You’re Being Recorded — And Nobody Told You…

 

Some Sales Conversations Get Recorded — Here’s What Virginia Law Actually Says About It

I went looking for an answer to one specific legal question, and what I found out about how Virginia’s recording law works is worth understanding before your next appointment.

I’ve been in this business for a while, and I like to actually understand the tools and trends that touch the real estate industry rather than just repeat what I hear secondhand. Recently I came across a sales tool called Rilla — a coaching app that some businesses such as home builders, property management, senior living, and a few others use to record live sales conversations for internal training purposes.

My first question was “what does Virginia law actually say about recording a conversation like that?”

So I looked up the statute. Here’s what I found, which I was shocked to learn.

What Virginia’s Recording Law Says

Virginia Code § 19.2-62 makes Virginia what’s commonly called a “one-party consent” state for recording conversations. In plain terms, the statute says it is not a criminal offense to record a conversation if the person doing the recording is a party to it, or if one of the parties has given prior consent — even if the other person in the conversation doesn’t know about it.

That’s different from states like California, Florida, Illinois, and several others, which generally require every party to a conversation to consent before it can be recorded. Rilla’s own website, for example, lists eleven states — California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Illinois, Washington, Montana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Oregon — where it advises its customers to disclose recording in advance. Virginia isn’t one of the states on that list.

I’ll add one nuance I found interesting: even where a one-party recording is legal to make, Virginia has a separate statute, § 8.01-420.2, that can affect whether that recording is admissible as evidence in a civil case unless certain conditions are met. So “legal to record” and “usable in court” aren’t the same thing. I would love to have an attorney give their input on this. 

What is Rilla?

Based on the company’s own website, Rilla is a coaching platform marketed to “outside sales” — teams whose reps meet customers in person rather than over the phone or in an office. Its customer stories page and industry pages mention use by home builders, home services companies, property managers, and senior living communities, among others.

According to Rilla’s website, the workflow is: a rep opens the app before a customer conversation, the app records it, and afterward the software transcribes and analyzes the conversation so a manager or coach can review it and give the rep feedback. Rilla’s results, as shown on their website cite close-rate and ticket-size improvements — those are the company’s reported figures, I have not independently verified, so I’d treat them as a starting point for your own research.

Something Worth Knowing as a Consumer

Because Virginia doesn’t require advance disclosure for a one-party-consent recording, it’s possible to be part of a sales conversation — at a builder’s design center, during a service appointment, or even at the dentist  — that is being recorded for internal training purposes without that being announced to you beforehand. I want to be careful here: I’m not saying any particular business is or isn’t doing this, and I have no information about the practices of any specific company. I’m describing what the law permits in general, based on how I read the statute itself.

I don’t think that makes this practice sinister, just very surprising to me. Companies that use tools like this generally say the purpose is training and quality improvement — coaching reps to listen better, answer questions more accurately, and handle common questions more consistently. Whether any individual business chooses to disclose recording anyway, beyond what the law requires, is up to that business.

A Few Practical, Non-Legal Thoughts

  • It’s always fine to ask. If it matters to you, you can simply ask a rep or company representative whether a conversation is being recorded. That’s a reasonable and normal question to ask in any sales setting.
  • Get important terms in writing. Whether or not a conversation is recorded, pricing, timelines, and specific promises are always better confirmed in writing or email rather than relying on a verbal conversation alone.
  • If you have a specific concern, ask a business directly about its recording practices, or consult an attorney if you believe your privacy rights may have been affected in a particular situation. I’m not an attorney and would not dare offer any legal advice. So seek legal guidance if necessary.

Are There Other Tools Like This?

Yes. There’s a broader category of software sometimes called “conversation intelligence” or “revenue intelligence,” and a number of companies operate in that space, including names like Gong, CallRail, Invoca, Balto, Observe.AI, Wingman, and Jiminny, among others. These are publicly marketed products, mentioned here only to describe the general category — I’m not making any claim about how any specific one of these companies operates, I just had no idea these even existed and found this research eye opening.

 

A Note From Me

I’m not affiliated with Rilla or any of the other companies mentioned here, and nothing in this post is an endorsement or a criticism of any of them. I’m also not an attorney, and this post isn’t legal advice — it’s my summary of publicly available information about a Virginia statute and a category of software, written because I thought it would be informative and useful for people in Hampton Roads to understand.

If you have questions about your own rights in a specific situation, please talk to a licensed Virginia attorney. If you just want to talk shop about trends in real estate, I’m always happy to have that conversation.

This post reflects publicly available information as of the publish date above and is provided for general informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. Laws and company practices can change, and specific facts can affect how a law applies — consult a licensed attorney for advice about your particular circumstances.