Georgia Wholesaling Law: SB 90

State: Georgia
Bill: Senate Bill 90 (2023 Ga. Laws Act 78), codified at O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.19
Effective date: January 1, 2024 (in effect)
Applies to: Unsolicited written inquiries and mailings from an unlicensed person expressing interest in buying an owner's real property (or an option to buy it), or offering services relating to the sale of real estate
Bottom line: You can still wholesale in Georgia with no state-level restriction on assignments. SB 90 does not regulate the deal, it regulates the mail. Unsolicited mail pieces asking owners about selling must carry two specific all-caps notices in at least 16-point, contrasting type. If you market inside Atlanta city limits, a separate city ordinance restricts repeated contact after a homeowner asks you to stop (see City Rule below).

What the Law Says (Plain English)

SB 90 is not an assignment law, a disclosure-at-contract law, or a licensing law. It is a marketing formatting law aimed at unsolicited direct mail, codified at O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.19. (A back-to-back section enacted by the same bill, 10-1-393.18, is an unrelated commercial-financing disclosure law and has nothing to do with real estate.)

The trigger is sending an "unsolicited written inquiry or mailing" that "expresses an interest in buying real property, or an option to buy real property," from the owner, or that "offers services relating to the sale of real estate." Unsolicited means the owner did not ask you to contact them. Two things stand out in the trigger words: it reaches option-to-buy pitches and "we buy houses" service offers, not just outright cash-offer letters; and it only bites when the sender is NOT licensed or regulated as a real estate professional (Chapter 40 or 41 of Title 43) or as a mortgage licensee (Chapter 19 of Title 15). Licensed agents and brokers are carved out. Unlicensed wholesalers are the target.

If your mail piece fits that description, two exact notices are required, in a specific size and color. The verbatim wording and the full formatting rules (capital letters, placement, at least 16-point type, matching font, contrasting color) are in Required Disclosure Language below.

Nothing in SB 90 touches assigning contracts, double closing, waiting periods, or licensing. The bill also amended Georgia's real estate brokerage and telephone-solicitation statutes, but none of those changes reach a wholesaler's deal mechanics (see Related Rules in the Same Bill).

What You CANNOT Do

• Send unsolicited mail asking an owner about selling their property without the exact all-caps notice at the top of the document
• Send that mail in an envelope that lacks the all-caps envelope notice (or, for postcards and self-mailers, omit it from the postage side)
• Shrink, bury, or restyle the notices. The document notice must be in capital letters, at the top, and at least two inches apart from any other text, and no other text on the piece may be larger than the notice
• Set the notices below 16-point type, in a different font from the body text, or in a color that does not distinctly contrast with the background

What You CAN Still Do

• Assign contracts. No Georgia state law in our sources restricts assignment, imposes a waiting period, or requires a per-deal seller disclosure
• Double close. Untouched
• Market by direct mail at full volume, as long as every unsolicited piece carries both notices
• Work inbound leads freely. The trigger word is "unsolicited," so responding to an owner who contacted you first is outside the law's target
• Market and follow up normally everywhere in Georgia except inside Atlanta city limits, where the city rule below adds contact restrictions

The Loopholes

Georgia barely needs loopholes because the law never reaches the deal itself. The plays here are compliance plays.

Loophole #1: Just Format the Mail (Full Compliance)

Add the two required notices to every unsolicited mail piece and you are compliant while running the exact same business. Clean. The cost is cosmetic: response rates on mail stamped "THIS IS A SOLICITATION" may dip, but the strategy survives intact.

Loophole #2: Inbound and Solicited Contact

The law targets "unsolicited" inquiries. When the seller responds to your ad, fills out your form, or calls you first, your follow-up is not an unsolicited inquiry, and the notice requirement never triggers. Clean: the statute's own trigger word is "unsolicited." Keep records showing the seller initiated contact.

Loophole #3: Non-Mail Channels (Narrow, Not a Free Pass)

SB 90's notice rule attaches to a "written inquiry or mailing," and its second notice is keyed to the envelope or postage area, so it plainly targets physical mail. That does NOT mean other channels are unregulated:

• Cold calls. Outside SB 90's mail notice, but not free. SB 90 also amended Georgia's telephone-solicitation law (O.C.G.A. 46-5-27) to exempt only licensed or regulated real estate professionals from the "telephone solicitation" definition. An unlicensed wholesaler cold-calling owners is still a telephone solicitor and remains subject to Georgia's Do Not Call rules. Gray, and worse if you are unlicensed.
• Door knocking. Not written mail, so outside SB 90. But inside Atlanta, repeated in-person visits after an owner asks you to stop are exactly what the city's commercial-harassment ordinance targets (see City Rule).
• Email and SMS. Whether these count as an "unsolicited written inquiry" is unsettled; the envelope and postage language points at physical mail, but the phrase "written inquiry" is broader. Gray: include the notice language anyway, or get an attorney's read, before running unsolicited email or text campaigns.

