Real estate SMS campaigns: messages, cadence and dialer pairing

Most real estate teams already have a calling setup. That might be a multi-line dialer for expired listings and absentee owners, or a list of sellers a wholesaler works every morning. The texting usually gets added afterward. Someone exports a list, pastes it into a texting tool and sends the same message to everyone. That approach gets numbers filtered by carriers, and it creates TCPA exposure.

This post covers how to pair the two channels properly. It has sample messages you can adapt, a 14-day cadence that alternates calls and texts, the compliance line between "called" and "can be texted," and the actual cost of running it on Ready. All figures below are worked examples with stated assumptions. They are not benchmarks.

The rule that shapes everything: cold contact is phone and mail

Before the templates, here is the line most real estate texting problems come from.

Cold outreach happens by phone and mail. SMS goes to people who opted in or who replied to you. A skip-traced list of absentee owners is a calling list and a mailing list. It is not a texting list. Under the TCPA, a marketing text sent without proper consent can carry statutory damages of roughly $500 to $1,500 per text. Real estate is one of the verticals where plaintiffs' firms actively look for those texts.

In practice, the two channels split the work like this:

• Your cold-calling software handles first contact with people who haven't heard from you, within calling hours and after a DNC scrub.
• SMS starts once there's consent. Examples include a web form with clear opt-in wording, a texted keyword from a yard sign or mailer, a lead who texts you first, or a seller on a call who says "text me the details" and whose consent you record in your CRM.

For consent wording on forms and signs, our opt-in wording and keyword examples post has copy you can lift. Keep the consent record (time, wording, page or call note) in your own CRM. Ready records the sender's attestation on each campaign you send and each API send that attests consent: who sent it, to how many people, and when. That is an audit trail for your sends. It does not replace a per-contact consent record.

Sample real estate text messages

Each example below is written in plain GSM characters and stays under 160 characters, so it bills as one segment. If you add one emoji, the limit drops to 70 characters per segment (67 when a message splits). A 140-character text with a smiley becomes 3 segments instead of 1. Swap in your own names and links.

Right after a call where they said "text me"

Hi Dana, it's Sam with Oak Street Realty. Thanks for the call. Here are the comps I mentioned: [link]. Reply STOP to opt out.

Web lead on a listing (opted in on your form)

Hi Marco, Sam with Oak Street Realty. You asked about 41 Elm St. Want to see it Thursday or Saturday? Reply STOP to opt out.

Investor: seller who filled out your "get an offer" form

Hi Pat, it's Jordan with Keystone Home Buyers. Got your form about the Maple Ave house. Is now good for a 5-min call? Reply STOP to opt out.

Showing confirmation

Confirmed: 41 Elm St, Sat 11 AM. Park on the street, I'll meet you out front. Reply C to confirm or R to reschedule. - Sam, Oak Street Realty

For more confirmation and reminder wording, see our appointment reminder text templates.

30-day nurture (only for leads who've replied before)

Hi Dana, Sam at Oak Street. 2 homes like yours sold on Birch Ln this month. Want the numbers? Reply STOP to opt out.

Each of these identifies who's texting, asks one question and includes an opt-out. You don't need "Reply STOP" in every message of a live back-and-forth, but put it in the first text and in any message that goes out as a campaign.

A 14-day call-and-text cadence for consented leads

This cadence is for a new, opted-in lead, such as a form fill or an inbound text. It is not for a cold list. For the order of the first touch by lead source, see our text-first or dial-first breakdown.

A few rules keep this from turning into spam:

1. Stop the drip campaign the moment they reply. From that point it's a conversation, not automation.
2. Two unanswered texts in a row, then pause. Calls and mail can continue within your rules, but don't keep texting someone who isn't responding.
3. STOP ends everything. On Ready, an inbound STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE is honored automatically and carries across every campaign, so a teammate can't accidentally re-add that person to next month's nurture.
4. Respect local hours. Ready holds texts outside permitted hours based on the recipient's area and sends them later. For calls, check our TCPA calling hours by state. Several states have narrower windows than the federal 8 AM to 9 PM. Campaigns, drip campaigns and automations wait up to 24 hours for the window; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within 6 hours, otherwise it is refused and must be resent; a one-to-one reply to someone who texted you in the last 24 hours goes out at any hour.

