Getting off of Memphis cold call lists as an owner?

Question

Hello,

I have owned a SFR in Memphis since May of 2012. I have always received the occasional cold call, but in the past few months it has gotten out of hand to the tune of about 4 or 5 a day with Tuesday and Thursday being the busiest. What can an owner do to get these people to stop calling? I have texted some of the more aggressive (3 to 4 calls on the same day, no voicemail...) ones asking for them to stop but week after week it is the same. Would I be better off just changing the number with the city and county to some unmonitored Google voice box? What do you all do?

P.S. yes all of my numbers are registered on the National Do Not Call registry.

Jackson Long · Answer

Short of changing your name and leaving the country?

Curt Davis · Answer

Chad,

All these cold callers are doing is getting info on homes you used to or currently own and skip tracing that address to get your phone number. The issue is that so many are doing this you might tell one to take you off the list and they may do it but then the next person who calls you and so one it goes.

I live here and own around 30 single family homes so if you can imagine the amount of calls, texts and post cads I get on a weekly basis. Sadly it is just the cycle of life!

Chad Wilson · Answer

Thanks Stephen! Since this original post STIR/SHAKEN has been implemented and I now have my home VOIP phone set to only allow numbers I program into it, about 10 people that might need to call me, the rest get straight up canned and my verizon cell has a STIR/SHAKEN neighborhood blocker and I simply block out all 901 numbers and any others that start to become a hassle. So problem solved for now. I even went so far as to mail in my printed, hand signed letter to Shelby county to get my number changed to a google voice number that I won't be monitoring.

On that more worrying front, my mother in law, who has nothing to do with my property whatsoever got a cold spam text on her phone the other day asking to buy MY house... It makes me wonder what kind of people are putting together these lists and what kind of people are buying them. Pretty shady...

Stephen Akindona · Answer

Lot of investors looking to find deals right now so the marketing is pretty heavy! I get way more then 5 calls a day with my portfolio as well! No reason to get upset, it seems like if your out of state you could just ignore 901 numbers!

Dale Rast · Answer

Now I know I am not the only one. It has gotten worse the past three or four months. My phone has been ringing non-stop with Memphis,TN numbers.

Chad Wilson · Answer

Thanks guys, I kind of figured this was the case... It's too bad phone calls didn't work on an opt-in basis. With IP telephony it would be easy to implement but I imagine the phone companies would lose revenue doing this.

Getting off of Memphis cold call lists as an owner?

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