Penalties If You Violate It

• A violation is an unfair or deceptive act under Georgia's Fair Business Practices Act (O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.19(b)). Damages are the greater of the owner's actual damages or $200 per violation
• Class actions are expressly authorized. The statute overrides the Fair Business Practices Act's usual individual-only limit (O.C.G.A. 10-1-399) and lets a claim "be brought in a representative capacity" as a class action under O.C.G.A. 9-11-23. At $200 per mailing across a large mail drop, class exposure is the real risk, not any single letter

Related Rules in the Same Bill

SB 90 did more than the mail notice, but none of it changes how you assign or close a deal:

• Brokerage-listing reform (O.C.G.A. 10-6A-9, 10-6A-10). The bill targets predatory long-term "listing agreement" liens. Any lien or encumbrance recorded to enforce a brokerage engagement, or an option to enter one, is now void and unenforceable (10-6A-10(b)(3)). This is a brokerage-contract rule; it does not touch a wholesaler's purchase-and-assign contract
• Commercial financing disclosures (O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.18). A separate new section on business-loan disclosures. Unrelated to real estate, despite sitting immediately before the solicitation section
• Telephone-solicitation carve-out (O.C.G.A. 46-5-27). Licensed real estate professionals are now exempt from the "telephone solicitation" definition, which by negative implication leaves unlicensed cold-callers inside Georgia's Do Not Call regime (see Loophole #3)

City Rule: Atlanta

Ordinance: Commercial Harassment, Ordinance 20-O-1668, codified at Atlanta City Code Sec. 106-86
Effective: November 2, 2020 (in effect)
Applies within: City of Atlanta limits only. This is a municipal ordinance, not state law, and it regulates solicitation conduct, not wholesaling mechanics.

What it says

Atlanta's ordinance creates the offense of "commercial harassment." In connection with a sale or transaction, a person commits it by doing any one of three things (Sec. 106-86(b)):

1. Contacting someone "for the purpose of harassing, molesting, threatening, coercing or intimidating" them or their family
2. Threatening bodily harm, expressly or by implication
3. Using "predatory tactics"

"Predatory tactics" is the definition that matters for wholesalers. It means (Sec. 106-86(c)) "repeated and unsolicited attempts, within any 180-day period, to contact a person," including by personal visits, written material, or similar means, "under circumstances where the person has affirmatively requested the defendant or the defendant's agent to refrain from such activity."

The narrower plain-text reading: On the ordinance's own words, a single unsolicited offer is lawful, and the "predatory tactics" prong is triggered only by REPEATED unsolicited contact within a 180-day window AND only after the owner has affirmatively asked you to stop contacting them. One offer, or even a normal follow-up sequence before any stop-request, is not commercial harassment unless it is independently harassing, coercive, or threatening. We still recommend treating one clear "stop contacting me" as a hard, permanent do-not-contact for that owner inside Atlanta, because the downside (a harassment charge) dwarfs the value of one more touch.

What this means operationally

• Honor the stop-request instantly. Once an owner tells you to stop contacting them, do not contact them again: no calls, texts, letters, or door knocks. Repeated contact after that is the exact conduct the ordinance defines as predatory
• Run strict do-not-contact tracking for Atlanta leads and suppress on any stop-request
• Train acquisitions to log the stop-request with a timestamp and never dial past it
• Never let outreach tip into harassing, coercive, or intimidating in tone; the harassment and threat prongs, (b)(1) and (b)(2), do not need a prior stop-request at all
• Keep communication logs. The ordinance does not require them, but they are your defense if an owner files a complaint

What still works inside Atlanta

• A first, non-harassing unsolicited offer. On the plain text, one unsolicited approach to an owner who has not asked you to stop is lawful. Keep it professional and non-coercive
• General, untargeted marketing. The ordinance keys on contact "under circumstances where the person has affirmatively requested" you to stop, so neighborhood-level mass postcards, flyers, or digital ads are not the target. Gray: repeatedly saturating one address after a stop-request could still be painted as predatory
• Homeowner re-initiation. If the owner contacts you after asking you to stop, that is a fresh, solicited contact. Document that they reached out
• Remember: your Atlanta direct mail still needs the SB 90 state notices on top of all this

Penalties (Atlanta)

• Conviction is punished "as provided in section 1-8 of the Code" (Sec. 106-86(f)), and each violation is a separate offense that does not merge (Sec. 106-86(e))
• Secondary reporting puts the ceiling at a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail, consistent with Georgia's general municipal-penalty cap. The exact Sec. 1-8 text was not independently pulled (see gaps)

Required Disclosure Language

Georgia mandates the exact wording of both notices. Copy them verbatim; do not paraphrase. Citation: O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.19(a). This applies only to senders who are NOT licensed or regulated as real estate professionals (Title 43, Chapter 40 or 41) or as mortgage licensees (Title 15, Chapter 19).

1. Top-of-document notice (O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.19(a)(1)). Placed at the top of, and at least two inches apart from any other text on, the mailing, in capital letters:

> THIS IS A SOLICITATION. THE SENDER IS CONTACTING YOU TO INQUIRE AS TO YOUR INTEREST IN SELLING YOUR HOME OR OTHER REAL ESTATE. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO RESPOND.

2. Envelope / postage-side notice (O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.19(a)(2)). Placed on the front of the envelope, or if there is no envelope, on the part of the mailing that bears the postage stamp or postage amount, in capital letters:

> SOLICITATION. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO OPEN OR TO RESPOND.

Formatting rules for both notices (O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.19(a)(1)(B), (a)(3)):

• Capital letters
• The same font as the majority of the text of the mailing
• No smaller than the text of the mailing, and in no event smaller than 16-point font
• Displayed in a distinctly contrasting color
• No other text on the piece may be larger than the top-of-document notice

Exact wording is mandated by statute. Note: a later 2024-session bill may have added fair-market-value or assessed-value language to this section that is not in SB 90's enrolled text (see gaps). Verify against the current O.C.G.A. before finalizing your mail template.

Quick Reference

This summary is an analysis of secondhand reporting, not legal advice. Confirm with a Georgia attorney, and for Atlanta marketing operations, one familiar with the city ordinance.

Sources: enrolled text of SB 90 (2023 Ga. Laws Act 78; O.C.G.A. 10-1-393.19), Governor's office signed-legislation copy and the General Assembly's enrolled document; Atlanta Ordinance 20-O-1668 (Atlanta City Code Sec. 106-86), the city's official legislative record; supplemented by prior internal and third-party analyses.