Where the Ready Dialer fits next to cold-calling software

We'll say this directly: the Ready Dialer is click-to-call from the dial pad, not an auto-dialer. It doesn't auto-dial, run triple-line, drop voicemails, transfer or barge. If you work 800 expireds a day with a multi-line dialer, keep that tool for cold dialing. Our free dialer for real estate post covers what that category actually costs.

The Ready Dialer handles the warm side, where the lead and the conversation already exist:

• Click-to-call from the dial pad in the Ready dashboard or inside GoHighLevel, on the same contact record as the text thread
• Consented call recording and transcripts, so the "text me the comps" moment is documented
• Inbound calls ring the open pad
• Billing per minute at $0.025/min, with each started minute billed as a full minute. Only answered time is billed. A ring-out or busy line costs nothing. A voicemail pickup counts as answered and bills like a connect.

With this split, the cold tool does volume and Ready handles the replies, texts and follow-up calls in one thread.

Worked example: a month of warm follow-up calls

Assumptions: 300 follow-up dials to consented leads. 60 connect for an average of 3 minutes. 40 reach voicemail and you talk for under a minute. 200 ring out.

• Connects: 60 × 3 min = 180 min
• Voicemails: 40 × 1 min = 40 min
• Ring-outs: 0 min (not billed)
• Total: 220 min × $0.025 = $5.50

What the texting side costs

Ready's Standard rate is $0.0075 per segment, plus a $0.0045 carrier fee per segment. It's one flat rate. Received replies are billed the same way as sent texts.

Worked example: 400 consented leads in a month

Assumptions: 400 leads. Each gets the 4 cadence texts, all single-segment. Replies total about 600 segments across the month.

• Sent: 400 × 4 = 1,600 segments
• Received: 600 segments
• Total: 2,200 segments
• Rate: 2,200 × $0.0075 = $17, plus 2,200 × $0.0045 carrier fee

Add 10DLC registration. That's $25/mo for registration + $2 per number, so $27/mo with one number. The first month ($25) is charged when you submit, and there's no setup fee. These totals exclude the compliance surcharge. DNC/litigator scrubbing and landline validation are each $0.003 extra per segment when switched on for an account, and both are off by default.

If you would rather scrub a list once before it reaches anyone, the standalone TCPA & DNC Litigator Scrub is $0.005 per contact. It checks known TCPA-litigator and DNC-complainer lists and flags matches. It reduces risk without eliminating it. Consent and compliance remain the sender's responsibility.

An honest note on price

GoHighLevel's LC Phone and raw Twilio both charge less per message than our Standard rate. If you already run on LC Phone and you're happy, that's a reasonable choice. What we include is self-serve 10DLC registration in the app, STOP handling, quiet-hours holds, scrubbing and the dialer on the same contact record. If that saves your team hours each month, it outweighs a fraction of a cent per text. If it doesn't, stay where you are. See current numbers on our pricing page.

Registration and setup, in order

1. Get your website ready. You need a privacy policy, terms and an opt-in form that match how you text. Registration reviewers check these.
2. Use the free texts first. Your first 20 one-to-one texts are free. Campaigns are paid from the first text, and the free texts end once a registration is paid for. Use them to test your templates before you register.
3. Register your brand and campaign. Most approvals take 2 to 7 days. Before registration, an account can send up to 500 texts a month at the normal rate. If you bought your number first, you send on Ready's shared registration while yours is in review. Our 10DLC explainer covers why unregistered traffic gets filtered.
4. Local presence is on for every account. When you have numbers in several area codes, Ready sends from the number closest to the contact's area code. In GoHighLevel, use the #from:local# tag. Every number still sits on your registered campaign.
5. Connect GoHighLevel if you use it. OAuth setup takes a few minutes, and messages sync both ways per GHL location.

If you're building texting into your own real estate software rather than using the app, the same features are available through the API. See the quickstart and messages API docs.

The practical takeaway

Keep cold contact on the phone and in the mailbox. Text people who opted in or replied, and keep each text short, single-segment and signed with your name. Alternate calls and texts over two weeks, stop when they reply, and let STOP end the conversation for good. Use your cold dialer for volume and a warm-lead dialer where the conversations happen.

If that setup fits your team, you can create an account, test your templates on the free texts, and submit registration when the copy is ready.