationship is one thing, while soliciting the business outright on the first call is another matter entirely. Large brokerages have faced Do Not Call class actions, and plaintiffs' attorneys have an incentive to file and settle weak cases.

In at least one instance, a major franchise lost because a federal court found that the company had directly encouraged the clearly specific conduct, Davis noted.

The practical lesson for leaders is not to abandon calling but to train agents on actual rules and clean practices. They should not let secondhand fear shrink a legitimate prospecting channel that still remains very valuable for real estate agents.

AI Adoption Grows Among Real Estate Agents

The National Association of Realtors' 2026 Technology Report found that nearly half of real estate agents surveyed, or forty-eight percent, used AI at least once a week.

Saving time and improving the client experience were the most common reasons for adopting AI, as cited by eighty-one and seventy-one percent of agents surveyed respectively.

Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at NAR, said those priorities have steadily grown much stronger over the past whole year. She noted that agents then have more time for guidance, negotiation, and steady advice that clients count on through major decisions.

While fifty-five percent of agents reported a positive business impact from AI, eleven percent actually reported a clear negative one. The overall share of agents reporting no business impact fell from forty-six percent in 2025 to thirty-five percent in 2026.

The top challenges cited were the learning curve at sixty-three percent, cost at fifty-nine percent, too many options at forty-four percent, and privacy concerns at thirty-six percent.