Okay I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking this: "Enough already with the do-not-call list!"

I agree 100 percent, so let me break this down quick and dirty. I could care less about the philosophy behind the law, and how the industry is changing, and how we have to adapt to the new economy. We could talk for hours about these issues and end up accomplishing nothing.

Agents only want to know some simple answers to some simple questions like this: Can I still call FSBOs, or Expired Listings, or Just Listed/Just Sold, or people in my farm?

Absolutely! Just make sure the people are not on the do-not-call list. Of the roughly 250,000,000 people in our country, and over 50,000,000-60,000,000 phone numbers now on the list, odds are still in your favor. If they are on the list, you just fall back to visiting them in person or contacting by e-mail or regular mail.

Standing in front of a seminar group, I could probably use that answer and get away with it, but there is a problem here that many agents and brokers don't see which is the next question everyone should be asking:

How do I check to see if someone is on the list?

You've now asked the question that will be critical to your success. After hours of research after being asked just that question at a seminar recently, I finally found the answer and here it is:

You or your broker will need to register with the national do not call registry as a telemarketer (the definition is a wide one.) When you register, you will then be able to receive up to five area codes of do-not-call registered phone numbers which you can then cross-reference when you're making your prospecting calls.

Now, some good news. This service is free, unless you register more than five area codes. If you register more than five area codes, then you are charged an additional $25 per area code, with this fee good for a year.

To do this, click here or go to www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov.

Here is the last question that I hear often: So should we all collectively put down our phones and scramble to find other ways to prospect for new business?

Not yet. Weak agents never picked up the phone to begin with, and now they have a great excuse to continue justifying their own failures. Strong agents see this law as a huge opportunity. If you assume that half your competition has now put down their phones perhaps prematurely this can be a window of opportunity for your business.

My advice to any agent is to use this new law as a tool to build your business over the next several months. Sure, many of us are migrating to new prospecting styles like sphere-of-influence marketing, and direct-response marketing both of which I think are terrific, but that doesn't mean we should abandon quite yet the tried and true prospecting methods that have built many of our careers.

Published: December 22, 2003

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Jim Remley is a speaker, author, and consultant. He is also an active real estate broker in Southern Oregon where he owns a network of six offices. Jim won the Rookie Instructor of the Year award in 2001 from Realty-U, the largest network of real estate educators in the nation. He was the winner of the 2002 Pacesetter Award, and nominated for the Real Estate Instructor of the Year Award during the first quarter of 2003. To learn more about Jim, please visit ProPerformer.com or e-mail him at .